Does Maryland have its own lead paint law?

Yes — and this is the main difference between Maryland and most states. On top of the federal disclosure duty, Maryland runs the Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing programme at Md. Code, Environment §§ 6-801 to 6-852, administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). It is a genuine regulatory regime, not a paperwork add-on: it requires you to register the property with MDE, to meet a risk reduction standard verified by an accredited inspector at every change in occupancy, and to deliver two MDE documents plus an inspection certificate at the start of each tenancy.The two regimes are separate and cumulative. Satisfying the federal disclosure does not satisfy the Maryland Lead Law, and registering with MDE does not satisfy the federal disclosure. You owe both.

Which Maryland rentals require a lead paint disclosure?

Any residential rental built before 1 January 1978 — what the federal rule calls target housing. Units built in 1978 or later fall outside the federal disclosure rule.The federal exemptions are narrow: 0-bedroom dwellings, leases of 100 days or less with no possible renewal or extension, housing certified lead-based paint free by a certified inspector, and housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities. Two limbs now carry a child condition. Under 40 CFR 745.103 as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), both the elderly/disabled and the 0-bedroom exclusions are withdrawn where a child under six resides or is expected to reside there. The 100-day and certified-lead-free exemptions do not depend on whether a child lives in the unit.

Are studios and efficiency apartments exempt from the lead paint disclosure?

Not automatically — this changed in 2025, and it is the single most misreported point in the whole subject. 40 CFR 745.103, as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), defines target housing as "any housing constructed prior to 1978, except housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities or any 0-bedroom dwelling (unless any child who is less than 6 years of age resides or is expected to reside in such housing)."Read the sentence structure. The 2024 amendment moved the child-under-six parenthetical to the end of the except-clause, so it now reaches both limbs: [housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities] or [any 0-bedroom dwelling], each withdrawn unless a child under six resides or is expected to reside there. A studio is target housing when a child under six resides or is expected to reside there.You will find the opposite claim — "a studio with a young child is still exempt" — on a great many pages, including, until this revision, our own. It was true before the 2025 amendment and older charts still show it that way, but it is now wrong. A 0-bedroom dwelling is defined in the same section as one "in which the living area is not separated from the sleeping area," and the term "includes efficiencies, studio apartments, dormitory housing, military barracks, and rentals of individual rooms in residential dwellings."Important Maryland caveat: this exemption is federal. It removes the federal disclosure duty. It does not exempt you from the Maryland Lead Law, which uses its own definitions — and Maryland's "rental dwelling unit" at Env. § 6-801(u) expressly means a unit with permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation, which a studio typically has. A studio in a pre-1978 Maryland building can therefore be outside the federal disclosure rule and still be an affected property under Maryland law.

Do I have to give Maryland tenants 10 days to inspect for lead?

No. The 10-day inspection opportunity is a sales rule, not a rental rule. 40 CFR 745.110(a) provides that before a purchaser is obligated under any contract to purchase target housing, the seller shall permit the purchaser a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time) to conduct a risk assessment or inspection. Purchaser. Seller. Purchase. The statutory source, 42 U.S.C. 4852d(a)(1)(C), is scoped the same way.The lessor requirements at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no inspection-opportunity item at all, and the EPA lessor form does not include one. Many form vendors copy the item across from the sales version. You may offer an inspection window voluntarily — it is a reasonable gesture — but do not describe it as a federal right, and never print a checkbox asserting the tenant received or waived a right the rule never gave them.

Does a Maryland landlord have to test for lead-based paint?

Federally, no. The federal rule compels disclosure of what you actually know, not investigation. If the unit has never been tested and you hold no reports, "no knowledge" is the honest and lawful answer.In Maryland the answer flips. Env. § 6-815 requires the owner of an affected property to satisfy a risk reduction standard by passing a test for lead-contaminated dust under § 6-816, and § 6-815(c) requires that at each change in occupancy the owner "shall have the property inspected to verify that the risk reduction standard specified in this section has been satisfied." So a Maryland landlord who says "I never have to test" has read the federal rule and stopped. Federal law does not make you test; Maryland law does.

What is an "affected property" under the Maryland Lead Law?

Env. § 6-801(b) defines it as (i) a property constructed before 1950 containing at least one rental dwelling unit; (ii) on and after 1 January 2015, a property constructed before 1978 containing at least one rental unit; or (iii) any residential rental property whose owner elects in under § 6-803(a)(2). It includes an individual unit within a multifamily rental dwelling, and excludes property exempted under § 6-803(b).The 2015 expansion is why the two dates both matter. The law began as a pre-1950 regime and was extended to the whole pre-1978 stock. Both tiers are affected property today — but they do not carry identical duties (see the tiering section above).

Do I have to register my Maryland rental with MDE, and how often do I renew?

Yes, if it is an affected property. Env. § 6-811(a) requires the owner to register it with the Department, and § 6-812(b) requires an owner who first acquires an affected property to register it within 30 days after the acquisition.On renewal, quote the statute rather than a blog. Env. § 6-812(a)(1) requires the owner to "[r]enew the registration of the affected property on or before December 31 of each year or according to a schedule established by the Department by regulation." That either/or is deliberate: the cycle is delegated to MDE. So the honest answer is that the statute sets an annual default and expressly lets MDE set a different schedule by regulation. Whether MDE currently has a different schedule in force is a question of MDE's regulations rather than the statute, and this page does not assert one — confirm your current renewal date and fee directly with MDE, because that is administrative and changes without the statute changing. Under § 6-812(a)(2) you must also update your registration details within 30 days of any change.

What documents must a Maryland landlord give a tenant at the start of a tenancy?

Three, on top of the federal disclosure and the EPA pamphlet:1. Notice of Tenants' Rights (Env. § 6-820(b)) — a notice prepared by MDE of the tenant's rights under §§ 6-817 and 6-819, given "upon the execution of a lease or the inception of a tenancy," and repeated at least every 2 years thereafter under § 6-820(c).2. The current verified inspection certificate (Env. § 6-820(d)) — the owner "shall include, with the notice of the tenant's rights... a copy of the current verified inspection certificate for the affected property prepared under § 6-818."3. Lead poisoning information packet (Env. § 6-823(b)) — a packet prepared or designated by MDE, also due at execution of the lease or inception of the tenancy, and also repeated at least every 2 years under § 6-823(c).Both the notice and the packet must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, or a verifiable method approved by the Department (§§ 6-820(e)(1), 6-823(d)), and under § 6-820(e)(2) you must provide MDE documentation of the notice. If you are acquiring an occupied affected property, §§ 6-820(f) and 6-823(f) require you to deliver both to the sitting tenant before transfer of legal title or within 15 days after it.

What has to happen at a change in occupancy in Maryland?

Env. § 6-815(b) requires that at each change in occupancy, before the next tenant occupies the property, the owner satisfy the risk reduction standard by passing the § 6-816 test for lead-contaminated dust, with any chipping, peeling, or flaking paint removed or repainted on the building's exterior painted surfaces and the unit's interior painted surfaces (§ 6-815(a)). Section 6-815(c) then requires the owner to have the property inspected to verify it."Change in occupancy" is a defined term: Env. § 6-801(c) means a change of tenant "in which the property is vacated and possession is either surrendered to the owner or abandoned." A renewal with the same tenant is not a change in occupancy.Under § 6-818(a) the inspection must be done by a person accredited by MDE who is not a related party to the owner, and that inspector submits a verified report to MDE, to the owner, and to the tenant. You cannot inspect your own building, and you cannot use your brother-in-law — § 6-801(r) defines "related party" to include a person related to the owner by blood or marriage, an employee, and entities the owner has an interest in.

Does the Maryland Lead Law treat pre-1950 and 1950-1977 properties the same?

No, and almost no one explains this. Both are affected property, and both owe registration, the § 6-815 change-in-occupancy standard, and the §§ 6-820 and 6-823 notices. But the percentage-of-inventory duties expressly carve out the newer tier.Env. § 6-817(a)(1) and § 6-817(b)(1) each open with "Except for properties constructed between January 1, 1950, and December 31, 1977, both inclusive..." — and § 6-819(f) carries the same carve-out for its own limb: 100% of the owner's affected properties in which a person at risk does not reside must satisfy the modified risk reduction standard. The two are complements — § 6-817(b)(1) covers the units where a person at risk does live, § 6-819(f) the units where one does not. So the inventory schedules in §§ 6-817 and 6-819(f) reach the pre-1950 stock, not the 1950-1977 stock.This is a genuine distinction with consequences for the § 6-836 liability shield, and it is why "Maryland treats all pre-1978 rentals identically" is wrong.

What are the penalties for getting this wrong in Maryland?

Three separate exposures.Federal private action. 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) makes a knowing violator jointly and severally liable to the lessee for three times the damages that person incurred, and (b)(4) lets the court add court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees.Federal civil money penalties. EPA adjusts these for inflation every year under 40 CFR 19.4. This page deliberately prints no dollar figure: every per-violation number you see quoted on form sites is a snapshot that goes stale each January. Read the current 19.4 table.Maryland. Env. § 6-813(a) provides that an owner who fails to register under § 6-811, or fails to renew under § 6-812, is not in compliance with the subtitle for purposes of § 6-836 — which is how you lose the liability shield. Separately, § 6-813(b) makes it a misdemeanor to willfully and knowingly falsify information in a registration or renewal, punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000. That figure is in the statute itself, which is why it appears here when the federal ones do not.

What is the Maryland liability shield, and how do I keep it?

Env. § 6-836 is the payoff for compliance. It provides that an owner of an affected property is not liable for alleged injury or loss caused by a person at risk ingesting lead, as to a claimant who rejects a qualified offer, if during the alleged exposure the owner (1) gave the tenant the notices required by §§ 6-820 and 6-823, and (2) was in compliance with the registration provisions of Part III and the applicable risk reduction standard under § 6-815 or § 6-819 and the § 6-817 schedule.Read that as a checklist, because it is one. Miss the registration, miss a renewal, skip the packet, or fail the change-in-occupancy inspection, and the shield is gone — § 6-813(a) says so explicitly for the registration limb. Separately, § 6-828 bars certain actions against a compliant owner unless the owner got written notice of the elevated blood lead level and an opportunity to make a qualified offer under § 6-831.This is not legal advice and the shield's operation in a real case is fact-specific; the point here is that Maryland's paperwork is not bureaucracy for its own sake — it is the price of the defence.

How long must I keep the signed disclosure?

At least three years from the commencement of the leasing period, under 40 CFR 745.113(c)(1). Keep the signed disclosure, a note of which pamphlet edition you delivered, and copies of everything you handed over.One nuance worth stating precisely, because it is often overstated: 40 CFR 745.113(c)(2) says the recordkeeping requirement "is not intended to place any limitations on civil suits under the Act, or to otherwise affect a lessee's or purchaser's rights under the civil penalty provisions of 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3)." That is a savings clause about the rule not cutting off rights. It is not a statement that the three-year period is or is not a defence, and this page will not dress it up as one. Practically: three years is a floor, and keeping the file for as long as you own the property is the safer practice. Maryland's own notice documentation duty (§ 6-820(e)(2)) runs to MDE separately.

Does the disclosure apply to lease renewals?

A fresh disclosure is required for a new lease with a new lessee. Renewals are addressed directly by 40 CFR 745.101(d), which excepts "[r]enewals of existing leases in target housing in which the lessor has previously disclosed all information required under § 745.107 and where no new information described in § 745.107 has come into the possession of the lessor."Note the cross-reference: it is to § 745.107, not § 745.113. Several pages (including some of ours, before this revision) cite 745.113 here. Both conditions must hold. If you obtained a new lead report or learned of a hazard since the original disclosure, the exemption is unavailable. Renewal is also not a change in occupancy under Md. Code, Environment § 6-801(c), so it does not trigger § 6-815 — but the § 6-820 and § 6-823 documents still recur every 2 years regardless.

Can the Maryland lead paint disclosure be signed electronically?

Yes. Electronic disclosure and signature are permitted under the E-SIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. 7001. EPA attaches conditions: give a clear statement of the right to receive paper documents, explain how to withdraw consent and the consequences, explain how to access and retain the records, and obtain consent demonstrating the tenant can actually access the materials. A link alone is not delivery.Do not assume this carries over to the Maryland documents. Env. §§ 6-820(e)(1) and 6-823(d) require the Notice of Tenants' Rights and the information packet to be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, or a verifiable method approved by the Department — the approval sits with MDE, not with you. Confirm with MDE before relying on email for those two.

What must I do when renovating an occupied pre-1978 Maryland rental?

That is a second, separate duty. Under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart E, a renovation disturbing painted surfaces in a pre-1978 unit requires lead-safe work practices by a certified firm, and occupants must receive lead hazard information no more than 60 days before work begins. If common areas are affected, notice must reach every unit.Maryland layers on Env. § 6-821: when work will disturb interior paint, the owner must make reasonable efforts to ensure persons at risk are removed from the property while the work is performed, and if a tenant must vacate for 24 hours or more, the owner "shall pay the reasonable expenses that the tenant incurs directly related to the required relocation." Section 6-821(c) requires the treatments to be performed by or under the supervision of personnel accredited under § 6-1002.

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Free Maryland Lead Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every Maryland landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978 — plus the Maryland Lead Law that sits on top of it. Maryland is not a federal-only state: Md. Code, Environment §§ 6-801 to 6-852 adds MDE registration, a risk reduction standard at every change in occupancy, and two more documents at lease signing.

Federal + State Duty 42 U.S.C. 4852d Md. Env. 6-801 Maryland Free PDF

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for Maryland ~20 min read

A Maryland lead paint disclosure is the federally mandated form a landlord delivers to a prospective tenant before any lease of residential property built before 1978. It carries the fixed federal lead warning statement, states the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint and hazards, lists the records being handed over, documents receipt of the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home, captures any agent’s acknowledgment, and is signed and dated by every party. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d (Section 1018 of Title X), implemented at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F (EPA) and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A (HUD). Maryland then goes considerably further than most states. The Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing law at Md. Code, Environment §§ 6-801 to 6-852 requires you to register the property with MDE, to meet a dust-test risk reduction standard verified by an accredited inspector at every change in occupancy, and to hand the tenant an MDE Notice of Tenants’ Rights, the current inspection certificate, and an MDE information packet. Generate the federal form below, then read the Maryland regime that the form does not cover. Our Maryland habitability laws guide covers the condition-based duties that run alongside all of this.

Key Takeaways

Two regimes, both mandatory. The federal disclosure (42 U.S.C. 4852d) and the Maryland Lead Law (Env. §§ 6-801 et seq.) are separate and cumulative. Doing one does not do the other.
Maryland makes you test; federal law does not. Env. § 6-815 requires passing a lead-contaminated dust test and an accredited inspection at every change in occupancy. That is the single biggest difference from a federal-only state.
Register within 30 days of acquiring. Env. § 6-812(b). Renewal is annual by default but Env. § 6-812(a)(1) lets MDE set the schedule by regulation — confirm your date with MDE.
Studios are exempt from the federal disclosure — unless a child under six lives there. 40 CFR 745.103, as amended eff. Jan. 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), now attaches the “child under six” condition to the 0-bedroom limb too. Older charts still show it as unconditional.
The 10-day inspection window does not apply to leases. 40 CFR 745.110 gives it to purchasers only. The lessor rules at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no such item.
Three Maryland documents at lease signing. Notice of Tenants’ Rights (§ 6-820(b)), the current verified inspection certificate (§ 6-820(d)), and the lead poisoning information packet (§ 6-823(b)) — by certified mail, repeated every 2 years.
Compliance buys you the § 6-836 liability shield. Miss the registration or a notice and you lose it — Env. § 6-813(a) says so directly.

▶ Watch overview

Maryland lead paint disclosure overview

Maryland Lead Paint Rules at a Glance

Federal trigger

Built before 1978

Federal authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

Maryland statute

Env. 6-801 to 6-852

MD affected property

Pre-1950; pre-1978 since 2015

MDE registration

Yes — 30 days of acquiring

Duty to test

No federally; YES in MD

10-day inspection

Sales only

Federal retention

3 years

The one-line answer: if your Maryland rental was built before 1978, you owe the tenant the signed federal disclosure plus the EPA pamphlet before they are obligated under the lease — and you owe MDE a registration, an accredited dust-test inspection before every new tenant moves in, and three Maryland documents at signing. Maryland is one of the states where “just use the federal form” is not compliance.

What the Maryland lead paint disclosure does

The lead paint disclosure — often called the Section 1018 disclosure, after the 1992 statute that created it — is the formal federal notice a Maryland landlord delivers to a prospective tenant for any residential property built before 1978. It does four things in one document.

First, it puts the tenant on notice of potential lead exposure through the federally mandated lead warning statement, the fixed language at 40 CFR 745.113(b)(1) that must be attached to or included within the lease.

Second, it transmits the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the dwelling. The lessor picks one of exactly two positions: known lead-based paint or hazards are present, with a description of what is known; or the lessor has no knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the housing. There is no third box.

Third, it transmits any reports the lessor holds from prior inspections, risk assessments, or hazard-reduction work. In Maryland this item has extra weight, because a compliant Maryland landlord will hold reports: Env. § 6-818 requires the accredited inspector to submit a verified report to MDE, to the owner, and to the tenant at each change in occupancy. If you have been complying with Maryland law, “no records available” is very unlikely to be the honest answer.

Fourth, it documents the tenant’s receipt of the disclosure and of the EPA pamphlet. The signed acknowledgment is the landlord’s primary defence in any later EPA or HUD inquiry or private civil action.

The disclosure is not optional and the duty is not waivable by agreement. Compliance takes fifteen minutes; non-compliance is the most expensive paperwork failure in pre-1978 rental practice. And in Maryland it is only the first of two thin