10 Things Every Landlord Needs to Know in the DC Metro
Renting out a home in DC, Montgomery County, or Northern Virginia? Here's what the rules actually require — especially if you don't live here anymore.
At Home Property Management, LLC · Updated August 2026
Short version: One property in the DC area can fall under three different sets of landlord laws. What's fine in Arlington can be illegal in Montgomery County. The rules that catch owners off guard are licensing, lead and radon testing, rent caps, deposit deadlines, and tenant screening. Most of them carry penalties worth many times what you saved by skipping them.
Every link below goes to the source, so you can check any of it yourself.
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Yes in DC and Montgomery County. Virginia has no state license, but it still has rules.
In DC, you need a Basic Business License with a housing endorsement, plus registration with the Rental Accommodations Division. (DLCP)
In Montgomery County, every rental unit — including a single-family house — must be licensed and renewed each year. You also have to attach a Lease Summary to every new lease, and include the county's Criminal History and Credit Screening Addendum in every application. (County forms)
In Alexandria and Arlington, there's no license. But Virginia's landlord-tenant act still controls your lease, deposit, notice periods, and when you can enter.
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In Montgomery County, probably yes — even on a single-family home.
Most licensed rentals 23 years or older are rent-stabilized. The cap is CPI-U plus 3%, up to 6%. From July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, the most you can raise rent is 5.2%. (Office of Rent Stabilization)
Some units are exempt. One big exemption: a person who owns two or fewer rentals in the county. Read that word closely. If you moved the house into an LLC, you're not a person, and the exemption may be gone. (Exemption list)
DC has its own rent stabilization program with its own exemptions.
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Yes. Exempt still means you file.
DC's RentRegistry is clear: every housing provider must register, whether or not the unit is exempt from rent stabilization. (DHCD)
Claiming the exemption is the filing. Skip it and you may find out when a license renewal stalls or a rent increase gets challenged. You also have to update your registration within 30 days if ownership or management changes. (RAD Form 1)
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Three places, three answers. The return deadline is where owners lose money.
Max deposit
Interest?
Deadline to return
DC
1 month's rent
Yes
45 days to return or give written notice you're withholding, then 30 more days to send the balance and an itemized list
Maryland
1 month's rent (leases signed on or after Oct 1, 2024)
Yes
45 days, with an itemized list
Virginia2 months' rent
No
45 days, with an itemized statement
Maryland's cap dropped from two months to one in 2024. Many lease templates online still show the old number. Charge too much and the tenant can recover three times the extra amount, plus attorney's fees. (Maryland People's Law Library)
In Virginia, missing the 45-day deadline can cost you the right to withhold anything — even for damage you can prove. (Va. Code § 55.1-1226)
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Then lead isn't just a disclosure. It's registration and inspection.
In Maryland, you must register the property with MDE within 30 days of buying it, renew every year, and get a passing lead certificate from an accredited inspector before every new tenant moves in. Tenants get lead materials at move-in and every two years. (MDE)
In DC, the trigger is different. If an applicant tells you in writing that the household includes a pregnant person or a child under six, you must give them a clearance report less than 12 months old and keep a signed acknowledgment for six years. (DOEE)
Federal disclosure rules apply everywhere on top of this.
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In Montgomery County, yes — for basement and ground-floor units.
You need a radon test result dated within three years of the lease. At signing, give the tenant the results showing radon below the EPA action level of 4 pCi/L, plus the EPA tenant pamphlet. If levels come back high, you pay to fix it. (County Code § 29-35E)
Rockville's rules are stricter. DC and Virginia have no rental radon requirement at all. That gap is exactly what trips up owners with homes in more than one place.
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Not in DC or Maryland. In Virginia, it depends on how many units you own.
Virginia protects "source of funds," but exempts owners with four or fewer rentals in the state. The exemption disappears if you hold more than a 10% interest in more than four units, including through an LLC. (Va. Code § 36-96.2)
Here's the quieter trap. If your rule is "income must be three times the rent," apply it to the tenant's share, not the full rent. On a $3,000 rent where the voucher covers $2,400, the number to check is three times $600 — not three times $3,000. Getting that wrong breaks the law even when you meant no harm.
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Maryland fair housing law will reach screening practices even when you had no intent to discriminate.
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act (HB 573 / SB 274) takes effect that day. It bans housing practices that have a discriminatory effect, with no proof of intent required. Attorneys reviewing the session are telling owners to review screening rules, occupancy limits, application criteria, and even ads. (2026 Maryland legislative update)
Montgomery County already adds another layer. You cannot run a credit or criminal background check until after you've made a conditional offer to lease. Not before. The required addendum goes in every application and must be kept for a year, and the Office of Human Rights inspects applications at random. (County announcement ·Code § 27-15A ·news coverage)
One more: you can't set a minimum credit score in DC. Judging payment history instead of a score isn't just smarter here. It's the legal path.
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In DC, yes — and the rules changed on December 31, 2025.
Single-family homes are exempt from TOPA's right of first refusal. That includes a house with a basement apartment, and a single rental unit in a condo or co-op. The exception is a tenant who is elderly (62+) or disabled and signed a lease by March 31, 2018. Even when exempt, you must notify the tenant within three days of getting an offer. (DHCD ·D.C. Law 22-120)
The RENTAL Act then rewrote much of TOPA effective December 31, 2025 — new exemptions, a 45-day cooling-off period, and new notice rules. (Ballard Spahr)
If selling is anywhere in your plan, TOPA is a calendar problem. Bring it up months before you list.
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Three things change the day it becomes a rental.
You lose the homestead credit. Maryland's Homestead Tax Credit only protects your primary residence. Rent it out and your tax bill can jump. (Maryland SDAT)
Depreciation comes back. You're required to depreciate the property each year, and that amount is added back to your taxable income when you sell — whether you claimed it or not.
Maryland withholds at closing. If you've moved out of state, the state holds back a share of the gross sale price before the deed can record: 8.75% for individuals, 8.25% for entities. You can apply for a lower rate on Form MW506AE, but you have to file it well before settlement. (Comptroller of Maryland)
None of this makes renting a bad move. It just means you want the numbers before the tenant moves in, not after.
The eleventh thing: most of what goes wrong isn't in the code
You can look up everything above. What you can't look up is what it's like to manage a house from 1,500 miles away.
Emergencies don't check your time zone. Starting September 1, 2026, our after-hours calls run through an AI intake system and a staffed call center. It sorts the issue, opens a work order, and dispatches the right vendor. No heat below freezing gets someone out that night. No AC at 11 p.m. gets scheduled first thing in the morning. Knowing the difference is the job.
Screening is the whole ballgame. We haven't been to eviction court in a long time. That's not luck. It's landlord verification forms, pay stubs and offer letters to confirm income, and reading payment history instead of a credit score — which, as you saw in #8, is what the law requires here anyway.
Out-of-state owners get overcharged. When a vendor knows you're in Colorado and your tenant is the one calling, you have no way to know what a repair should cost. We give our contractors enough work that they answer the phone and quote us the real number.
Someone lays eyes on the house. A formal inspection every year, plus our vendors in and out several times a year. If you're not here, nobody is checking.
We'll show you what your house should rent for — and hand you the data. We're licensed agents with the full market data, and we're probably leasing homes in your neighborhood right now. So we don't just tell you the number. We send you the comparable rentals, how long they sat, and the other details that made them rent (or not). You see what we see, then we decide together.
Why owners call us
Owners who self-manage tell us the same thing. It looks easy — collect the rent, go about your day. Then they end up calling a few times during the tenancy for advice, usually at the worst moment, usually after something already went wrong.
We work the other way around: head off the urgent repairs, protect the asset, and keep good tenants longer so you're not paying for turnover every year. We handle the compliance calendar, the screening, the 11 p.m. call, and the turnover work — paint and punch list, or a full kitchen or bath, when it raises both the rent and the value.
We save you money, we make you money, and we pick up the phone.
Talk to us before your next tenancy starts. At Home Property Management, LLC · 4600 N. Park Ave, Suite 100, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 ·athomedmv.com
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Laws change. The links go to primary sources so you can confirm what's current. For your specific property, talk to a Maryland, DC, or Virginia attorney or CPA.