(a) Sale or rental to government agencies or designated agencies.
(1) The Department, the Commission, or any other government agency or designated agency may buy or lease, for its own programs or programs administered by it, up to 40 percent of all MPDUs which are not sold or rented under any other federal, state, or local program.
(2) The Department or Commission may buy or lease up to 33.3 percent of the MPDUs not sold or rented under any other federal, state, or local program.
(3) Any other government agency or designated agency may buy or lease:
(A) any MPDU in the first 33.3 percent that the Department or Commission has not bought or leased; and
(B) the remainder of the 40 percent specified in subsection (a)(1).
This option may be assigned to households that are clients of the Department of Health and Human Services or to low or moderate-income households who are eligible for assistance under any federal, state, or local program identified in Executive regulation.
(4) The Executive must, by regulation, adopt standards and priorities to approve designated agencies under this subsection. These standards must require the agency to demonstrate its ability to operate and maintain MPDUs satisfactorily on a long-term basis.
(5) The Department must notify the Commission, other government agency, or designated agency promptly after receiving notice from the applicant under subsection (b) of the availability of MPDUs. If the Department, the Commission, or any other designated agency exercises its option, it must submit to the applicant, within 21 calendar days after the Department notifies the Commission under this subsection, a notice of intent to exercise its option for specific MPDUs covered by this option. Any MPDUs not bought or leased under this subsection must be sold or rented only to eligible households under subsection (b) during the priority marketing period for eligible households to buy or lease.
(6) In exercising this option, the Department, the Commission, and any government agency or designated agency must reserve the MPDU by reference to number, type, size and amenities of the units selected if the designation does not result in any type of unit exceeding by more than 40 percent the total units of that type which are sold or rented under this Section, unless the Department and the applicant agree to a different selection. The notice required under subsection (a)(5) must state which MPDUs are to be offered for sale and which are to be offered for rent, and the Department, the Commission, and any government agency or designated agency may buy only units which are offered for sale and may lease only units which are offered for rent. The Department, the Commission, and any government agency or designated agency must decide whether it will exercise its option within 45 days of the date of the notice provided under subsection (a)(5).
(7) If more than one government agency or designated agency files a notice of intent under subsection (a)(5) with respect to a particular MPDU:
(A) the Department prevails over any other buyer or renter;
(B) The Commission prevails over any buyer or renter other than the Department;
(C) any other government agency prevails over any designated agency;
(D) the first government agency to file a notice prevails over any later agency; and
(E) the first designated agency to file a notice prevails over any later designated agency.
(8) Any MPDU purchased by the Commission, a government agency, or a designated agency under this subsection that is offered for resale within five years after original purchase must first be offered for sale to the Department at the purchase price paid by the Commission, government agency, or designated agency in accordance with Executive regulation. The Department may assign its right to purchase the MPDU to an eligible household or to a designated agency.
(b) Sale or rental to eligible households.
(1) Every MPDU unit required under this Chapter must be offered to eligible households for sale or rental to a good-faith purchaser or renter to be used for his or her own residence, except MPDUs sold or rented under subsection (a) or offered for sale or rent with the assistance of, and subject to the conditions of, a subsidy under a federal, state or local government program, identified in Executive regulation, whose purpose is to provide housing for low or moderate income households.
(2) Before offering any MPDUs for sale or rent, the applicant must submit and receive approval of an agreement notifying the Department of the proposed offering and the date on which the applicant will be ready to begin the marketing to eligible households. The agreement must set forth the number of MPDUs offered, the bedroom mix, the floor area for each MPDU type, a description of the amenities offered in each MPDU and a statement of the availability of each MPDU for sale or rent, including information regarding any mortgage financing available to buyers of the designated MPDU. The applicant must also give the Department a vicinity map of the offering, a copy of the approved development, subdivision or site plan, as appropriate, and such other information or documents as the Director finds necessary. The Department must maintain a list of eligible households for sale MPDUs and, in accordance with procedures established by the County Executive, must notify eligible households of sale or rental offerings.
(3) After approving the offering agreement, the Department must notify the Commission of the offering. The Department must notify the applicant of the method by which the MPDUs will be offered and when the 90-day priority marketing period for the MPDUs may begin.
(4) The Executive may by regulation establish a buyer and renter selection system which considers household size, County residency, employment in the County, and length of time since the household was certified for the MPDU program. Eligible households will be notified when MPDUs are available for sale or rent and will be given an opportunity to buy or rent an MPDU during the priority marketing period in the order of their selection priority ranking.
(5) The priority marketing period for new MPDUs ends not less than 90 days after the initial offering date approved by the Department. The priority marketing period for resold or rerented MPDUs ends not less than 60 days after the Department notifies the seller of the approved resale price or vacancy of the rental unit. The Department may extend a priority marketing period when eligible households are interested in buying or renting a unit, or may reduce the priority marketing period for resold MPDUs for good cause.
(6) Applicants must make a good-faith effort to enter into contracts with eligible households during the priority marketing period and for an additional period necessary to negotiate with eligible households who indicate a desire to buy or rent an MPDU during that period.
(7) Every buyer or renter of an MPDU must occupy the MPDU as his or her primary residence during the control period. Each buyer and renter must certify before taking occupancy that he or she will occupy the MPDU as his or her primary residence during the control period. The Director may require an owner who does not occupy the MPDU as his or her primary residence to offer the MPDU for resale to an eligible household under the resale provisions of Section 25A-9.
(8) An owner of an MPDU, except the Commission or a government agency or designated agency, must not rent the MPDU to another party unless the Director finds sufficient cause to allow temporary rental of the MPDU under applicable regulations, which may include maximum rental levels.
(9) Any rent obtained for an MPDU that is rented without the Director’s authorization must be paid into the Housing Initiative Fund by the owner within 90 days after the Director notifies the owner of the rental violation. Any amount unpaid after 90 days is grounds for a lien against the MPDU. The Director may obtain a judgment and record the lien or may reduce the resale price of the MPDU by the amount owed to the Housing Initiative Fund, or pursue other remedies provided by law.
(10) An applicant must not sell or lease any MPDU without first obtaining a certificate of eligibility from the prospective buyer or verifying the eligibility of the prospective lessee. For sale MPDUs, a copy of each certificate must be furnished to the Department and maintained on file by the Department. Before the sale by an applicant or by the Commission, a government agency, or a designated agency to any buyer of any MPDU who does not possess a certificate of eligibility, the applicant, the Commission, or the agency, must determine whether the proposed buyer had previously owned another MPDU. The proposed buyer must not participate in the MPDU program a second time unless the proposed buyer meets the household income criteria and no longer owns an MPDU, and there is no first-time buyer qualified to buy that MPDU. The Director may waive this restriction for good cause.
(11) If an MPDU owner dies, at least one heir, legatee, or other person taking title by will or by operation of law must occupy the MPDU during the control period under this Section, or the owner of record must sell the MPDU as provided in Section 25A-9. (1974 L.M.C., ch. 17, § 1; 1976 L.M.C., ch. 35, § 4; 1978 L.M.C., ch. 31, § 4; 1979 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 4; 1980 L.M.C., ch. 28, § 1; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 6, § 1; 1984 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 28; 1989 L.M.C., ch. 27, § 1; 1994 L.M.C., ch. 29, 2001 L.M.C., ch. 25, § 1; 2002 L.M.C., ch. 27, § 1; 2004 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 1; 2018 L.M.C., ch. 20, §1; 2019 L.M.C., ch. 23, §1.)
Editor’s note—2018 L.M.C., ch. 20, § 2, states: Regulations. The County Executive must submit the regulations required by Sections 25A-5, 25A-7, 25A-8, and 25A-9, as amended by this Act, to the Council for approval not later than October 15, 2018.
2004 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 2, states in part: "The amendments to Chapter 25A made by Section 1 of this Act which extend the control period for sale and rental MPDUs do not apply to any MPDU for which a sale contract or rental agreement was signed before April 1, 2005."
2002 L.M.C., ch. 27, § 2, states: Applicability. The requirements of Chapter 25A, as amended by Section 1 of this Act, do not apply to any subdivision with more than 34 but fewer than 50 units at one location if the applicant applied for a preliminary plan of subdivision before this Act took effect [January 9, 2003], unless the applicant agrees that the requirements of Chapter 25A as amended should apply to that subdivision.
Section 25A-8, formerly § 25A-6, was renumbered and amended pursuant to 1989 L.M.C., ch. 27, § 1.