TOPA is DC's Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives tenants the right of first refusal when their building is listed for sale. We had no idea about the ins and outs of TOPA when we first started this, but we have learned so much!
The process works differently depending on the number of rental units in the building. If you find yourself in this situation, we recommend meeting with DC's Office of the Tenant Advocate (OTA) to learn about the specific options and timelines that apply to you. As a building with 88 units, we followed the process for buildings with 5 or more units.
Park East tenants received notice that our building was for sale in July 2024. This document included a prospective buyer - more about that later! After receiving this notice, tenants met with someone from OTA who told us about our rights as tenants and what we had to do to use them.
The first step was forming and incorporating a Tenant Association (TA). We collected signatures from 70 out of 83 occupied units in the building for our TA, held meetings about and voted on our bylaws, and elected our board for the TA. The board members are volunteer tenants from the building.
After we formed the TA, we then had a meeting where we presented the four options available to us collectively through TOPA:
Purchase the building as condos
Purchase the building as a co-op
Find an alternate buyer (if there is someone we prefer over the prospective buyer)
Negotiate with the prospective buyer from the initial sale announcement
After that meeting, the TA conducted a vote of all residents asking which of the four options they were interested in, and which was their first choice. About 72% of voters said they were interested in the co-op option, and about 53% said it was their first choice. Many residents said they were also in favor of the negotiated settlement option, but only about 32% said that it was their first choice.
Given the results of that vote, the Tenant Association decided to pursue the limited-equity co-op option primarily. We have contracted with experienced affordable housing and cooperative organizers and legal firms to assist us in this process. We intend to govern the co-op so that tenants can move in and out unencumbered.
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