Local lawmakers were scheduled to hold a first vote Monday on a sweeping bill to reform D.C.’s landlord-tenant laws, but they decided to take more time.

The D.C. Council voted to postpone the first of two votes on the Rental Act until its July 28 meeting. Committee on Housing Chair Robert White was the lone member to vote against the delay.

Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed the bill in February — with the real estate industry’s support — aiming to reduce the unprecedented rent delinquencies that have put landlords’ financial stability at risk and to make D.C. more appealing to investors to buy and build apartments.

Bowser proposed reforms to the city’s controversial Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, including exempting buildings for their first 25 years after construction or after a substantial renovation. She also proposed a series of legal system changes to accelerate the eviction process.

But White’s committee made substantial changes to the bill, including shortening the TOPA exemption to 15 years and removing some of the eviction process changes.

The mayor and industry groups opposed those changes. Bowser accused the committee of “gutting” the bill, the Apartment and Office Building Association said the committee’s version “severely weakens” many important pieces of it, and the Small Multifamily Owners Association said it “watered down” the legislation.

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