INTERVIEW – JOY SIEGEL – real estate attorney, who’s also seen an increasing number of sales contracts collapse due to TOPA. SHe is also president of Siegel & Associates, General Counsel.

• TOPA LAW: Some D.C. Renters Make Tens of Thousands of Dollars Exploiting Decades-Old Law. (NBC Washington) — Some D.C. renters are holding homes hostage for high-dollar payouts and blocking sales by exploiting a decades-old law, the News4 I-Team learned. If you live in a rental that’s going up for sale, you can get a piece of the profit. “I’ve heard payouts as high as $50,000 to $100,000, and that’s for single family homes,” D.C. Association of Realtors President Colin Johnson said. Renters have become more savvy in using the law to force buyers and sellers to pay up or risk having their sale held hostage, Johnson said. Enacted in 1980, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) was designed to keep longtime D.C. renters from being forced out of gentrifying neighborhoods or to help them afford a new lease in a different building. It basically gives the renters the first right to buy the place they live once it goes up for sale. But the News4 I-team found even when tenants don’t want to, or can’t afford to buy it, they can rake in big bucks by selling those rights to the highest bidder.