Josh Greenberg is a seasoned real estate attorney who handles difficult and high-risk landlord-tenant dispute resolution for residential and commercial landlords in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Like a legal firefighter, he responds quickly and is not afraid to take on challenging issues while minimizing potential damage. With more than two decades of experience, he navigates intricate pro-tenant Metro-area statutes to help landlords with complicated breaches of lease and evictions that rise above cookie-cutter nonpayment of rent.
Josh assists with egregious misconduct and misbehavior, including property destruction and vandalism, hoarding and unsafe or unsanitary conditions, illegal or illicit conduct, mental health situations, violent behavior, and any other breaches of lease that create unsafe and unsanitary conditions in a property.
Valued for resolving the full range of breaches and defaults of lease for commercial landlords, Josh’s clients include major D.C.-area landlords, property owners, property managers, and REITs. Clients appreciate Josh’s extensive experience, which provides him fluency in navigating the courts, offices, departments, rules, and procedures governing real estate law in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
His legal services include:
- Multifamily residential breach of obligation of tenancy
- Failure to vacate
- Rent control adjustments and petitions
- Post-mortem possession
- Capital improvement petitions
- Commercial breaches of lease
- Go-dark provision breaches
- Covenant defaults
- Breakups of business
- Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act
- D.C. RentRegistry reporting
- Discrimination and human rights claims
- ADA reasonable accommodation claims
- Administrative claims, trials, mediations, and appeals
- Legislative counseling and statutory interpretation
Just as he cultivates long-term relationships with his clients, he has positive working relationships in the justice and administrative systems of the D.C. area. He combines legal knowledge and experience with focused attention and responsiveness to relieve the stress and risk of difficult situations. Josh represents clients before judicial courts, including the Superior Court Housing Conditions Court, as well as the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, the Rental Housing Commission, the Office of Human Rights, the D.C. Housing Authority, HUD, and more. He frequently represents clients in responding to tenant complaints and investigations from the D.C. Office of the Attorney General.
Josh is active with the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) of Metropolitan Washington, regularly testifying and lobbying on behalf of the real estate industry. He offers clients legislative counseling and statutory interpretation, and regularly speaks and writes about the latest developments in Metro-area real estate law.
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Representative Matters
- During the COVID pandemic, successfully prosecuted and obtained judgment to remove a tenant who operated an unlicensed marijuana distribution operation, despite a moratorium on evictions.
- Evicted a tenant who was intentionally clogging drains, removing drywall, and exposing wiring. This is one example in a long track record evicting tenants who intentionally damage property.
- Defended a lawsuit from a self-represented tenant claiming $25 million in damages for problems with the apartment.
- Obtained a verdict and settlement in favor of a multifamily rental property owner for violations of constitutionally protected property rights against the District’s issuance of two stop work orders and revocation of a Certificate of Occupancy.
- Successfully lobbied to D.C. Council on behalf of AOBA to roll back onerous provisions in a proposed lock change law during the COVID pandemic. Rather than having landlords pay for storage as proposed, convinced the council to allow lock changes and open a seven-day window for tenants to retrieve property over two days maximum for eight hours per day only, alleviating the risks of onerous costs and time demands on landlords during the eviction process.
- Testified in the Maryland Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee on proposed amendments to notice requirements for non-residential leases in the state’s real property code. The bill died in committee.
