DCRA’s Vacant Building Enforcement Unit (VBE) is charged with investigating and classifying vacant and blighted buildings within the District of Columbia. VBE’s mission is to bring buildings back to productive use.  VBE responds to complaints from citizens, Council, and other District agencies and makes a determination of a buildings occupancy status through building surveys. VBE reaches out to owners of vacant buildings, and maintains a list of all vacant and blighted buildings within the District of Columbia. This list is used by the Office of Tax and Revenue in reclassifying vacant buildings to the higher property tax rate of Class 3 (vacant) or Class 4 (blighted), as mandated in the DC Official Code.

If you own a vacant building, have been contacted by VBE, or want to report a vacant building, please follow one of the links below.

If you want the Response Form to register your building or appeal for an exemption or “occupied” status, please click on the form at the bottom of the page under “Related Documents.”

Determine if You Need to Register 

Frequently Asked Questions

Report 

If you believe a building is vacant and would like to report it, please call 311 or email vacantbuildings@dc.gov

Download

To download the Vacant Building Response Form and the Blighted Building Response Form, please click on the link under “Related Documents” below.