Montgomery County officials report progress on rent-stabilization rollout and propose faster troubled-property scoring

Scott Bridal, Director of Montgomery County's Department of Housing and Community Affairs, told the Planning, Housing and Parks Committee on March 3 that the county's rent-stabilization program is moving from setup to operations and that DHCA is proposing regulatory changes to troubled-property rules to speed enforcement.

Bridal said the Rent Stabilization Law was enacted on July 20, 2023, regulations were adopted July 23, 2024, and the county's rental housing portal went live Sept. 16, 2024. "Our Office of Rent Stabilization staff joined in March and April 2024," Bridal said, noting the effort included hiring eight FTEs and an IT specialist to run the portal and intake systems. He added that DHCA has used the portal to register 453 properties comprising about 8,299 units so far and has issued 10 citations that collected $5,000 in fees to date.

Why it matters: the committee has been tracking operational readiness, enforcement capacity and how landlords and tenants use the portal. DHCA said these systems will determine whether the department can enforce allowable increases, adjudicate petitions such as fair-return applications, and move troubled properties off the list when they remedy violations.

DHCA described several operational details. The annual allowable rent increase is the lesser of CPI-U plus 3 percentage points or 6 percent; for FY26 (effective July 1) DHCA calculated an allowance of 5.7 percent based on a CPI-U of 2.7 percent. "Landlords may bank unused rent increase allowances for future increases," Bridal said. The department also described administrative options including capital-improvement petitions, fair-return applications and a substantial-renovation exemption.

On petitions, DHCA staff summarized a recently resolved fair-return case involving a Poolesville townhouse. Staff member Plena said the owner had not raised rent since 2013; after recalculating a notional base year using allowable increases (excluding COVID-era VRG limits) and considering only operational expenses, DHCA approved a 50.924 percent adjustment, raising the approved rent from $1,400 to $2,112.94.

Committee members pressed DHCA on accessibility and enforcement. Councilmember DeWando and others requested clearer pathways for renters to file complaints; DHCA said 311 is the intended intake to ensure data capture and that an Office of Rent Stabilization intake mailbox is an alternate route. DHCA reported 546 service requests to date (July 23, 2024–Feb. 22, 2025) and acknowledged that service requests cover both general information and complaint intake; the committee asked DHCA to provide a breakdown separating informational SRs from formal complaints.

On troubled and at-risk properties, DHCA said the FY24 report originally identified 93 troubled properties (39 for noncompliance); the department now lists 90 troubled properties and 101 at-risk properties. DHCA said only one property had fully resolved violations between an initial inspection and first reinspection; 11 properties have requested earlier reinspections (five already inspected, two awaiting assignment and four scheduled). "We are scheduled through the last week of April for requested inspections," Pamela Robinson said, which the committee interpreted as roughly a 60-day queue for earlier inspections unless a cancellation opens a slot.

Proposed regulatory changes: DHCA presented draft amendments (published Feb. 1) that would (1) deliver inspection scores and designations within 30 days of scoring analysis rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year, (2) replace the current relative scatterplot scoring with fixed total-violation and severity thresholds for troubled/at-risk/compliant designations, (3) allow troubled and at-risk properties that correct violations and meet submission requirements to request earlier inspections, and (4) set fees for owner-requested inspections in line with the existing fee schedule. DHCA said the revisions are intended to make results timelier and easier to calculate while remaining within the bounds of existing law.

Committee requests and next steps: Councilmembers asked DHCA to provide more data and follow-up items, including (a) an itemized list of properties coming under rent stabilization; (b) a written check on whether permitting services can provide use-and-occupancy dates (as opposed to SDAT year-built) to determine the 23-year exemption trigger; (c) a breakdown of service requests vs. complaints and outcomes; and (d) the scheduling timeline for the 11 requested reinspections and the unit counts for those properties. DHCA committed to returning augmented presentation materials and promised some items in writing within two weeks. The committee did not take formal action and adjourned the session.

Quotes used in this report were taken from the committee hearing transcript and are attributed to the speakers who made them.