Free Maryland Residential Lease Agreement

▶ Watch walk-through

A configurable Maryland residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Real Property Article, Title 8 — the one month’s rent deposit cap, the 45-day return with a threefold penalty, and the 24-hour entry rule Maryland only acquired in 2025.

Maryland Real Prop. 8-101 Tenants Bill of Rights Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Maryland residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Real Property Article, Title 8 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, at 8-101 and following, with the security deposit rules at 8-203 and the summary ejectment procedure at 8-401 to 8-407. Maryland rewrote large parts of that title between 2024 and 2026, and almost every template still in circulation predates the rewrite. The deposit cap is now one month’s rent per dwelling unit, not two. Every written lease must carry a copy of the Maryland Tenants Bill of Rights. The state acquired its first statutory entry rule on 1 October 2025 — 24 hours‘ written notice, and entry only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There is a statutory warranty of habitability, a tenant right of first refusal on small properties, a mold pamphlet duty, and, since 1 June 2026, an air-conditioning duty in larger apartment buildings that the General Assembly’s own statute reader has not yet published.

Complete the fields below to generate a Maryland residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations that 8-208(c)(2) makes mandatory lease content, the deposit receipt that 8-203(c)(2) requires to sit inside the lease, and each disclosure you check — and the generated lease cites the controlling Maryland section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening, and pair the signed lease with a Maryland move-in / move-out checklist, because the written list of damages made at the start of the tenancy is what 8-203.1(a)(1) exists to produce.

Maryland recognizes the usual range. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms, though Real Prop. 8-402(c)(2)(i) still requires the landlord to give sixty days’ written notice of an intent to terminate before a written lease for a stated term of more than one week expires. A month-to-month tenancy renews each month until one side ends it on sixty days’ notice. A week-to-week tenancy is the shortest periodic form Title 8 addresses, and it carries its own split notice rule: seven days where the parties have a written lease, twenty-one days where they do not. A year-to-year tenancy takes ninety days, and a farm tenancy other than a tobacco farm tenancy takes a hundred and eighty.

Where a tenancy simply carries on after the term ends, Real Prop. 8-402(d) supplies the default and it is worth reading twice. If the landlord consents to the holdover tenant staying, the tenant becomes a periodic week-to-week tenant if that is what the tenant was before, and a periodic month-to-month tenant in every other case — unless the written lease says otherwise and the tenant has initialled that statement. A lease that quietly converts a holdover into a fresh twelve-month term without a tenant initial does not work in Maryland.

Two structural rules sit above all of this. Real Prop. 8-208(a) provides that a landlord who offers five or more dwelling units for rent in the State may not rent a residential dwelling unit without using a written lease; where such a landlord does not, the term is presumed to be one year from the tenant’s first occupancy unless the tenant ends it earlier on one month’s written notice. And Real Prop. 8-208(b) requires a landlord who rents on a written lease to give any prospective applicant, on written request, a complete copy of the proposed lease form — everything except the date, the tenant’s name and address, the designation of the premises and the rate — without requiring execution or any deposit. An applicant in Maryland is entitled to read the lease before committing to anything.

A commercial lease is outside the residential provisions of Title 8, and the difference bites in a place people rarely expect: Real Prop. 8-401(e)(2)(v) allows a court to award attorney’s fees in a summary ejectment only in a nonresidential tenancy, and only where the lease authorises it. A sublease and a roommate agreement sit under the head lease and do not displace it. For a ground lease of ninety-nine years renewable forever, and for larger multifamily and mobile home developments, Real Prop. 8-402.2 supplies a separate possession route with its own six-month arrears trigger and forty-five-day notice.

One month’s rent per dwelling unit, regardless of the number of tenants. Real Prop. 8-203(b)(1) says exactly that, and it has said it since 1 October 2024, when Chapter 124 of the Acts of 2024 — the Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act — cut the cap from two months to one. Two of the pages currently ranking for this query still tell Maryland landlords they may charge two months’ rent.

There is exactly one exception, and all three of its conditions must be satisfied together. Under 8-203(b)(2) the deposit may reach two months’ rent only where the tenant is eligible for and has qualified for utility assistance through the Department of Human Services, the lease requires the tenant to pay for utility services directly to the landlord, and the tenant and landlord agree in writing to the amount. Miss any one of the three and the cap is one month.

What counts as deposit money is wider than most templates assume. Real Prop. 8-203(a)(3) defines a security deposit as any payment of money, including payment of the last month’s rent in advance of the time it is due, given to protect the landlord against nonpayment of rent, damage due to breach of lease, or damage to the premises, common areas, major appliances and furnishings. Advance last-month rent is therefore deposit money in Maryland and counts against the cap. So does a refundable pet deposit. The first month’s rent is not deposit money, but Real Prop. 8-208(d)(11) separately prohibits requiring a tenant to pay more than the sum of the 8-203(b) deposit and the first month’s rent in order to commence the lease and occupy the premises — which is how Maryland kills the last-month-plus-deposit-plus-move-in-fee stack.

The penalty for overcharging is not a slap. Real Prop. 8-203(b)(3) gives the tenant an action to recover up to three times the extra amount charged plus reasonable attorney’s fees, and 8-203(b)(4) allows that action at any time during the tenancy or within two years after it ends. Our Maryland security deposit laws guide works through the calculation in detail.

In an interest-bearing account, devoted exclusively to security deposits, at a branch located inside Maryland. Real Prop. 8-203(d)(1) is unusually prescriptive. The institution must be federally insured as defined in Financial Institutions Article 1-101 and must do business in the State. The account must be maintained at a branch located within Maryland. It must be devoted exclusively to security deposits and must bear interest. The deposit must be placed in it within thirty days after the landlord receives it. And the aggregate of the accounts must at all times equal all the deposits the landlord is liable for.

Real Prop. 8-203(d)(2) offers the only alternative: insured certificates of deposit at Maryland branches of federally insured institutions, or securities issued by the federal government or by the State of Maryland, again in an aggregate amount sufficient to cover every deposit held. A landlord who commingles deposits with operating money, or who holds them in an out-of-state account, is outside the statute whether or not a tenant ever complains.

Two protections follow from the segregation. Under 8-203(d)(3)(ii) a security deposit may not be attached by the creditors of either the landlord or the tenant. And where the landlord’s interest is sold or transferred — including in receivership or bankruptcy — the landlord or the landlord’s estate, but not the managing agent or a court-appointed receiver, remains liable for maintaining, withholding and returning the deposit plus interest for anything not actually delivered to the transferee, together with an accounting showing the amount and date of the original deposit, the applicable interest rates and the tenant’s name and last known address. Any successor in interest is liable to the tenant under 8-203(d)(4).

Simple interest at the greater of the one-year Treasury yield or one and one half per cent a year. Real Prop. 8-203(e)(1) requires the deposit to come back with interest accrued at the daily U.S. Treasury yield curve rate for one year, as of the first business day of each year, or one and one half per cent a year, whichever is greater. Because the Treasury limb resets every January, Maryland deposit interest is a formula, not a fixed number, and a page or a lease that prints a percentage is printing something with a shelf life.

Four qualifications matter. Interest accrues at monthly intervals from the day the tenant gives the landlord the deposit, and it is not compounded. No interest is due at all unless the landlord has held the deposit for at least six months. None accrues for any period shorter than a full month. And interest is payable only on deposits of fifty dollars or more.

Maryland then does something almost no other state does: it removes the arithmetic risk from the landlord. Real Prop. 8-203(m) requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to maintain on its website either a list of the daily one-year Treasury yield curve rates as of the first business day of each year, or a customized calculator into which the landlord enters the date the deposit was given, the tenancy end date and the amount. Real Prop. 8-203(n) then provides that a landlord is entitled to rely on that list or that calculator when calculating the interest due. Use the Department’s own tool and the calculation is protected; guess, and it is not.

Forty-five days after the end of the tenancy. Real Prop. 8-203(e)(1) requires the landlord to return the deposit together with accrued interest, less any damages rightfully withheld, within 45 days after the tenancy ends. There is no separate clock started by a forwarding address; the tenancy ending is the trigger.

If any part is withheld, a second duty runs on the same clock. Real Prop. 8-203(g)(1) requires the landlord to present, by first class mail to the tenant’s last known address and within the same forty-five days, a written list of the damages claimed together with an itemized statement of the cost incurred. Real Prop. 8-203(g)(2) is blunt about the consequence of not doing it: the landlord forfeits the right to withhold any part of the security deposit for damages. Not the disputed part — any part.

Since the 2024 Act the itemized statement has to be backed up. Real Prop. 8-203(j)(1) requires it to include supporting documentation that identifies the materials or services provided. A landlord who has not had the work done yet may satisfy that with an estimate under 8-203(j)(2) — but 8-203(k) then attaches conditions: the landlord must notify the tenant in writing when the repairs are complete, must enclose a copy of the final invoice, and must return any withheld amount in excess of the actual cost within thirty days after completing the repairs.

A tenant who was evicted or who abandoned before the end of the tenancy is on a different but parallel track. Under 8-203(h) the ordinary forty-five-day duties do not apply; instead the tenant demands the deposit by written notice sent by first class mail within forty-five days of being evicted or abandoning, specifying a new address, and the landlord then has forty-five days from receipt to send the list, the itemized statement and the balance with interest.

The remedy is the same throughout, and it is the number Maryland tenants know. Real Prop. 8-203(e)(4): where the landlord, without a reasonable basis, fails to return any part of the deposit plus accrued interest within the forty-five days, the tenant has an action for up to threefold of the withheld amount, plus reasonable attorney’s fees. Our Maryland security deposit itemization form and deposit return letter are built to that deadline.

Yes — and the landlord who never mentioned it loses the right to withhold anything for damage. This is the most distinctive rule in Maryland’s deposit statute and the one most likely to be missed by a lease written for another state.

Real Prop. 8-203(f)(1)(ii) gives the tenant the right to be present when the landlord or the landlord’s agent inspects the premises to determine whether any damage was done — conditional on the tenant notifying the landlord by certified mail of the intention to move, the date of moving and the tenant’s new address. Sub-paragraph (iii) requires that notice to be mailed at least fifteen days before the moving date. Sub-paragraph (iv) then puts the ball back in the landlord’s court: on receiving it the landlord shall notify the tenant by certified mail of the time and date of the inspection. Sub-paragraph (v) fixes the window — the inspection must occur within five days before or five days after the moving date the tenant designated.

Then comes the sting. Sub-paragraph (vi) requires the tenant to be advised of these rights in writing at the time the tenant pays the security deposit, and sub-paragraph (vii) provides that failure by the landlord to comply with that requirement forfeits the right of the landlord to withhold any part of the security deposit for damages. The obligation is discharged by the deposit receipt itself: Real Prop. 8-203.1(a) lists the seven statements the receipt must carry, and Real Prop. 8-203(c)(2) requires the receipt to be included in the written lease. That is why the generated lease writes the receipt into the document rather than treating it as an attachment.

There is a mirror-image right at the start of the tenancy. Real Prop. 8-203.1(a)(1) gives the tenant the right to have the unit inspected by the landlord in the tenant’s presence, for the purpose of making a written list of damages existing at the commencement of the tenancy, if the tenant requests it by certified mail within fifteen days of occupancy. A landlord who runs a joint walk-through as a matter of course, and documents it, is protecting the deposit rather than conceding anything.

Real Prop. 8-203(i) lets a Maryland tenant buy a surety bond instead of paying all or part of a security deposit. It is not a small provision — fourteen paragraphs — and not one of the ranking template pages mentions it.

The ground rules first: a landlord may not require the tenant to purchase a bond, and is not required to consent to one. A bond bought instead of a deposit may not exceed two months’ rent per dwelling unit; a bond together with a deposit may not exceed two months’ rent in aggregate; and exceeding either ceiling carries the familiar remedy of up to three times the excess plus reasonable attorney’s fees. On a sale or transfer, the new landlord must accept the existing bond and may not demand an additional deposit during the current term.

Before the tenant buys, the surety must disclose in writing that the premium is nonrefundable; that the bond is not insurance for the tenant; that it protects the landlord against nonpayment, breach and damage; that the tenant may be required to reimburse the surety; that the tenant remains responsible for all unpaid rent, breach damages and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear; that the tenant may pay damages directly or require the landlord to use the security deposit before any claim on the bond; and that a surety which fails to make those disclosures forfeits the right to claim against the tenant.

The claim process has teeth on both sides. At least ten days before making a claim, the landlord must send the tenant, by first class mail, a written list of the damages to be claimed and an itemized statement of costs — with the same supporting-documentation duty that 8-203(j) imposes. The tenant then has ten days to dispute the claim in writing, and a disputed claim may not be reported to a credit reporting agency before the surety obtains a judgment. In an action by the surety, the tenant keeps every defence available against a landlord, and damages may be awarded only to the extent the tenant would have been liable to the landlord. A surety that cl