FYI: As of March 2021, the DC Goverment through the Department of Buildings (DOB) began charging a $90 reinspection fee.
How do I pay the fee?
DOB will email you an invoice for the fee after the reinspection is completed.
I received a bill for a reinspection I had months (or years ago). Is this valid?
Even though the DOB only recently began to charge reinspection fees, we have become aware that they are also retroactively charging the fee.
If your inspection was prior to March 2021, at that specific time, DOB was not charging a reinspection fee, and they mentioned nothing in their documentation that referred to reinspection fees.
We strongly believe that DC should not be retroactively charging fees because:
- It’s not ethical to charge retroactive fees, and
- No notice was given regarding these fees when you applied for a license or failed an inspection.
Note: DC states that the fee was built into the 1999 law that created the rental property licensing program, thereby giving them the authority to charge it at will.
We at RentJiffy recommend that you pay the fee because D.C. has recently started to ramp-up its enforcement actions, which will further penalize business owners with fees (in D.C., landlords are viewed as business owners). You may also wish to contact DOB, using the email address or telephone number provided in the notice, with any questions, complaints, or suggestions.