Several States, Including Maryland, Introduce Just Cause Eviction Protections This Legislative Session

Several states across the country have introduced legislation in 2025 to strengthen renters’ rights and protect tenants against arbitrary, discriminatory, and retaliatory eviction practices. Known commonly as “just cause” – or good cause – eviction standards, such laws limit the reasons for which a landlord can evict a tenant or refuse to renew a tenant’s lease when the tenant is not in violation of any law(s) or stipulations as outlined by a lease agreement. By establishing a well-defined set of reasons for which a landlord or property owner can evict a tenant, including for reasons such as nonpayment of rent or breach of a tenant’s lease, just cause eviction laws target both informal and formal eviction practices, reigning in illegal evictions that exist outside of a court of law and giving tenants a sense of stability during all stages of their lease term. Housing advocates in Connecticut, Hawai’i, Maryland, and Minnesota have introduced just cause bills this legislative session, hoping to join 11 other states (including the District of Columbia) and 27 local jurisdictions that have all passed similar protections for tenants in recent years.  

Evictions – or the forced displacement of a tenant – can have lasting and sometimes permanent consequences for tenants. Even when an eviction case does not result in a tenant vacating their residence under duress, the physical and mental impacts of an eviction can follow a tenant well into the future, even after securing new housing opportunities.  

According to a 2022 study published by the National Institutes of Health, researchers established a link between evictions and negative health outcomes, including stress, depression, and anxiety. For children, evictions – and even the initial risk of an eviction – can have long-term health effects including low birth weight, premature birth, and slowed cognitive development. Across space, evictions can have detrimental impacts on communities, especially in areas where eviction filings are clustered. Not only can evictions result in a loss of social cohesion for neighborhoods, but higher eviction rates can also result in an increased likelihood of violent crime occurring in residential areas, including robbery and burglary. 

Such circumstances contribute to a cycle of poverty and housing instability for tenants, especially for the lowest-income and most marginalized renters – including Black households – who are already at a higher risk of eviction threat. Out of the 2.7 million households that receive an eviction filing each year, Black renters comprise more than half (51.1%) of those who are threatened with an eviction filing, despite only accounting for only 18.6% of all renters in the country. In comparison, white households account for 26.3% of the population that is threatened with eviction, yet account for 50.5% of all renters. These numbers are more pronounced among Black women with children, who comprise 28.3% of all eviction filings making this group the highest of any race or gender to experience the threat of eviction.  

Just cause eviction laws are a critical anti-displacement tool to help tenants assert their rights against the threat of eviction. When just cause eviction laws are passed, they act as a mechanism for long-term housing stability in two primary ways. First, just cause laws ensure that tenants are aware of what rights exist for them during their lease term, which can give tenants a sense of security in knowing they cannot be evicted without cause. Second, just cause laws provide tenants who have been served with an eviction notice with a legal standing in court to fight for their tenancy if they are being evicted through no fault of their own. As noted in NLIHC’s “Just Cause Eviction Laws Toolkit” released in fall 2024, just cause laws offer tenants a number of benefits, including by: (1) protecting renters from evictions at no fault of their own; (2) delivering a sense of stability to tenants; (3) discouraging renters from self-evicting when they receive eviction notices from landlords; and (4) empowering tenants experiencing poor living conditions, discrimination, or other illegal landlord behavior to advocate for improvements with landlords or file complaints without fear of retaliation. 

In the State of Maryland, renter advocates in 2025 are hoping to enact just cause protections in eviction cases and lease holdovers and in turn, overturn an established state law that preempts the passage of such laws at the local or county level. Preemption laws and policies remove the power of cities, counties, and towns to enact certain laws, instead making it a power granted solely to the state. In Maryland, the introduction of “House Bill 709,” introduced by Delegate Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery) in the House of Representatives and “Senate Bill 651,” which was cosponsored by Senators C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s County) and Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard) in the Senate, would remove this preemption and allow counties, as well as the City of Baltimore, to enact their own good cause policies making such a right a reality after a decade’s worth of efforts to do so. Under Maryland’s proposed law, there are ten “good” cause reasons for eviction, including a substantial breach of the tenant’s lease terms, disorderly conduct, documented evidence of illegal activity, refusal of the tenant to grant a landlord access to the premise, among others. 

Efforts to enact just cause protections in Maryland are tenant-led and tenant-centered, with coordination efforts led by the Renters United Maryland coalition, a broad-based coalition of housing advocates supporting affordable housing initiatives and secure tenancies free from the threat of discrimination and harassment. The coalition is comprised of founding members, including Communities United, the Montgomery Country Renters Alliance, Inc., Jews United for Justice, and the Public Justice Center.  

Speaking to the importance of just cause protections for renters in Maryland, Detrese Dowridge, Executive Director of Baltimore Renters United said, “As a tenant organizer with years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand the unfair and unjust treatment that tenants often face. When tenants organize, raise legitimate concerns, or simply request necessary repairs, they are frequently met with the threat of lease non-renewal, often without any explanation. With “Just Cause” eviction protections in place we are hoping this would be the first step to bring an end to this systemic issue and will provide stronger protections.” 

If passed, Maryland’s just cause law would go into effect on October 1, 2025 and would allow cities and counties to opt-in to the law, much like in the State of New York. In 2024, the State of New York passed through its budget bill “Senate Bill 8306”/”Assembly Bill 8806” to allow localities to adopt their own good cause ordinances, though New York’s law includes exemptions embedded into the law for small landlords, rent regulated properties, “co-ops” and condos, and Section 8 delineated public housing properties. Maryland’s law would also require landlords to provide tenants with written notice of intent to terminate a lease. Though the notice period requirement varies based on the term length of the lease, for tenants with a typical year-to-year lease, 90 days' notice must be given. 

More information on Maryland’s just cause law can be found here. 

For more information on NLIHC’s efforts to track just cause protections – and tenant protections passed at the state and local levels, please visit NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protections Database, linked here.