What must a Maryland landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

A written agreement is required only in the circumstances the rules state. No statute requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of the lease.

A landlord who offers five or more dwelling units for rent in the State may not rent without a written lease; a landlord at or below that line may rent on an oral agreement. Where the mandate is broken, the term is presumed to be one year from the tenant's first occupancy, and only the tenant may cut it short, on one month's written notice. A lease for an estate above seven years needs a recorded deed. On written request from any prospective applicant, a landlord who rents using a written lease must hand over a copy of the proposed form of lease, complete in every material detail except the date, the tenant's name and address, the description of the premises and the rent, without requiring the applicant to sign anything or pay a deposit (section 8-208, subsection b). No period is stated for that delivery, and no statute requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of the lease the parties actually signed. Maryland requires no lease or notice in a language other than English and prescribes no type size.

Statute of frauds: Maryland's writing formality is not the usual one-year line. No estate above seven years passes or takes effect unless the deed granting it is executed and recorded (section 5-101, subsection a), and no leasehold may be assigned, granted or surrendered except in writing signed by the party or a lawfully authorized agent (section 5-102). For ordinary residential terms the operative command is not the statute of frauds at all but the five-or-more-units mandate in section 8-208, subsection a.

Format and plain-language rules: Maryland prescribes no type size, no boldface rule and no plain-language act for residential leases. It prescribes one placement-and-signature formality: except where the automatic renewal period is one month or less, an automatic-renewal clause must be distinctly set apart from every other provision of the lease and must provide a space for the tenant's written acknowledgment, and a renewal clause not accompanied by the tenant's initials, signature or witnessed mark is unenforceable by the landlord (section 8-208, subsection e).

Electronic leases and signatures: Title 8 of the Real Property article neither authorizes nor forbids signing a residential lease electronically; Maryland's uniform electronic transactions act sits outside it, at section 21-101 and following of the Commercial Law article, and that article's application to a residential lease is not addressed anywhere in the landlord-tenant title. Title 8's one electronic-delivery provision runs the other way: a lease may not require the tenant to accept a rent-increase notice under section 8-209 or section 8-401 by electronic delivery, so that clause is prohibited. From October 1, 2026 the rent-reporting offer may be delivered electronically only where the tenant has already elected to receive notices from the landlord that way. No Maryland disclosure may be served electronically by default.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease or by posting on the premises.

The landlord of any residential rental property must either include in a written lease or post a sign in a conspicuous place on the property listing the name, address and telephone number of the landlord, or of the person authorized to accept notice or service of process for the landlord (section 8-210, subsection a). The choice between the lease clause and the sign is the landlord's, the telephone number is mandatory either way, and the statute is satisfied by naming the authorized person instead of the owner. No threshold applies: the words are any residential rental property, unlike the five-unit line that governs whether a written lease is required at all. The consequence of a failure is neither a fine nor a fee but a service rule running against the landlord: notice or service of process is deemed proper if the tenant sends it to the person the rent is paid to, to the address where the rent is paid, or to the address where the tax bill is sent. Maryland has no statewide landlord or rental registration for ordinary residential rentals. Owners of pre-1978 rental property register with the Department of the Environment under the lead regime, and that registration is described in the lead rows; a 2026 bill to create an investor-owned single-family landlord registry died.

Yes — Maryland does both things: it prescribes a general tenant-rights document that must be inside every lease, and it prescribes lease contents. The document is the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights, published by the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs and attached in its most current version. The contents are the habitability statement, the utility and repair obligations, the deposit receipt and the Bill of Rights itself, joined by the identity clause, the utility-responsibility notice and, in Montgomery County, the enforceability statement. What Maryland never does is fix the words: every lease-content command in the title states required substance, and no sentence, type size or boldface rule exists anywhere in it. There is no agency model lease, and nothing requires the landlord to tell the tenant where the landlord-tenant law can be read, because the attached Bill of Rights does that work. Two figures a landlord must calculate and state are listed here without counting toward the count above, because each arises only where the landlord chooses a billing practice, and the rent-reporting offer form the Secretary is directed to prescribe does not exist yet.

Required items:

Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights — a state-prescribed document to be handed over or attached; issued by the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs, Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Every lease must contain a copy of the most current version of the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights published by the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs in the Department of Housing and Community Development (section 8-208, subsection c, item 4). The document summarizes the rights and remedies residential tenants already have under State and federal law and carries the Office's contact details. The statute requires the current version, so a landlord must move to each new edition as it appears. The department's own page tells landlords to attach the current version to every lease, to use the most recently published version, and not to alter it in any way; that last instruction is the department's guidance, not statutory text. Nothing in the section states a penalty for leaving it out. Revision: The face of the document is stamped Effective October 1, 2025, and that is the current edition: the department's page describes an annual cycle with a new version published by October 1 each year, while the statute sets a June 1 publication deadline. The English file on the department's site carries a file date of June 18, 2026, and the Spanish, French and Tagalog files carry the same minute, which is a re-posting of the same edition rather than a new one. No 2026 edition had appeared as of September 11, 2026. Given at signing and when the information changes, attached to the lease. Languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Amharic, Russian, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Burmese, Dari, Pashto, Swahili, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, Urdu. Agency page. (§ 8-208(c)(4))

Habitability, utility and repair statements in the lease — words or content the lease itself must carry. Every lease must state that the premises will be made available in a condition permitting habitation with reasonable safety, if that is the agreement, and if it is not, must state what the agreement about the condition of the premises actually is; and every lease must state the landlord's and the tenant's specific obligations as to heat, gas, electricity, water and repair of the premises (section 8-208, subsection c, items 1 and 2). Maryland fixes the subjects, never the words: there is no prescribed sentence anywhere in the title. The section states no penalty for omitting a required content, and the damages remedy for a prohibited clause does not reach a content that is simply missing. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. (§ 8-208(c)(1)–(2))

Montgomery County condominium and community rules packet — a document the landlord must supply that no agency publishes. In Montgomery County only, and before a tenant signs a lease with an initial term of 125 days or more, the owner of residential rental property inside a condominium or a development must give the prospective tenant, to the extent applicable, a copy of the rules, the declaration and the recorded covenants and restrictions that limit or affect the use and occupancy of the property or the common areas and that bind the owner. The lease must also state, where applicable, that those obligations of the owner are enforceable against the owner's tenant. The documents are the community's own; no agency publishes a form, and the section states no penalty. Given before signing, handed over. Threshold: Montgomery County only, and only for a lease with an initial term of 125 days or more. (§ 8-210(b)(3))

Listed, but not a general duty counted above:

Average monthly utility bill where costs are allocated by ratio — a figure the landlord must compute and state in the lease. A landlord who bills tenants for a utility by allocating a master-metered charge must give every prospective tenant, in writing, an eight-item packet that includes the average monthly bill for all dwelling units in the property in the previous calendar year, by utility. The figure is one item of the packet described in the utility and fee row. Because the duty arises only where the landlord chooses to bill by allocation, it is listed here without counting toward the count above. Given before signing, handed over. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Computation: The landlord averages the monthly bill across all dwelling units in the property over the previous calendar year, separately for each utility billed by allocation. The statute states no fallback for a property with no full previous calendar year of bills, and the packet must also carry copies of the landlord's last two bills, which is the figure a reader can check it against. Threshold: A landlord offering two or more dwelling units for rent on one parcel; condominiums and cooperative projects are excluded. (§ 8-212.4(c)(1)(v)) Not counted as a general duty.

Prior-year utility total in a building of six or more units — a figure the landlord must compute and state in the lease. A landlord of a building of six or more residential units who requires the tenant to pay water, sewer, gas or electric charges to the landlord must either hand the tenant a copy of each bill or, before the beginning of the initial lease and each term after it, tell the tenant in writing the total utility costs billed to the landlord in the immediately preceding year, broken out by utility type. The written total is the alternative the landlord may choose instead of passing on the bills, so it is listed here without counting toward the count above. Given before signing and on renewal, handed over. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Computation: The landlord totals the water, sewer, gas and electric costs billed to the landlord in the year immediately preceding, disaggregated by utility type, and states the figures before the initial lease begins and again before each term after it. The section states no fallback for a building with no full preceding year, and no penalty. Threshold: Buildings of six or more residential dwelling units where the tenant pays the landlord; it does not reach a tenant who pays the utility provider directly or a building billed by ratio allocation. (§ 8-205.1(c)(2)(ii)) Not counted as a general duty.

Positive rental payment history offer form — a document the statute orders an agency to prescribe that the agency has not yet published; issued by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. From October 1, 2026 a landlord that owns six or more residential rental units in the State must include in a written lease the option to have the tenant's positive rental payment history reported to at least one consumer reporting agency, and must make the offer in the form specified in regulations the Secretary of Housing and Community Development is directed to adopt. No such regulations have been adopted and no form exists, so the form limb of the duty is not operative even after the section itself takes effect. The statute already fixes the offer's eight contents, its delivery methods and a fee ceiling of ten dollars a month, all described in the utility and fee row. The section states no penalty. Given at signing and annually, delivered electronically or on paper. Threshold: A landlord that owns six or more residential rental units in the State. The prescribing section. (§ 8-208.4(e), (j)) Not counted: the document does not exist yet.

Lease contents the statutes or rules address, each in the circumstance it names:

• A statement that the premises will be made available in a condition permitting habitation with reasonable safety, if that is the agreement, or a statement of what the agreement about the condition of the premises is (section 8-208, subsection c, item 1).

• The landlord's and the tenant's specific obligations as to heat, gas, electricity, water and repair of the premises (section 8-208, subsection c, item 2).

• A receipt for the security deposit meeting section 8-203.1, which itself must notify the tenant of the move-in inspection right and six other rights (section 8-208, subsection c, item 3; only where a deposit is taken).

• A copy of the most current version of the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights (section 8-208, subsection c, item 4).

• The name, address and telephone number of the landlord or of the person authorized to accept notice or service of process, unless a conspicuous sign is posted on the property instead (section 8-210, subsection a).

• In a building of six or more units where the tenant pays the landlord for water, sewer, gas or electric service, notice that the tenant is responsible for making those payments to the landlord (section 8-205.1, subsection c, item 1).

• The same notice in a building of five or fewer units (section 8-205.2, subsection c, item 1).

• In Montgomery County, on a lease with an initial term of 125 days or more inside a condominium or development, a statement that the owner's use-and-occupancy obligations are enforceable against the tenant (section 8-210, subsection b, item 3).

• An automatic-renewal clause, where one is used, distinctly set apart from every other provision with a space for the tenant's written acknowledgment, unless the renewal period is one month or less (section 8-208, subsection e).

No report is required, but the landlord must tell the tenant of the right the statute gives, stated here.

Maryland has no standalone move-in condition report, checklist or inventory. What it has is a duty to tell the tenant, in writing and inside the lease, that the option exists. The lease must contain a security-deposit receipt meeting section 8-203.1, and that receipt must notify the tenant of the right to have the unit inspected by the landlord in the tenant's presence for the purpose of making a written list of the damages that exist at the beginning of the tenancy, if the tenant asks by certified mail within fifteen days of occupancy. A tenant who posts a surety bond instead of a deposit has the identical right (section 8-203, subsection i, item 5). The inspection and the written list therefore happen only on request, the tenant signs nothing, and the whole chain depends on a deposit or a bond being taken: no deposit, no receipt, no notice. A landlord who fails to give a written deposit receipt is liable to the tenant for twenty-five dollars, and must keep the receipt for two years. Maryland gives no right to see the previous tenant's damage list. The move-out side is the expensive one: failing to give the move-out inspection notice forfeits the right to withhold any part of the deposit for damages, and that rule is on the deposits page.

When and who signs: The notice travels inside the deposit receipt, which the lease itself must contain, so it reaches the tenant at signing. The inspection it offers happens only if the tenant asks by certified mail within fifteen days of occupancy.

Deposit notice at signing: The lease's security-deposit receipt required by section 8-203.1 must state seven rights, among them the move-in and move-out inspection rights, the forty-five-day itemization and return deadlines and the up-to-threefold penalty; the deposit rules themselves are in section 8-203 and on the deposits page.

Four in-force state hazard disclosures: Notice of Tenant's Rights and inspection certificate (at signing and on a transfer of the property); mold (at signing and on request); private well water quality (at signing and when the event the section names occurs); and pet policy (at application and before signing). Also on the books: lead rental registry — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant; no state duty exists for bed bugs, radon, methamphetamine, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Notice of Tenant's Rights and inspection certificate — in force — a state duty, at signing and on a transfer of the property, on an agency document (a statute and an administrative rule). This is the most elaborate state lead add-on in the country, and none of it duplicates the federal rule. The owner of an affected property must give the tenant a notice prepared by the Department of the Environment, setting out the tenant's rights under the lead subtitle, when the lease is executed or the tenancy begins, and must include with that notice a copy of the current verified inspection certificate for the property. The notice must be given again at least every two years after it was last given, and a person who has acquired or will acquire an affected property must give it either before legal title transfers or within fifteen days after. Delivery is by certified mail with return receipt requested, or by a method the Department approves; the approved methods are defined by regulation as any method in which written receipt may be acknowledged by the recipient, an agent or a representative. The owner must also provide documentation of the notice back to the Department, which makes this the one Maryland lease disclosure reported to a State agency. Where there is no written lease, the notice goes to whoever the property was rented to. Threshold: Affected property: a property built before 1950 containing at least one rental dwelling unit, and since January 1, 2015 a property built before 1978 containing at least one rental unit, plus any residential rental property whose owner opts in. An individual rental unit inside a multifamily dwelling is itself an affected property. Document: Notice of Tenant's Rights, issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. Revision: Revised 8/2025, as printed in the footer of the document; the file served on the department's site carries a file date of August 14, 2025, which matches the printed revision. Published in English only. Agency page. In force since February 24, 1996. If the duty is not met: The lead subtitle carries its own enforcement, and section 8-215 of the Real Property article gives a tenant of an affected property whose owner has not met the risk reduction standards an immediate release from the lease together with relocation expenses of up to two thousand five hundred dollars.

Lead rental registry — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant, annually, in writing (a statute). The owner of an affected property must register it with the Department of the Environment on the Department's forms, giving the owner's name and address, the property address, the name and address of each property manager employed by the owner, the name and address of each insurer providing property or lead hazard coverage together with the policy numbers, a resident agent or contact person in the State, whether the property was built before 1950 or after 1949, the date of the latest change in occupancy, the treatment dates and the date of the latest compliance certification. The Department's own page states that renewal is due annually by December 31 with a fee of thirty dollars a unit. The registered information is open to the public, except that the Department may not disclose an owner's inventory or list of properties. Nothing about the registration itself reaches the tenant; the tenant-facing document is the Notice of Tenant's Rights described in the row above. Threshold: The same affected-property scope as the notice row: pre-1950 property with a rental unit, pre-1978 property since January 1, 2015, and opt-in properties. The section states no penalty for a failure.

Mold — in force — a state duty, at signing and on request, in a separate document (a statute). Since July 1, 2025 a landlord must give the mold pamphlet described in section 6-1702 of the Environment article to each tenant in a rental unit on the landlord's property, both at the time the lease or rental agreement is signed and on a tenant's request, and must ask the tenant to sign a statement acknowledging receipt. The tenant is not obliged to sign, and nothing follows from a refusal. No unit threshold applies and the section states no penalty. The Department of the Environment has not published a Maryland pamphlet or the centralized mold website the section directs it to develop, and the same section expressly lets the Department use the federal environmental agency's brief guide to mold, moisture and the home instead, so that guide is the operative document today. Uniform State standards for mold assessment and remediation are due by regulation on or before June 1, 2027. The landlord's duties to assess mold within fifteen days of written notice and to remediate within forty-five days are repair duties and sit on the habitability page.

Bed bugs — no state duty. No Maryland statute or regulation requires a landlord to say anything about bed bugs. The words do not appear anywhere in the Real Property article, in the Environment article or in any of the 4,544 regulations that make up the Code of Maryland Regulations. The sales-disclosure section reaches only a vendor and a purchaser, and the only insect item on its content list is infestation of wood-destroying insects. Bed bugs remain a repair and pest-control question under the general habitability and local housing codes.

Radon — no state duty. Maryland requires no radon disclosure to a tenant. Radon appears in the Real Property article only inside the sales regime, on the hazardous-materials list a vendor must address for a purchaser and in the condominium and cooperative conversion equivalents. The Environment article's radon provisions bind the person in the business of testing for indoor radon, who must disclose the test results in writing to the consumer who bought the test; no landlord, tenant or lease appears in that section. Radon is also named as one substance the Department's private-well testing regulations may require testing for, which would reach a tenant only through the private-well disclosure described in the other rows. Twelve regulation chapters mention radon, and the only two that also mention a tenant are housing-finance site-screening conditions on State funding.

Methamphetamine — no state duty. Maryland has neither a methamphetamine disclosure duty nor a bar on renting a contaminated property. The word appears nowhere in the Real Property article or the Environment article, and it is not on the sales-disclosure content list. Four regulation chapters mention methamphetamine, and none of them mentions a tenant or a lessee: they are substance-abuse treatment, controlled-dangerous-substance and criminal-justice chapters. A tenant's route to a contaminated unit is the general habitability duty and the local housing code.

Asbestos — no state duty. No Maryland statute or regulation requires an asbestos disclosure to a tenant. Asbestos appears in the Real Property article only in the sales-disclosure content list and in the duties a developer owes purchasers when converting a building to a condominium or cooperative, where the location of asbestos and any abatement must be disclosed to the buyer. The Environment article's asbestos provisions are air-quality and abatement regimes, and the two regulation chapters that govern asbestos control and accreditation mention neither a tenant nor a lessee.

Private well water quality — in force — a state duty, at signing and when the event the section names occurs, in writing (a statute). An owner of residential rental property served by a private well must provide for water quality testing every three years, must disclose the results of that testing to the tenant, must notify the tenant after each required test is complete, and must notify the tenant of the most recent water quality test when the tenant signs a lease. Where a test shows the well is contaminated above the federal drinking-water maximum for the substance or above a level the Department finds harmful, the owner must notify the Department and the local health department, must provide an approved potable water supply until the contamination is permanently fixed, and within sixty days of learning of it must resolve the problem by supplying water on an ongoing basis, by permanently remediating, or by giving the tenant the option to end the lease. No form is prescribed: what must be handed over is the test result itself. The Department owes regulations setting minimum criteria for the testing, and a further set identifying additional substances by county is due on or before December 31, 2026. Threshold: Any residential rental property served by a private well. No unit count and no owner-type exemption. In force since October 1, 2024. If the duty is not met: A violation carries a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars, and the local health department may both enforce the section and collect the penalty. This is the only agency-enforced money penalty on any Maryland lease disclosure.

Pet policy — in force — a state duty, at application and before signing, in writing (a statute). The landlord of any residential rental property must provide a written copy or summary of the property's pet policy in any rental application form for a unit in the property, and must provide a link to the policy on the property's website where the property has one. The policy must state any breed and weight restrictions, any required fees including up-front non-refundable pet fees, refundable pet deposits and monthly pet fees, any limit on the number of pets, any vaccination requirements, any liability insurance requirements and any other requirements the landlord imposes on pet owners. No threshold applies and the section states no penalty. The duty is in force since October 1, 2025.

No.

Maryland requires no flood disclosure to a tenant. The word flood does not appear anywhere in Title 8 of the Real Property article, in either published edition, and no regulation imposes a flood disclosure on a residential landlord. The sales-disclosure section runs from a vendor of single-family residential real property to each purchaser under a contract of sale, reaches only property improved by four or fewer single family units, and does not list flooding among the conditions it covers at all. Maryland did legislate flood disclosure in 2026, and it is sales only: from July 1, 2027 a vendor of residential real property must give the purchaser a completed flood risk disclosure form that the Department of the Environment must publish on or before June 1, 2027, together with the elevation certificate if one exists, an accounting of money received on flood-damage claims and the number of flooding events at the property. The form must address location in a special flood hazard area or a moderate-risk area, any federal flood-insurance requirement, knowledge of past federal flood aid, whether the vendor carries flood insurance, and knowledge of flood damage, water seepage or pooled water from a natural flooding event. The words lease, tenant and rent appear nowhere in that chapter.

Yes — the statute lists the lease provisions that are void or prohibited.

The roster is a thirteen-item list in section 8-208, subsection d, framed as provisions a landlord may not use in a lease or form of lease, and it reaches clauses that burden the tenant rather than either party's clauses. Two companions sit outside the list and are voided in their own sections: section 8-105 makes any indemnity or exoneration clause void as against public policy and bars an insurer from claiming subrogation because the clause was invalid, and section 8-212.4 makes the utility-charge clause unenforceable where the allocation packet was not given. Item seven of the roster pulls section 8-105 back inside it, so an exculpatory clause is both void and a prohibited provision. The Supreme Court of Maryland has read the general waiver item broadly: a payment-allocation clause letting the landlord apply rent to other obligations, and so expose the tenant to summary ejectment for non-payment of rent, violates it. Maryland has no general unconscionability provision for leases and no whole-lease voiding rule; the agreement stands and the clause falls.

A prohibited provision is unenforceable by the landlord. Beyond that, where the landlord includes such a provision, or one made unenforceable by section 8-105 or by the deposit section, and either tenders a lease containing it, attempts to enforce it, or makes known to the tenant an intent to enforce it, the tenant may recover any actual damages incurred as a result, including reasonable attorney's fees. Tender alone is enough: the landlord need never have tried to use the clause. There is no cure window and no fixed damages figure.

The listed provisions:

• A clause having the tenant authorize any person to confess judgment on a claim arising out of the lease.

• A clause having the tenant agree to waive or forego any right or remedy provided by applicable law.

• A late-payment penalty in excess of five percent of the rent unpaid for the period in which the payment was delinquent, or, on a weekly lease, more than three dollars a week or twelve dollars a month.

• A clause having the tenant waive the right to a jury trial.

• A clause having the tenant agree to a shorter notice to quit than the law requires, though the parties may agree to a longer one.

• A clause authorizing the landlord to take possession of the premises, or of the tenant's personal property, without formal legal process where the lease has not ended and the property has not been abandoned.

• Any clause that is against public policy and void under section 8-105, which covers any provision indemnifying the landlord or exonerating it from liability for injury, loss or damage arising from its own omission, fault, negligence or misconduct on the premises or the shared appurtenances.

• A clause permitting the landlord to begin an eviction or issue a notice to quit solely in retaliation for a tenant planning, organizing or joining a tenant organization to bargain collectively with the landlord.

• A clause requiring the tenant to accept a rent-increase notice under section 8-209 or section 8-401 by electronic delivery.

• A clause limiting the tenant's ability to summon law enforcement or emergency services, or penalizing the tenant for doing so, including for another person's call.

• A clause requiring the tenant to pay more than the security deposit plus the first month's rent in order to commence the lease and occupy the premises.

• A clause waiving or placing conditions on the tenant's right of first refusal under section 8-119.

• A clause making the tenant responsible for the District Court filing surcharge assessed against the landlord, except as the Courts article allows.

• A lease clause requiring the tenant to pay utility charges billed by allocation, where the landlord did not give the eight-item written packet (section 8-212.4, subsection c, item 2).

No statute addresses attorney-fee clauses in residential leases as such.

Maryland does not touch attorney-fee clauses. The thirteen-item prohibited roster does not name them, so a one-way landlord's fee clause is not itself void; there is no statute converting such a clause into a mutual one, no statute awarding fees to whichever party prevails, and no percentage cap. Fees run one way in Maryland, to the tenant, and only through particular remedies: the damages remedy for a prohibited clause carries reasonable attorney's fees, as do the deposit remedies and the surety-bond overcharge remedy, and in a Montgomery County retaliatory-eviction case the court may enter judgment for reasonable attorney fees and costs against the landlord. The argument against a one-way clause is the roster's general bar on having the tenant waive any right or remedy provided by applicable law, which the Supreme Court of Maryland has read broadly, but no statute says so. Montgomery County does require leases to obligate the landlord to pay a prevailing tenant's attorney fees; the State does not.

Partly — state law preempts local rules on some subjects and leaves others to the locality or open.

Maryland points both ways, and on this topic the authorizing side dominates. Nothing in the lease-content section bars supplementary rights given by a public local law of the General Assembly or by an ordinance of any municipality or political subdivision, provided no such law diminishes or limits a right or remedy the section grants (section 8-208, subsection f). The allocated-utility section goes further and is the one that lands squarely here: a county or municipal corporation may enact local laws consistent with it governing the information a landlord must give a tenant, disclosure requirements and document retention, and a comparable local law supersedes the State section to the extent it is more stringent, stronger or broader (section 8-212.4, subsection e). The title also preserves Montgomery County's authority to legislate on landlord-tenant affairs. Two express preemptions run the other way, both narrow: local ordinances governing a right of first refusal or an opportunity to purchase a residential rental property are preempted (section 8-119, subsection g), which reaches the sale-notice duty on this page, and local ordinances on depositing rent into escrow because of lead paint are preempted (section 8-211.1, subsection e). Three further sections are one-way ratchets in the tenant's favor on retaliation, rent-increase notice and rent escrow. Montgomery County regulates the four corners of the lease more tightly than the State, requiring among other things a two-year initial term offer, a window-guard addendum, references to the county's building, fire, housing-maintenance and zoning chapters, a statement of where the rental license is displayed, and an obligation on the landlord to pay a prevailing tenant's attorney fees. Baltimore City requires the lease to name the owner or an agent for service with an address and phone, to carry an express provision before any water or wastewater cost may be shifted to the tenant including the average monthly allocated cost for the unit over the preceding twelve months, and to bar late fees until rent is more than ten days late, with a Housing Commissioner-approved tenants' rights brochure handed over with the lease copy. Neither city's requirements are carried on this page.

Laws 2026, ch. 772 (H.B. 315) — Landlord and Tenant: Discrimination in Housing for Income-Based Housing Subsidies and Positive Rental History Reporting, signed May 26, 2026: Adds section 8-208.4 to the Real Property article. A landlord that owns six or more residential rental units in the State must include in a written lease the option to have the tenant's positive rental payment history reported to at least one consumer reporting agency, must make the offer at the time of the lease and at least once a year after that, and must make it on leases entered into before October 1, 2026 no later than January 1, 2027. The statute fixes eight contents for the offer, including a signature block, and allows a fee of no more than the landlord's actual cost or ten dollars a month, whichever is less, which is not rent. The offer must be in a form the Secretary of Housing and Community Development is directed to prescribe by regulation, and no such regulation exists. Delivery is by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, by a tracked delivery service, or electronically where the tenant has elected to receive notices that way. The section states no penalty. Text: Laws 2026, ch. 772 (H.B. 315).

Laws 2026, ch. 262 (H.B. 220) — Environment: Water: Individual Unit Meters Submeters, signed April 28, 2026, with effect from October 1, 2026: Adds section 8-205.3 to the Real Property article. Where a landlord requires the tenant to pay a third party for water or sewer service measured by an individual submeter, the lease must give notice that the tenant is responsible for those payments to the third party, the landlord must provide a copy of each bill no later than twenty days before it is due, and before the initial lease begins the landlord must tell the prospective tenant in writing the total water and sewer costs billed to the occupants of the unit over the preceding two years, or, where the unit was not billed over that period, the total for a comparably sized unit. A landlord that does not meet the Environment article's submetering requirements may not require payments to a third party at all. Text: Laws 2026, ch. 262 (H.B. 220).

Laws 2026, ch. 225 (S.B. 872) — Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing: Rental Dwelling Unit: Definition, signed April 28, 2026, with effect from October 1, 2026: Rewrites the definition of a rental dwelling unit in the lead subtitle: it drops the word independent and adds the words or access to, so that a unit whose living facilities have access to permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation is covered as well as one that has them. The effect is to widen the registration, inspection-certificate and tenant-notice duties described in the lead rows to shared-facility and rooming-house units. The duties themselves do not change. Text: Laws 2026, ch. 225 (S.B. 872).

Laws 2026, ch. 776 (H.B. 200) — Sale of Residential Real Property: Required Flood Risk Disclosure, signed May 26, 2026, with effect from October 1, 2026: Adds section 10-716 to the Real Property article and section 5-810 to the Environment article, creating Maryland's first flood-risk disclosure. It changes no answer on this page: the duty runs from a vendor to a purchaser before a contract of sale, begins July 1, 2027, and reaches only property improved by four or fewer single family units. The Department of the Environment must publish the disclosure form on or before June 1, 2027. The words lease, tenant and rent appear nowhere in the chapter, so a Maryland landlord still owes a tenant nothing about flood risk. Text: Laws 2026, ch. 776 (H.B. 200).