Understanding Your Lease Rights in Maryland

A Maryland lease must state whether the home will be fit to live in, spell out who handles heat, gas, electricity, water, and repairs, include a receipt for your security deposit, and attach the current Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights (Real Property section 8-208). The same law voids lease clauses that waive your legal rights or a jury trial, set a late fee above 5% of the overdue rent, or shorten notice periods the law sets. To end a tenancy, a landlord generally must give 60 days' written notice and you must give 30, and you can leave early with capped rent liability for military orders, abuse, or qualifying medical conditions.

What must a Maryland lease include?

Every written lease must contain four things:

1. The condition of the home. A statement that the unit will be available in a condition permitting habitation with reasonable safety, or, if you agreed to something else, a statement of that agreement.
2. Who handles utilities and repairs. The landlord's and your specific obligations for heat, gas, electricity, water, and repairs.
3. A security deposit receipt. It must explain your inspection rights and the landlord's 45-day deadline to return the deposit.
4. The Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights. A copy of the most current version, published by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

The lease, or a sign posted in a noticeable place on the property, must also give contact information for the landlord or for the agent authorized to receive notices and court papers on the landlord's behalf, according to the Bill of Rights.

A landlord that offers 5 or more units for rent in Maryland must use a written lease. If it rents to you without one, your tenancy is presumed to last 1 year from the day you first moved in, and you can end it sooner with 1 month's written notice. Before you apply, you can ask in writing for a copy of the landlord's lease form, and the landlord must provide it without making you sign anything or pay a deposit. Local laws can add requirements but cannot reduce these rights. For a walk-through of the parts every lease shares, see understanding your lease terms.

What is the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights?

The Bill of Rights is a 17-page summary of state tenant law written by DHCD's Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs, not by your landlord. DHCD updates it every year, and the current version took effect October 1, 2026. Landlords must attach the latest version to every residential lease. It covers applications, lease and notice rules, rent, utilities, deposits, repairs, and evictions. If your lease arrived without it, ask the landlord for the current version or download it from DHCD, and call the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs at 855-511-3423 with questions.

A rental built before 1978 comes with a second state notice. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) requires the landlord to give you its Notice of Tenant's Rights, the EPA brochure "Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home," and a copy of the unit's lead inspection certificate on or before move-in day. Federal rules set an earlier deadline for covered pre-1978 rentals: the landlord must provide the EPA brochure and all available lead records and reports before you sign the lease. Your right to habitable housing in Maryland explains what to do if paint later chips or peels.

Which lease clauses are void in Maryland?

Among the provisions a Maryland landlord may not put in a lease:

• Confession of judgment, meaning you agree in advance to let the landlord win a claim arising from the lease.
• Waivers of any right or remedy the law gives you, including your right to a jury trial.
• A late fee above 5% of the unpaid rent for that rental period. On weekly rent, the cap is $3 a week and $12 a month.
• A shorter notice period than the law requires before the landlord can end your tenancy. A longer one is allowed.
• Self-help, meaning permission for the landlord to take back the unit or your belongings without going to court, unless the lease has ended and you abandoned the property.
• Retaliation, meaning permission to file for eviction or send a notice to quit (a written notice ending your tenancy) solely because you helped plan, organize, or join a tenant organization.
• Electronic-only notice, a requirement that you accept rent increase notices by email, text, or portal.
• Limits or penalties for calling the police or emergency services.
• Move-in charges above the deposit plus the first month's rent. Your deposit itself is generally capped at one month's rent; Maryland security deposit rights covers the exceptions.

Maryland separately voids any clause that makes you cover the landlord's losses or excuses it from liability for injury or damage caused by its own negligence in places you do not exclusively control, such as hallways, stairways, and elevators.

A banned clause cannot be enforced against you. If the landlord gives you a lease containing one, or tries or threatens to enforce it, you can recover your actual damages, including reasonable attorney's fees.

Example: your rent is $1,600. If none of it is paid on time, the highest late fee allowed is 5% of $1,600, or $80. If you paid $1,000 and $600 is still unpaid, the cap is 5% of $600, or $30.

For clauses that are legal but can still cost you, see red flag lease clauses to watch for.

How do you get a move-in condition list?

State law gives you the right to a written list of damage that already exists when you move in, but you have to ask for it. Your deposit receipt must tell you that the landlord will inspect the unit with you present and write up that list if you request it by certified mail within 15 days after you move in.

1. Within 15 days of moving in, mail the landlord a certified letter asking for the move-in inspection.
2. Walk through with the landlord and make sure each existing problem, such as stains, cracks, or broken fixtures, goes on the written list.
3. Keep the list and the certified mail receipt with your lease, along with dated photos of every room.

The list gives you a dated record to compare against any damage the landlord claims when you leave. A landlord that gives you no written deposit receipt owes you $25.

How do Maryland leases renew and end?

Automatic renewal. If your lease renews automatically unless someone gives notice, the renewal clause must be set apart from the other terms, with a space for you to acknowledge it. A landlord cannot enforce an automatic renewal clause that does not carry your initials, signature, or witnessed mark. This rule does not cover clauses that renew for periods of 1 month or less, such as a rollover to month-to-month.

Notice from the landlord. Under Real Property section 8-402, a landlord that wants you to leave when the tenancy ends must give you written notice at least this far ahead:

If you stay after a proper notice, the landlord has to file in District Court; Maryland eviction protections explains what happens next.

Notice from you. The Bill of Rights says you must give at least 30 days' written notice to end a lease with a set term or a month-to-month tenancy, or more if your lease requires it. A year-to-year tenancy takes 90 days' notice, except in Baltimore City, where 30 days is enough.

If no one gives notice. Depending on its terms, your lease renews or turns month-to-month. If you stay after the term ends with the landlord's consent, you become a month-to-month tenant unless your written lease says otherwise in a clause you initialed.

Rent increases. The landlord must tell you in writing at least 90 days before a rent increase if your lease term is longer than 1 month, and at least 60 days before if you rent month-to-month. The notice goes by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, or by email, text, or tenant portal only if you chose electronic delivery. These rules do not apply when the landlord instead gives you notice ending the tenancy. Maryland has no statewide limit on how much the rent can rise at renewal; any cap would come from a county or city law.

Example: your 1-year lease ends July 31. To raise the rent starting August 1, the landlord must give you written notice by May 3, 90 days earlier. To end your tenancy at the end of the term instead, it must give notice by June 1, 60 days before July 31.

How can you end a Maryland lease early?

State law caps what you owe in these situations, and no lease clause can take these rights away.

Military orders (Real Property section 8-212.1). If you are an active service member, or the spouse of one, and the service member receives a change of assignment after you sign the lease, the most you owe is the rent and lawful charges already due and payable, plus 30 days' rent after you give the landlord written notice and proof of the orders, plus the cost of repairing damage you caused. This covers permanent change of station orders, temporary duty orders over 90 days, orders to move into on-base quarters, and release from active duty, such as retirement or separation under honorable conditions.

Abuse (Real Property sections 8-5A-02 and 8-5A-03). If you or another lawful occupant of the unit is a victim of abuse, send the landlord a written notice of your intent to move, by first-class mail or hand delivery, that says you or the occupant is a victim of abuse and includes one of these:

• A copy of a final protective order or peace order, the court orders that bar an abuser from contacting or harming you.
• A report from a qualified third party, such as a doctor, psychologist, social worker, or domestic violence advocate, signed by that professional within the past 60 days, with their signature notarized. It must name the tenant or occupant, state that they are a victim seeking help because of abuse, and give the incident's date, time, location, and brief description. It must include the professional's employer name and address and, if licensing is required, licensing authority and license number. The tenant or occupant must also sign and acknowledge it under penalty of perjury. Black out the abuser's name and physical description in the copy you give the landlord.

You then have up to 30 days to move. If you leave sooner than 30 days, give the landlord a signed, notarized notice that you have moved out, by first-class mail or hand delivery; without it, you owe rent for the full 30 days. Your rent after the initial notice runs through the move-out notice's postmark date or hand-delivery date, up to the 30-day cap. Sending it after you physically leave can increase what you owe.

Medical conditions (Real Property section 8-212.2). Rent after you move out is capped at 2 months if you or another named tenant or authorized occupant can no longer live there because of a qualifying medical condition. It must substantially restrict mobility within, into, or out of the home, require a move for a higher level of care than the home can provide, or be a mental disorder that makes continued residence unfeasible or unsustainable. Before leaving, give the landlord written termination notice with your move-out date and a certification in substantially the statute's form from a Maryland-licensed physician or psychologist, signed on their letterhead or printed prescription form. The certification must confirm the condition is expected to last beyond the lease's end date. If your lease already allows termination with no more than 1 month's written notice and no more than 2 months' rent after moving out, that clause applies instead.

Without a legal right to leave early. You stay responsible for rent through the end of the lease, but the landlord has a duty to mitigate, meaning it must take steps to limit its losses, such as re-renting the unit. It does not have to rent your unit ahead of its other vacancies. If it sublets your unit and the new tenant stops paying, you remain liable for the unpaid rent through your original term, as long as the landlord promptly tells you about the default. A lease cannot waive these rules. Before you move, ask the landlord in writing whether it will release you or accept a replacement tenant, and keep its answer.

If a serious problem the landlord will not fix forces you out, the Bill of Rights describes constructive eviction: you may owe no further rent if you can show the landlord caused or failed to fix a major problem, you told it, you gave it reasonable time, and you moved out within a reasonable time afterward. It advises talking with a lawyer before you move.