Maryland Eviction Process for Landlords

To evict a tenant in Maryland, you file one of three District Court cases, and each one starts with a written notice. For unpaid rent you give a 10-day notice of intent to file (plus a 30-day notice to vacate for CARES Act covered properties); for a lease violation you give 30 days' notice (14 days if the tenant's conduct is a clear and imminent danger); and to end a lease or month-to-month tenancy you usually give 60 days' notice to quit. After you win, only a sheriff or constable can remove the tenant, under a court warrant of restitution, and in a rent case the tenant can usually stop the eviction by paying the remaining court-determined amount plus awarded costs and fees before it happens.

Which eviction case fits your situation?

All three cases go to the District Court in the county where the property sits. If your county requires a rental license, the complaint must list the license, and you must bring proof of it to court. Federal law also requires you to state facts about whether each tenant is in the military; the District Court points landlords to the Defense Manpower Data Center site for this check.

Steps in a failure to pay rent case

1. Serve the required notices. Use form DC-CV-115 for Maryland's 10-day notice. It counts as given when you send it by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, post it on the door, or send it by email, text, or tenant portal if the tenant chose electronic notice. Wait the full 10 days before filing. For CARES Act covered properties, including rentals with federally backed mortgages or qualifying federal housing assistance, you must also give at least 30 days' notice to vacate. Maryland's 10-day notice alone does not satisfy that federal requirement.
2. File the complaint. Form DC-CV-082 is a sworn complaint stating the rent per period, the due date, the rent and late fees owed, and the date you gave the 10-day notice. The filing fee is $50 ($60 in Baltimore City).
3. Serve the tenant and go to trial. The sheriff or constable serves the summons. Posting it on the property is enough for a judgment for possession, but a money judgment for back rent requires personal service. The statute sets trial for the fifth day after filing; the summons states the actual date. If the tenant pays the full amount due and costs at trial, the court marks the complaint satisfied and the case ends.
4. Request the warrant of restitution. File form DC-CV-081 no sooner than 7 business days after judgment. You must request the warrant within 60 days of the judgment (or the end of any stay), or the judgment for possession is stricken. A signed warrant in a rent case expires 60 days after the judge signs it unless the court orders otherwise.
5. Give notice of the eviction date. See the next section.
6. Attend the eviction. The sheriff or constable must be present, and an eviction cannot take place on a Sunday or a holiday. The eviction-date notice must warn tenants that belongings left inside can be lost and that local practices on disposing of them vary, so check your county's rules before eviction day.

How the tenant's right of redemption works

In a rent case, the tenant can stop the eviction before it is carried out by paying the rent and late fees the court determined were due, plus court-awarded costs and fees. Credit any payments made since that determination. Payment must be in cash, certified check, or money order, and a check from a government agency on the tenant's behalf counts the same.

The court can deny redemption only when the tenant has had three judgments for possession for unpaid rent in the 12 months before your case (four in Baltimore City). A judgment that was stricken because you never requested the warrant within 60 days can still count toward that limit.

Breach of lease and holdover cases have no redemption right. In those cases, taking a payment after you serve the notice does not cancel your notice or judgment unless you and the tenant agree otherwise in writing. Payments go first to rent through the date you recover the unit, then to court costs and fees.

Breach of lease and holding over cases

Breach of lease. This route requires an unexpired lease for a stated term that allows you to repossess the unit before the term ends for a breach. Your written notice must state that the tenant is violating the lease and that you want to repossess the unit. After the 30 days (or 14 days) pass and the tenant has not complied, file form DC-CV-085. To win, you must show the tenant breached the lease, the breach was substantial, and it warrants eviction. Keep dated records of each violation and every notice you send.

Holding over. Use this case when a lease ends, or you end a month-to-month tenancy, and the tenant stays. The court must find that the tenancy ended, you gave proper notice to quit, and the tenant refused to leave. A tenant who holds over owes at least the prorated rent for the holdover period. For how to time and word the termination notice, see how to end a month-to-month rental agreement.

In both cases, a tenant who appeals within 10 days and wants to stay in the unit during the appeal must file an affidavit that the appeal is not for delay and a bond covering the rent owed and court costs.

Notice of the eviction date and the 2025 changes

Since October 1, 2025 (House Bill 767), you must give the tenant written notice of the scheduled eviction date at least 6 days before the sheriff's scheduled date, in all three case types, subject to the local deadlines below. You must send it by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, post it on the front door, and take a date-stamped photo of the posted notice. You must also send it by email or text if you know or have on file the tenant's email address or cellphone number. The notice must include:

• The District Court case number, the tenant's name as stated in the case, and the address.
• The date the warrant was ordered and the scheduled eviction date.
• A statement that eviction may occur unless the tenant returns possession to you or, in a rent case, exercises an available right of redemption.
• The amount still due to redeem if that right applies.
• A statement that this remains the final notice even if the eviction is stayed (put on hold) for any reason.
• The statutory warning about possible loss of belongings and varying local disposal rules, including how to seek legal advice by calling 211 for a referral or contacting the District Court Help Center at 410-260-1392 or mdcourts.gov/helpcenter.
• Your phone number, email address, and mailing address.

You may charge the tenant up to $5 for the notice. If the sheriff believes notice was not given, the eviction stops until the court rules, and the court vacates the warrant if notice was not given. Counties can set the period anywhere from 4 to 14 days. Montgomery County passed Bill 31-25 in December 2025, which requires 14 days' notice to both the tenant and the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Anne Arundel County also requires at least 14 days' notice to the tenant, effective July 1, 2026; that county rule does not apply within the City of Annapolis.

What the Renters' Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024 changed

The Renters' Rights and Stabilization Act took effect October 1, 2024. For landlords filing evictions, it changed five things:

• Higher filing fees. A rent case costs $50 ($60 in Baltimore City), up from $15 ($25). A breach of lease or holdover case costs $56 ($66 in Baltimore City).
• No passing fees to the tenant. You can recover the filing fee only if you win a judgment for possession and the lease allows you to deduct it from the security deposit. No other lease clause can make the tenant pay it.
• Longer wait for the warrant. The gap between judgment and the warrant of restitution went from 4 days to 7.
• Extreme weather stays. The court must stay an eviction when the temperature is, or is forecast to be, 32 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, or during a winter storm, blizzard, hurricane, tropical storm, or excessive heat warning. The eviction must then be carried out within 5 days after the conditions end.
• Lower security deposits. Deposits are capped at one month's rent for most tenancies. See Maryland security deposit laws for the return rules after move-out.

Under Maryland's Access to Counsel in Evictions law, the sheriff or constable also hands the tenant a pamphlet about free legal help along with the summons in all three case types.

What you cannot do: lockouts and shutoffs

Maryland Real Property 8-216 bars you from taking or threatening to take possession by changing locks or any other means outside the court process, even against a holdover tenant. Cutting off heat, water, hot water, electricity, or gas to force the tenant out also counts as an illegal eviction. The only lawful ways to retake the unit are a warrant carried out by a sheriff or constable, or the tenant's abandonment or surrender of the unit. A tenant who proves a violation can recover actual damages plus reasonable attorney's fees.

If the tenant appears to have left, document the abandonment before entering, and follow the rules in how to handle personal property abandoned by a tenant. Before filing a rent case, also confirm that open repair requests are handled under Maryland maintenance and repair obligations. For a general overview of court eviction steps in any state, see the steps for eviction proceedings.