Several weeks after the Jan. 5th release of the VNSTA report titled, “Structural Problems, Security Issues and Safety Hazards” and after the tenants association pushed hard for an expert analysis of the widespread leaks in the garage and other issues, Equity Residential wrote a letter to the tenants association stating that it would make progress and it had planned to do so anyway.

While this doesn’t completely ring true because residents had complained above some of the problems — for example, broken doors and locks — for a long time, we appreciate any constructive steps that Equity makes toward fixing some of the serious problems outlined in the report.

On Jan. 31, VNSTA was able to find out that DCRA would require some of the strong measures that the tenants association had demanded. For example, it has required the following reports by Equity Residential:

An expert report on the causes of the large leaks in the underground garages, including plumbing and waterproofing
Analysis by a certified structural engineer of possible damage to columns, beams, and other critical support elements in the garage
Reports on repairs of all doors and locks

DCRA has required Equity to provide these reports by Feb. 15th.

This is a substantial although tentative victory for the tenants association. We plan to follow up to find out the content of those reports, to see if they fairly analyze the situation or if they are biased toward Equity Residential, and to push for repairs to the more serious damage described in the report.