Maryland Real Estate Laws
Maryland's New Renters' Rights Act & What Anne Arundel County Landlords Need to Know in 2026
Herb Chisholm
Maryland quietly rewrote the landlord playbook in 2024, and most small landlords in Anne Arundel County still do not know what changed.
The Renters' Rights and Stabilization Act took effect October 1, 2024. It capped security deposits, created a new tenant Right of First Refusal, slowed down evictions, and set up a state agency dedicated to helping renters challenge bad landlords. I have been licensed to sell real estate in Maryland since 1983, and this is the biggest restructuring of landlord tenant law I have seen in 40 years.
If you own rental property in Arnold, Annapolis, Severna Park, Odenton, Pasadena, Crofton, or anywhere else in the county, the rules for how you manage that property changed. Most landlords managing one to three units on their own have not caught up. Some will learn the hard way.
Here is what actually changed, and what you need to do about it.
One month is the new security deposit ceiling
This is the rule that catches the most people off guard.
Before October 2024, Maryland landlords could collect up to two months' rent as a security deposit. That had been the standard for my entire career. The Renters' Rights Act dropped the cap to one month. Narrow exceptions exist for tenants receiving utility assistance through the Department of Human Services, but for the typical rental in Anne Arundel County, one month is it.
Say you are renting a townhome in Severna Park for $2,800 a month. The maximum security deposit you can legally collect is $2,800. Charge $5,600 under the old rule and you have created a lawsuit. Maryland law lets a tenant recover up to three times the overcharge plus attorney's fees. A $2,800 overcharge can turn into $8,400 of exposure plus legal costs. Tenants know this rule, and they are enforcing it.
A few other deposit rules that were already in effect but are worth repeating:
Deposits must sit in a Maryland financial institution, in a separate interest-bearing account, not commingled with your personal funds
If you hold a deposit longer than six months, you owe the tenant interest at 1.5% annually or the daily U.S. Treasury rate, whichever is higher
Deposits must be returned within 45 days of move-out with an itemized list of any deductions
The receipt you provide at lease signing has to explain the tenant's rights, including their right to be present at move-out inspection
If your existing leases still reference two months, update them now. If an active tenant paid a two-month deposit under a pre-October 2024 lease, the deposit itself is grandfathered. But any renewal or new lease must comply with the new cap.
The Tenants' Bill of Rights is now a required lease attachment
The Act created a new Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs inside Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development. One of its main jobs is publishing an annual Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights, a document summarizing every right a tenant has under state and federal law.
As of October 1, 2024, that document has to be attached to every new residential lease. Not a web link. Not a reference. The actual document, stapled to the lease.
The Bill of Rights itself does not grant new rights. It summarizes existing protections in one place. But the requirement to include it is new, and failing to attach it puts the lease at risk of being challenged. If you are writing your own leases or pulling a template from somewhere that has not been updated in two years, fix this before your next tenant signs.
The current version lives at dhcd.maryland.gov. Download the most recent version before every new lease signing because it gets updated periodically.
Evictions got slower and more expensive
Eviction in Maryland was already slow. HB 693 made it slower, costlier, and more tenant-friendly.
The court filing fee for a Failure to Pay Rent complaint jumped from $8 to $43 per case, not counting service costs. Small number in isolation. Across multiple units or repeated filings, it adds up. You can only pass that cost to the tenant if you win in court and your lease specifically allows it, and the recovery cannot exceed the tenant's security deposit anyway.
Eviction warrants now have a mandatory seven-day delay before execution. After a court enters judgment for possession in your favor, the warrant sits for a week. The tenant can use that time to pay what they owe or arrange to leave voluntarily. The law also requires courts to delay execution during extreme weather events.
Tenants can now band together as plaintiffs in a rent escrow action against a landlord. They could not do that before. Each tenant used to have to file separately. This procedural change makes group legal action against a landlord genuinely feasible for the first time.
Courts also now operate under a rebuttable presumption that a tenant is entitled to a hearing when they request rent abatement, and that they are entitled to prospective rent abatement when the landlord has failed to maintain the property. Combine that with the ability to recover attorney's fees, and habitability complaints have gotten expensive in a hurry.
The practical read: maintenance delays that used to be minor annoyances are now legal exposure. "I will get to it next week" is not a defensible position if a tenant files for rent abatement and wins. Document every request, every response, every repair.
The Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs
The Act created a new state agency whose primary job is helping tenants understand and enforce their rights. It publishes the annual Tenants' Bill of Rights, runs a portal for required legal notices like Right of First Refusal, and connects tenants with legal aid and financial counseling.
For tenants, it is a central resource. For landlords, it means there is now a state office specifically dedicated to walking tenants through how to challenge you. That is a neutral description, not a criticism. Tenants who previously had to navigate courts alone now have a state-backed on-ramp to pushing back.
The takeaway for Anne Arundel County landlords: compliance has to be automatic, not reactive. The old "I will deal with it if they complain" approach does not hold up anymore, because complaints now have a clean path to enforcement.
What Anne Arundel County landlords should do right now
If you own rental property in Anne Arundel County and you are self-managing, here is the practical list for 2026.
Audit every active lease. Confirm the security deposit collected does not exceed one month's rent for any lease signed on or after October 1, 2024. Older leases are grandfathered, but any renewal must comply.
Update your lease template. It has to include the current Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights as an attachment. Download the latest version from dhcd.maryland.gov before each lease signing.
Rewrite your security deposit receipt. It has to explain the tenant's rights: the right to request a move-in inspection, be present at move-out, receive itemized deductions, and have the remaining deposit returned within 45 days.
Document everything. Every maintenance request, every response time, every notice, every inspection. Given the new tenant-friendly presumptions in rent escrow actions, documentation is now your primary defense.
If you might sell, talk to someone before you list. The Right of First Refusal process has specific notice timelines and state forms. A misstep can delay your sale by months or open you up to litigation.
Register your rental with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Already required for lead paint compliance, but enforcement has tightened.
Small landlords are the ones getting caught
Big property management companies have legal teams and updated software handling all of this automatically. The landlords getting burned by the new rules are almost always self-managing owners with one to three properties. People who bought a rental years ago and have been coasting on old templates. Family members managing a relative's property. Second homes turned into rentals.
If that is you, this law is not optional reading. It is the biggest legal shift affecting your investment in 40 years, and enforcement is tightening, not loosening.
At Accurate Realty and Management, we have updated every lease, every security deposit receipt, every notice template, and every process to comply with HB 693. Our clients do not think about any of this because we handle it. If you are self-managing and you are not sure where you stand, the fastest way to find out is a free lease and compliance review. No obligation, takes about 30 minutes, and worst case you walk away confirming you are in good shape.
Sources and Further Reading
This post is general information, not legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, talk to a Maryland licensed attorney.
Herb Chisholm
Founder and Broker, Accurate Realty and Management
Herb Chisholm founded Accurate Realty and Management in 1995 after two decades with RE/MAX, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. He has been licensed to sell real estate in Maryland since 1983, and over 40+ years has helped more than 1,000 families buy, sell, and rent homes across Anne Arundel County. His team currently manages over 70 residential properties.
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