Steve Dean

Exterior work is now underway at Marina View Towers (1000 & 1100 6th Street SW) in Southwest DC. Originally designed by I.M. Pei, the towers will be renovated and two new buildings are planned for the site where the existing parking lots are now. According to the website for Esocoff & Associates, the M Street building will include ground floor retail. To learn more, visit Esocoff & Associates website and browse their residential section.

This renovation project is situated between the renovation of Arena Stage and Waterfront Mall making three city blocks along Maine Avenue/M Street SW currently being revitalized.

 

 

 

As a legal entity, corporations are well known and easily formed. Housing Co-operatives’ sole purpose is to provide homes to its stockholders/members.

In the case of a housing co-operative, the corporation has title to the property in which the individual units are a part. Each stockholder or member has the right to own and occupy his/her unit along with owning a proportionate share of the corporation.

As with all corporations, the Certificate of Incorporation and By-Laws describes how the co-op is organized and governed.

In turn, these documents give each owner the right to annually elect the Board of Directors (who themselves are resident owners). The Board is charged with managing the business affairs of the co-operative and supervising the operation of the physical plant. Day to day management is generally delegated to a property management firm selected by the Board. The Board adopts the annual budget which contains estimates of the association’s operating costs for the coming year. The budget is the basis for establishing the monthly fees charged to each member. The Board also has the authority to establish, amend, and enforce the House Rules which, in conjunction with the Ownership Documents, govern the use and occupancy of the property.

The corporation itself is directly responsible for the monthly payments of principal and interest on any corporate mortgage indebtedness, the payment of real estate taxes on the corporate property and for any other operating costs such as insurance, service contracts, salaries and the like.

Co-operatives are non-profit corporations that are organized either as a stock or as a non-stock/membership corporation.

    From "Co-operative Speaking" by the Edmund J. Flynn Company, Washington, DC

 

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The Greater Capital Association of REALTORS has just released the housing statistics ending in December 2007.*

In the District of Columbia, the average price of a single family home in 2007 was $687,459 up from $529,000, The total number of houses sold was 3,439 down from 3,946 in 2006  (down 12.8%).

Meanwhile the condo and coop market saw an increase in sales in 2007. In 2007, 3,852 condos and coops sold compared to 3,648 units sold in 2006. (up 5.6 %).

The average price for condos/coops in the District was $405,271 in 2007 compared to $406,501 in 2006.

 

 

 

 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has proposed new flood zone maps that could result in mandatory flood insurance and stricter building codes for parts of downtown Washington according to to an article in today's Washington Post. The Post reports that the maps show a proposed flood zone several blocks wide and extending in a broad crescent from the Lincoln Memorial to Fort McNair, in Southwest Washington. The zone would include Federal Triangle, much of the Mall to the base of Capitol Hill and a large section of Southwest Washington (not not the entire neighborhood). Read about it in the Washington Post.
Check out the proposed flood plans online.

 

 

 

With the adoption of the Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2006, registered domestic partners in the District of Columbia gained many of the same rights as a spouse (see list below).

Pertaining to real estate, the rights gained for those who register are the same rights as spouses including: mortgages, inheritance, devises or bequests of real estate, rights for the purpose of probate 

Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2006,  D.C. Law 16-79, effective April 4, 2006. By this act in almost all cases a domestic partner will have the same rights as a spouse. 

 

Section 2 changes the law regarding competency of witnesses in civil and criminal cases by striking references to husband and wife and replacing them with spouse or domestic partner regarding their testimony against one another.  This section also exempts clergy from testifying about the confidential counseling provided to domestic partners.

Section 3 gives domestic partners the same rights as spouses regarding mortgages.

Section 4 imposes the same duties on domestic partners as spouses regarding garnishment for child support, division of property in a divorce or dissolution of a domestic partnership, provide support during the pendency of a divorce or dissolution, payment of alimony, imposes the same penalties for failure to provide support, and gives the same rights regarding liability of a third party for negligent harm to a spouse or domestic partner.

Section 5 gives the same rights as a surviving spouse to a surviving domestic partner for the purposes of inheritance, exempt property, family allowance, equitable apportionment for minor children not in the custody of the surviving spouse or domestic partner, the effect of devises or bequests of real estate, renouncing devises or bequests, failure to renounce a devise or bequest, rights when the decedent domestic partner dies intestate, distribution of surplus after payment to a surviving spouse or domestic partner, non-probate transfers, escheatment, and the rule against perpetuities.

Section 6 gives domestic partners the same rights as a spouse for the purpose of probate.

Section 7 gives domestic partners the same rights as spouses regarding guardianship of incapacitated individuals, notice of a conservator for accounts or sale, encumbrance, or transaction, and power of attorney relating to family maintenance.

Section 8 grants domestic partners the same rights as spouses regarding the ability to enter into premarital agreements by redefining that term to include prospective domestic partners.

For more information contact: Vital Record Division at (202) 442-9303 or http://doh.dc.gov.

 

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July 2009 Update: See my blog post: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1143048/title-options-for-same-sex-couples-in-washington-dc

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