Despite the AG’s lawsuit against Ali “Sam” Razjooyan, another notorious slumlord has reappeared as a representative at a building in Razjooyan’s enterprise.
Tenants believed they would own 20 percent of the apartment community. But the two developers are now accused of turning a Columbia Heights jewel into a neglected property where “mold allowed to grow like an experiment in a petri dish.”
As the final vote on the major tenant rights reform bill approaches, an academic study challenges developers’ claims that TOPA hinders construction, revealing the divide between reliable findings and industry-driven advocacy campaigns.
Some D.C. tenants were relocated while their buildings are torn down with the promise they could return to the new buildings. But now some are facing eviction notices for nonexistent apartments, a tactic some affordable housing providers are using to bar tenants’ return.
As the D.C. Council debates Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed exemptions to TOPA, a longstanding tenant’s rights law, tenants who stand to lose their protections describe how they’ve used the law to their benefit.
A key tenant protection is on the chopping block as developer groups claim it’s driving away big investors. But a closer look at the data, and a response from Amazon, suggest the truth is more complicated than political rhetoric.
Thousands of D.C. utility customers have complained about deceptive and predatory third-party energy companies that often charge higher rates than Pepco or Washington Gas.
A manager at Conservice, a third-party utility billing company, said in an email that some tenants at Brookfield’s Foundry Lofts are overcharged for utilities.
Mikhail Phillips denies responsibility for the mountain of trash outside his Sheriff Road apartments. “The Attorney General is now trying to portray me as someone who wasn’t trying to fix items, but we were trying to do things promptly,” he says.
