Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Releases Statewide Tenants’ Bill of Rights

By Nada Hussein, NLIHC State and Local Research Analyst, Billy Cerullo, NLIHC Housing Advocacy Organizer, and Sasha Legagneur, NLIHC State and Local Innovation Intern 

In June, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD)  published a comprehensive “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” for renter households across the State of Maryland. Passed through a legal mandate under the “Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024”/”House Bill 0693,” the new state-level Tenants’ Bill of Rights, which also established the creation of an “Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs” under the Department of Housing and Community Development, seeks to ensure tenants are aware of their rights and protections over the duration of their lease terms. Starting July 1, 2025, landlords and property owners must provide tenants with the 8-page Bill of Rights document alongside their lease agreement. With the new Tenants’ Bill of Rights taking effect, Maryland becomes the only state-level jurisdiction to have mandated the creation of a bill of rights document be made available to tenants, ensuring in perpetuity that renter households have a clear understanding of their rights and responsibilities. 

As mandated by “House Bill 0693,” the newly enacted Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs will oversee enforcement of the Tenants’ Bill of Rights, including providing tenants with educational materials and support accessing assistance related to their rental terms. Alyce Thompson will oversee the department. Thompson worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for 12 years, overseeing attorneys who provided counsel on HUD grant programs. The support that the newly created office will provide includes providing landlords and tenants with information on the state’s “Right of First Refusal” law, which was also passed as a provision under “House Bill 0693” and took effect in October 2024.

During the 2024 legislative session, state lawmakers passed primary sponsor Delegate Nick Allen’s (HD-008) “House Bill 0693” to require landlords and property owners to provide tenants with the “right of first refusal” or chance to purchase a property before the landlord or property owner lists it for sale to a third party. Under the law, a landlord or property owner who has received an offer to purchase property from a third party must provide the tenant residing in the unit with a first-chance opportunity to make a purchase offer. The law stipulates that a landlord cannot accept an outside offer until the tenant is provided notice of their right of first refusal and that the tenant is given thirty days to respond to the sale notice. As detailed by Local Housing Solutions in 2021, right of first refusal protections benefit renter households in two distinct ways, including by (1) preserving housing availability by allowing a tenant to purchase the property when listed for sale and (2) ensuring that the rental housing market is spared from predatory actors, including large corporations, institutional investors, and third parties seeking to monetize on the private rental market. 

Through the new state-level Tenants’ Bill of Rights, there are nine distinct categories applicable to renter households, including information on: (1) rental applications, (2) leases and tenancies, (3) rent, (4) security deposits, (5) condition of rental units, (6) eviction, (7) constructive evictions, (8) tenants’ “Right of First Refusal,” and (9) prohibited acts by landlords. One of the key components of the bill as a whole is to emphasize that tenants have a right to a peaceful existence in their units. To that degree, the law mandates that units meet reasonable habitability standards and offers tenants options if landlords fail to comply, such as filing in the District Court and requesting a lower rent or filing for rent escrow.  

The new statewide Tenants’ Bill of Rights also aims to limit predatory landlord behavior and unnecessary fees. Provisions include limiting late fees to 5% or less of the rent amount, standardizing the amount of money landlords can request when a tenant signs a lease to one month’s worth of rent and the security deposit, and prohibiting landlords who manage five or more rental units from charging more than $25 in application fees, not including the security deposit.  

Furthermore, the document emphasizes the importance of landlords and tenants having knowledge of their rights, which is vital in closing information gaps and protecting renters. It confirms that leases cannot include language that relinquishes tenants’ legal rights, mandates landlords tell renters about their security deposit rights, and guarantees the right to be present and represented in any eviction case in which the tenant is the defendant—commonly known under laws that support access to counsel or legal representation in matters applicable to rental agreements. The new bill document is available in 18 languages and must be provided to tenants in the language of their preference. 

Finally, the new Tenants’ Bill of Rights document also offers several additional resources that tenants can access for support, including contact information for the newly created Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs, as well as the state’s “Access to Counsel in Evictions Program,” which provides legal representation and advice to renter households at risk of eviction who meet the program’s income eligibility requirement of being at or below 50% of the state’s Area Median Income (AMI), which is $40,070 for a family size of 1.  

With Maryland becoming the first state-level jurisdiction to mandate the inclusion of a Tenants’ Bill of Rights document alongside a tenant’s lease agreement, housing and tenant advocacy efforts in Minnesota led legal services providers in 2024 to publish a Tenant Bill of Rights as an advocacy tool for informing tenants of their rights (see Memo 7/1/2024). Both states have made groundbreaking progress in ensuring renters are protected and are setting the foundation for strengthening renters’ rights in a concerted, actionable manner, with Minnesota’s advocacy tool building off NLIHC’s 2024 National Tenants Bill of Rights platform. 

In 2024, NLIHC, alongside the National Housing Law Project and Tenant Union Federation, released a comprehensive “National Tenants’ Bill of Rights” outlining the rights that should be enshrined to tenants at the federal level to protect against arbitrary, discriminatory, and retaliatory rental practices that put renters at a heightened risk of eviction and housing instability. NLIHC’s Tenant Bill of Rights (TBOR) provides a model for federal implementation of a comprehensive set of tenant protections. The pillars of NLIHC’s Tenant Bill of Rights include the right to a fair application, fair lease, freedom from discrimination and harassment, a habitable home, reasonable rent and costs, organizing, and safeguards against eviction. To endorse NLIHC’s TBOR, please click here.  

In Maryland, the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs will release an updated version of the Tenant Bill of Rights by September 1 of each year, to be implemented on the first day of October. The newer version will reflect any updates in state or federal laws, as well as input from housing professionals and renters. 

More information on Maryland’s new Tenants’ Bill of Rights can be found here.