Maryland Residential Lease Agreement

What a Maryland lease must include

Standard lease elements

• Parties and the Maryland county + street address of the rental.
• Lease term — fixed end date or a periodic (month-to-month) tenancy.
• Monthly rent amount, due date, and accepted payment methods.
• Security deposit amount with the 1-month cap enforced at /review.
• Utilities — which the landlord covers and which the tenant pays, plus the RUBS / sub-metering disclosure when applicable.
• Occupancy rules, pets, smoking, and entry procedures.
• Default, eviction-process language, and the 30-day periodic-tenancy termination floor.
• Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights as a required final section under § 8-208(c)(4).
• Mandatory deposit-receipt disclosures — the seven advisements specified in § 8-203.1(a).
• Mandatory pre-lease disclosure block: federal lead-paint, § 8-211.2 flood, and § 8-220 mold-pamphlet acknowledgement.
• Signatures of all parties.

Maryland-required disclosures

• Federal lead-paint disclosure and EPA pamphlet for any unit built before 1978. (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 24 C.F.R. Part 35)
• Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights — the most current version published by the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs (Maryland DHCD) must be included with the lease. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208(c)(4))
• Security-deposit receipt — must advise the tenant of the move-in inspection right, the move-out inspection right, the 15-day tenant notice / 5-day inspection window, the 45-day itemization deadline, the 45-day return deadline, and the treble-damages remedy. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203.1(a))
• Mandatory deposit-interest formula — greater of 1.5% per year or the 1-year U.S. Treasury yield as of the first business day of each year, accruing monthly on deposits of $50 or more held at least 6 months. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(e)(1)–(2))
• Flood-hazard disclosure — landlord must state whether the premises are in a FEMA 100-year floodplain and whether landlord has knowledge of prior flooding (effective October 1, 2024). (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-211.2)
• Mold pamphlet acknowledgement — landlord must provide the DHCD/MDE mold pamphlet at lease signing and on tenant request, and request a tenant signature acknowledging receipt. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-220)
• Source-of-funds protection — discrimination based on welfare assistance, Section 8 vouchers, or other lawful income sources is prohibited. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208.2)
• Tenant opportunity to purchase — applies to residential rental property with three or fewer dwelling units when the owner intends to sell; tenants with at least 6 months' occupancy receive an exclusive negotiation period. (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-119)

Maryland-specific workflow

• 1-month security-deposit cap effective October 1, 2024. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(b)(1).
• Deposit must be held in a federally insured Maryland financial-institution branch within 30 days of receipt, in an exclusive-use, interest-bearing account. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(d)(1).
• Mandatory deposit interest accrues monthly at the greater of 1.5%/yr or the 1-year U.S. Treasury yield as of the first business day of each year, on deposits of $50 or more held at least 6 months. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(e)(1)–(2).
• 45 days to provide an itemized statement and refund any unused deposit after the end of the tenancy. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(e)(1), (4).
• Wrongful withholding exposes the landlord to up to treble damages of the wrongfully withheld portion plus reasonable attorney's fees. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(e)(4).
• Move-out inspection — tenant has the right to be present if a 15-day prior certified-mail notice is given; landlord must inspect within 5 days before or after the tenant's stated move date. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(f); § 8-203.1.
• Late fees capped at 5% of the unpaid rent for the rental period (or $3/wk capped at $12/mo for weekly tenancies). Hard statutory cap. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208(d)(3).
• 24-hour written entry notice required for non-emergency entry; permitted hours are 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, or another time agreed to in writing. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-221.
• Retaliation prohibited — eviction, rent increase, or service decrease in response to tenant complaints, lawsuits, or organizing is presumptively retaliatory. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208.1.
• 30-day written notice required for a tenant to terminate a month-to-month tenancy; 60-day written notice for a landlord to terminate a month-to-month tenancy; 90-day written notice for a year-to-year tenancy. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402; case law.
• Repair-and-deduct / rent-escrow remedy available for serious defects threatening life, health, or safety. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-211.
• Failure-to-pay-rent eviction proceeds through the District Court (Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-401); self-help eviction is prohibited.
• Holdover damages — tenant unlawfully holding over is liable for at least the apportioned rent for the holdover period. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402(a).
• Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights — current DHCD text rendered as a final section of every BuildMyLease lease, satisfying Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208(c)(4).

Maryland DHCD — Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs

How a Maryland lease is structured

1. The document opens with parties, the Maryland county, and the rental-property address.
2. The property-location subphase surfaces a single combined informational callout for the Montgomery County and Prince George's County overlays — naming the Montgomery 2-year offer, tenant early-termination right, and license disclosure under L.M.C. ch. 29 §§ 27–35A, and the Prince George's rent-stabilization regime.
3. The term section identifies the arrangement as fixed-term with an end date or as a periodic tenancy with the 30-day tenant termination floor under § 8-402.
4. The rent section sets the monthly amount, due date, accepted payment methods, and surfaces the 5% statutory late-fee cap under § 8-208(d).
5. The security-deposit section captures the deposit amount and renders the 1-month cap, the escrow-account obligation, the deposit-interest formula verbatim from § 8-203(e), the 45-day itemized return, the treble-damages exposure, and the seven mandatory § 8-203.1(a) advisements.
6. A dedicated Maryland-disclosures subphase surfaces the § 8-211.2 flood disclosure (FEMA 100-year + history-of-flooding) and the § 8-220 mold pamphlet acknowledgement.
7. For 1–3 unit properties, the lease automatically renders the § 8-119 tenant opportunity-to-purchase clause.
8. The document closes with the eviction-court-process narrative (§ 8-401), the holdover damages clause (§ 8-402), the asymmetric 30/60/90-day termination notice rule, the SCRA service-member protections, the § 8-208.2 source-of-income non-discrimination clause, and the reciprocal attorney's-fees clause — followed by the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights as the final required section under § 8-208(c)(4) and the parties' signatures.

BuildMyLease assembles all of this for you in a guided interview.

Free Maryland lease template vs BuildMyLease

Free Maryland lease templates are everywhere, but most predate the October 2024 reform package, miss the deposit-interest formula entirely, omit the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights that § 8-208(c)(4) makes mandatory, and use late-fee figures that exceed the 5% statutory cap. Here is the honest side-by-side.

Who this is for

This is for

• Maryland landlords managing 1–25 private-market units (single-family, condo, small multi-family).
• Owners who want the post-2024-reform 1-month deposit cap, the 45-day return, the mandatory deposit-interest formula, the 5% statutory late-fee cap, and the Maryland Tenants' Bill of Rights baked in without researching each statute.
• Landlords issuing a new fixed-term lease OR a periodic tenancy that needs the 30-day tenant termination floor under § 8-402.
• Owners of 1–3 unit residential rental properties who want the § 8-119 tenant opportunity-to-purchase language rendered automatically.

This isn't for

• Montgomery County landlords who need the 2-year-offer enforcement and the tenant early-termination workflow rendered as enforceable lease mechanics — those render informationally in the MVP; consult counsel for the bright-line application.
• Prince George's County landlords subject to the local rent-stabilization regime — informational callout only; rent-cap mechanics are not encoded.
• Senior apartment facilities subject to the § 8-217 conversion-notice regime.
• Mobile-home park tenancies (separate Maryland statutory regime).
• Section 8 / federally subsidized tenancies — those carry separate HAP-contract requirements that this document does not encode.
• Premises with active mold remediation in progress — counsel review recommended before lease signing.
• Ongoing eviction or unlawful-detainer proceedings — those require court forms, not a lease.
• Commercial leases.