Maryland Landlord-Tenant Laws: The Complete 2026 Overview

Maryland caps the security deposit at two months’ rent under Real Property section 8-203, and the same statute locks down the return: a landlord must refund the deposit within forty-five days after the tenancy ends and the tenant surrenders the unit. Any amount withheld requires a written, itemized list of damages, and a landlord who fails to itemize forfeits the right to keep any of it. Interest is owed on deposits held for the required period. The teeth are in section 8-203 too – a landlord who withholds in bad faith can owe up to three times the wrongfully kept amount plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees, with bad faith presumed when the landlord misses the deadline or skips the itemized statement. Disputes are heard in the District Court of Maryland for the county where the property sits.

Read the full Maryland security deposit laws guide for permitted deductions, the interest calculation, and the move-out timeline.

Maryland does not require just cause statewide – a landlord may generally decline to renew a lease for a lawful reason. To evict for nonpayment of rent, the landlord must first give the tenant a written ten-day notice to pay or vacate before filing a failure-to-pay-rent action in the District Court. Lease-violation and holdover cases follow their own notice tracks, and a serious breach can require its own written notice with a cure period. If the tenant does not pay or leave, the landlord files in District Court, the tenant is served, and a hearing is set – the whole failure-to-pay process typically runs a few weeks. Self-help evictions – changing locks, removing doors, or shutting off utilities – are illegal in Maryland, and only a sheriff acting on a warrant of restitution may physically remove a tenant.

Read the full Maryland eviction notice laws guide for the filing steps, the hearing timeline, and the appeal window.

Maryland has no statewide statute setting a fixed notice period before a landlord enters an occupied unit. Instead, the right of entry is governed by the lease and the tenant’s common-law right to quiet enjoyment. In practice, the accepted norm is twenty-four hours’ written notice for non-emergency entry during normal business hours. Genuine emergencies such as fire, flooding, or a gas leak permit immediate entry without notice. A landlord who repeatedly enters without reasonable notice can face damages and, in severe cases, a claim for breach of quiet enjoyment. Because there is no bright-line statewide rule, spelling out the entry procedure – how much notice, in what form, and for what purposes – directly in the lease is the single best way to avoid a dispute.

Read the full Maryland landlord entry laws guide for the permitted-entry reasons and how to write a compliant notice.

Maryland has no statewide rent control, so in most of the state there is no cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent. During a fixed-term lease the rent is locked at the agreed figure; an increase takes effect only at renewal or on a month-to-month tenancy. For a month-to-month tenancy, landlords must generally give at least sixty days’ written notice before a rent increase takes effect, and Montgomery County requires at least ninety days. Some jurisdictions have adopted local rent stabilization: Montgomery County limits annual increases to the consumer price index plus three percent, capped at six percent, and Prince George’s County and Baltimore City run their own programs. The limits that always apply are anti-retaliation and anti-discrimination – a landlord may not raise rent to punish a tenant for a good-faith complaint or on a discriminatory basis.

Read the full Maryland rent increase laws guide for the notice mechanics and the county rent-stabilization caps.

Maryland Real Property section 8-208 governs residential late fees, and it sets a hard ceiling: a late fee may not exceed five percent of the monthly rent, and it must be stated in the written lease. That five-percent cap is a real limit, not a benchmark – a lease clause that charges more is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds it. Maryland sets no statutory grace period, so any grace window is purely contractual; most leases allow three to five days before the fee applies. A returned-check fee is likewise enforceable only when the lease sets it, typically in the thirty-five dollar range. Because the cap is statutory, a landlord who systematically overcharges late fees exposes the lease clause – and potentially the charges – to challenge, so keeping the fee at or under five percent and writing it clearly into the lease is essential.

Read the full Maryland late fee laws guide for the five-percent calculation and grace-period practice.

Under Maryland Real Property section 8-211, a landlord must keep the rental fit for human habitation and repair conditions that threaten the tenant’s life, health, or safety. The tenant triggers the duty by giving written notice – certified mail with return receipt is best – and allowing a reasonable time to fix the problem. If the landlord fails, section 8-211 lets the tenant pursue rent escrow: the tenant pays rent into a District Court escrow account instead of to the landlord until the serious defect is corrected, and the court can order repairs or return part of the rent. Section 8-211.1 provides a repair-and-deduct remedy in defined circumstances, and section 8-208.1 bars retaliation against a tenant who asserts these rights. Maryland also enforces strict lead-paint rules – registration, risk reduction, and disclosure for older rental housing, with additional requirements in Baltimore City.

Read the full Maryland habitability laws guide for the rent-escrow procedure and the lead-paint requirements.

Maryland codifies several protected reasons a tenant may end a fixed-term lease early without owing the balance. Victims of domestic violence or sexual assault may terminate under sections 8-5A-02 and 8-5A-03, giving written notice and the required documentation such as a protective order, and vacating within thirty days, with rent liability capped at thirty days after the notice. Military servicemembers may terminate under section 8-212.1 and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act on qualifying orders, with liability limited to the rent due plus thirty days. A tenant may also leave when the unit is uninhabitable and the landlord fails to repair after proper notice, using the section 8-211 rent-escrow or constructive-eviction path. For a tenant who simply leaves without a statutory ground, section 8-207 imposes a duty on the landlord to mitigate damages by making a reasonable effort to re-rent, so the departing tenant owes only the vacancy gap rather than the entire remaining term, and that duty cannot be waived.

Read the full Maryland breaking lease laws guide for each statutory ground and the notice-and-proof steps.

Ending a Maryland tenancy depends on its type. A month-to-month tenancy is terminated by written notice of at least one month under Real Property section 8-402, from either party, and some jurisdictions require longer notice. A fixed-term lease generally runs to its end date and cannot be cut short without a statutory ground or mutual written agreement; a landlord who does not intend to renew typically gives notice before the term ends. Maryland does not require just cause to decline to renew statewide, and automatic-renewal clauses are limited by section 8-208, which requires clear disclosure. A tenant who stays past the lease end date becomes a holdover, and the landlord pursues a tenant-holding-over action in the District Court rather than self-help; holdover clauses can expose the tenant to enhanced rent for the overstay. When any tenancy ends, the deposit rules of section 8-203 govern the move-out.

Read the full Maryland lease termination laws guide for notice by tenancy type and holdover liability.

For an actual pet, a Maryland landlord may require a pet deposit or charge pet rent if the lease provides for it, but any refundable pet deposit counts toward the two-month deposit cap under section 8-203 – a landlord cannot stack it on top. Assistance animals are treated completely differently. Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a service animal or emotional support animal is not a pet – a landlord may not charge any pet deposit, fee, or rent, and may not apply a breed or weight restriction or a no-pet policy to it. When the disability or the animal’s role is not obvious, the landlord may request reliable documentation from a licensed professional, but may not demand a certificate, a registration number, or medical records, because there is no official assistance-animal registry. The tenant remains liable for any actual damage the animal causes.

Read the full Maryland pet and ESA laws guide for accommodation requests and documentation limits.

Maryland sets one firm statewide limit on screening: Real Property section 8-213 caps a rental application fee at twenty-five dollars. If a landlord charges more than twenty-five dollars, the unused portion must be refunded within fifteen days after the tenant moves in or after the landlord decides not to rent, and the landlord should keep receipts. Beyond that cap, the binding rules are largely federal. With the applicant’s written authorization, a landlord may pull a consumer report covering credit, rental history, income, and criminal convictions – the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a permissible purpose and consent first, and an adverse-action notice when a denial rests in any part on the report. Maryland protects source of income as well, so a landlord may not refuse a Housing Choice Voucher on that basis, and marital status is also protected. Blanket criminal-record bans are risky under HUD’s disparate-impact guidance, so an individualized assessment is safer.

Read the full Maryland tenant screening laws guide for the fee-refund steps and the fair-housing baseline.