KRAMER, Associate Judge:
Andrena Crockett appeals the trial court's entry of a non-redeemable judgment for possession and the striking of her pleadings as a sanction for non-payment of a protective order under Superior Court Landlord and Tenant Rule 12-I(g). We find no error and affirm.
Deutsche Bank National Trust (the Trust) foreclosed on Crockett's house in December of 2009. At the foreclosure sale, the Trust itself purchased the home. Subsequently, the Trust provided Crockett with thirty-days notice to quit, and after Crockett did not vacate the premises, filed suit for possession in the Landlord and Tenant Court. Crockett's answer alleged that she had not been provided a right to cure her mortgage default,
We review the trial court's legal conclusions de novo. Matthews v. District of Columbia, 875 A.2d 650, 654 (D.C.2005). Superior Court Landlord and Tenant Rule 12-I(g) allows for the issuance of sanctions, including a grant of possession, where a party violates a protective order. However, Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) provides:
Thus, Crockett argues that because her case was without an allegation of nonpayment of rent, the trial court was not able to enter a judgment for possession as a sanction. The Trust argues, and the trial court held, that Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) is inapposite because the Trust and Crockett never had a landlord-tenant relationship, and Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) only applies to leasehold situations.
The parties and the trial court agreed that Crockett and the Trust never had a landlord-tenant relationship. "A landlord-tenant relationship does not arise by mere occupancy of the premises; absent an express or implied contractual agreement, with both privity of estate and privity of contract, the occupier is in adverse possession as a `squatter.'" Nicholas v. Howard, 459 A.2d 1039, 1040 (D.C.1983) (citation omitted). Our law defines a "squatter" who is a mortgagor remaining in possession after a foreclosure sale as a "tenant at will." D.C.Code § 42-522. While the term "tenant" is used to define such status, that term itself does not create a contractual landlord-tenant relationship; it is used to allow property owners to avail themselves of the summary procedures of the Landlord and Tenant Branch. Nicholas, supra, 459 A.2d at 1040; see also Taylor v. First Am. Title Co., 509 A.2d 96, 97 (D.C.1986) ("Assuming appellants were tenants at will after foreclosure, they were not in a contractual relationship with appellee, which purchased the property at foreclosure.").
We agree with the trial court's interpretation of Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B). Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) prohibits the grant of possession as a sanction for violating a protective order where the parties have a contractual landlord-tenant relationship and there are no allegations of non-payment of rent; it does not prohibit the entry of a judgment for possession as a sanction where the parties do not have a contractual landlord-tenant relationship. The rule applies to proceedings where the tenancy is non-redeemable, which means that a tenant cannot redeem her lease by paying the rent due. By referencing redemption, the rule presupposes that the person in possession is in a contractual landlord-tenant relationship. See Trans-Lux Radio City Corp. v. Serv. Parking Corp., 54 A.2d 144, 146 (D.C.Mun.App.1947) ("[A] court of law or equity may relieve a tenant from forfeiture of his lease for nonpayment of rent by permitting him ... to pay the rent due.") (emphasis supplied). Properly understood, the rule applies to situations where a tenant is in violation of her lease for reasons other than non-payment of rent, for example, violating a no-pets clause or other covenant, and thus is unable to redeem her tenancy by paying the back rent. Thus, the rule cannot apply to a tenant at will who is a holdover mortgagor, because there is no lease at issue whatsoever, and no rent due from such a tenant at will.
We reached a similar conclusion when considering whether or not the protections of the Rental Accommodations Act applied to tenants at will who are holdover mortgagors. Holding that they did not, we wrote that
Simpson v. Jack Spicer Real Estate, Inc., 396 A.2d 212, 214 (D.C.1978) (citation omitted). The "tenancy" envisioned by Rule 12-I encompasses the latter, not the former, and Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) does not prohibit the grant of possession as a sanction where the protective order was entered in a case lacking a contractual landlord-tenant relationship. Thus, we hold that the trial court did not err when granting the Trust's motion for possession.
Of course, this begs the question why a protective order was entered in the first instance.
That said, we have left open the possibility that protective orders may be appropriate in some circumstances outside of the landlord-tenant context, and have occasionally
Crockett, for the first time on appeal, assigns error to the initial entry of the protective order, but has not provided a record sufficient to evaluate the exercise of the trial court's discretion.
Ultimately, we affirm because once the protective order was entered, Rule 12-I(g)(2)(B) did not prohibit the court from exercising its discretion to strike the pleadings and grant possession, see Davis, supra, 456 A.2d at 826, and as presented, we are unable to review the initial entry of the protective order. Further, we note that because the landlord-tenant proceeding did not decide title on the merits, see D.C.Code § 16-1505; Turner v. Day, 461 A.2d 697, 699-700 (D.C.1983), Crockett is not precluded from filing a claim for wrongful foreclosure stemming from the alleged failure to provide an opportunity to cure or other irregularities.
Affirmed.