Advertisement
The Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) released its Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Troubled Properties Report showing continued improvement in the health and safety of rental housing in the County. The report, which lists properties with extensive housing code violations as identified by DHCA code enforcement inspectors, highlights a 78% decline in the number of units in Troubled Properties and a 69% decline in the number of units in At-Risk Properties from Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) to FY26.
After FY26 inspections, there are 37 Troubled Properties comprising 1,614 units, down from a total of 67 Troubled Properties containing 2,264 units in Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 25) and 93 Troubled Properties containing 7,269 units in FY24. Additionally, in FY26, there are 35 At-Risk Properties with 1,955 units, down from 55 At-Risk Properties with 2,740 units in FY25 and 76 At-Risk Properties with 6,375 units in FY24.
“A 78% reduction in the number of units in Troubled Properties over two years shows that strong enforcement and tenant protections are working,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. “When I worked to pass the Troubled Properties law in 2016, the goal was straightforward: landlords have a responsibility to provide people with safe, decent housing, and there needs to be consequences when they fail to do that. We’ve continued to strengthen those protections through rent stabilization, increased inspections, and stronger enforcement tools. I appreciate the work of DHCA’s Code Enforcement team and the tenants who report problems and hold property owners accountable. We still have work to do, but thousands fewer rental units are now on our Troubled and At-Risk lists than there were two years ago, and that is real progress.”
Advertisement
The lists published by DHCA include properties newly designated as Troubled or At-Risk in FY26, as well as properties whose Troubled or At-Risk designations are carried over from FY25 because violations have not yet abated—or, in the case of Troubled Properties, because corrective action plans have not yet been submitted or required maintenance reports provided.
Since FY24, DHCA’s Code Enforcement Section has reported improved landlord compliance following several years of increased enforcement and the implementation of the County’s rent stabilization law, which limits rent increases for properties designated as Troubled or At-Risk. DHCA inspectors report that property owners are fixing violations more quickly to avoid this restriction in the rent stabilization law. The increased compliance efforts are also being augmented by the passage of Bill 6-25 in April 2025, which strengthened consumer protections for tenants and removed exemptions for rental housing from Chapter 11 of the Montgomery County Consumer Protection Code.
Additionally, beginning May 1, 2026, DHCA instituted reinspection fees for multifamily properties, which are imposed after the second reinspection. This policy creates additional incentive for rental properties to promptly correct violations.
“DHCA has continued to identify new tools to encourage landlords to fix housing code violations and to respond to tenant complaints quickly, including adding new reinspection fees this year,” said DHCA Director Dr. Scott Bruton. “Our priority is ensuring that all tenants in the County have a safe place to call home. That is why our Code Enforcement team completed over 13,000 mandated inspections in FY26 alone. We will continue to work closely with tenants and landlords to respond to complaints and address violations.”
DHCA’s Code Enforcement Section inspects properties for potential violations based both on complaints submitted through MC311 and on a regular mandated inspection schedule for all multifamily properties within its jurisdiction. Following the mandated inspections, DHCA calculates scores for each property based on the total number of violations and their severity. It uses these scores to designate Troubled Properties, where 100% of units must be inspected every year; At-Risk Properties, where at least 25% of units must be inspected at least every two years; and Compliant Properties, where 25% of units must be inspected every three years.
Key findings from DHCA’s 2026 Troubled Properties Report include:
- The total number of units in Troubled Properties decreased by 28% from FY25 to FY26, and by 78% since FY24. Specifically, the changes from FY24 to FY26 include:
- The total number of units on the list declined to 1,614 in FY26, down from 2,264 in FY25 and 7,269 in FY24.
- There is a total of 37 Troubled Properties in FY26, down from 67 in FY25 and 93 in FY24.
- Of the Troubled Properties designated in FY26, 21 properties comprising 1,478 units remain designated as Troubled because they did not submit corrective action plans and/or maintenance reports.
The total number of units in At-Risk properties decreased by 27% from FY25 to FY26, and by 69% since FY24. Specifically, the changes from FY24 to FY26 include:
Advertisement
- The total number of At-Risk units on the list declined to 1,955 in FY26 from 2,740 in FY25 and 6,375 in FY24.
- There are 35 At-Risk Properties in FY26, down from 55 in FY25 and 76 in FY24. Among the 35 At-Risk properties, 22 were newly designated as At–Risk in FY26, while 13 were designated At-Risk in FY25.
The number of housing code citations issued for failure to comply increased slightly, while the number of properties receiving citations decreased slightly. Among all inspections (both complaint-based and mandated), DHCA issued 2,354 notice of violations (NOV) to 442 multifamily rental properties.
- A total of 58 multifamily rental properties failed to make the repairs required by these notices, resulting in 466
- In comparison, in FY25, DHCA issued 2,059 NOVs, resulting in 364 citations for 69 multifamily rental properties that failed to comply.
Property owners continued to increase compliance efforts following the passage of rent stabilization limitations on rent increases for Troubled and At-Risk properties and in response to the institution of reinspection fees effective May 1, 2026.
- Following the implementation of the Rent Stabilization law and the notification of the implementation of reinspection fees, property owners and management companies have increased their efforts to obtain compliant ratings by seeking assistance from contractors and specialists to assist with preparing for inspections, correcting violations identified during initial inspections, and developing corrective action plans and tenant work request reports.
- Additionally, properties are resolving violations much sooner to avoid the assessment of reinspection fees, which are imposed after the second reinspection.
Read the full Troubled Properties Report for FY26. Additional information about DHCA’s Code Enforcement section and instructions for submitting MC311 service requests to address housing code concerns are available at http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/dhca-code.
###
Read the original article at mcgov
