Maryland HOA laws & resources.

Laws & regulations impacting Maryland associations.

Maryland legislates the three community forms separately. A condominium has the Maryland Condominium Act, Real Property Title 11, §§ 11-101 to 11-143. A covenanted subdivision has the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Title 11B, §§ 11B-101 to 11B-119. A housing cooperative has the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, Corporations and Associations §§ 5-6B-01 to 5-6B-33. These are genuinely different statutes, not three names for one: the late charge, the records clock, the collection route and the dispute procedure all differ between them, so the first thing to establish is which one is yours. Underneath whichever it is sits the nonstock corporation law — for a condominium council under § 11-109(d) whether or not it is incorporated, and for a homeowners association only if it has actually taken a corporate form, since § 11B-101(i)(1) requires none — and around all of them the sections that beat your covenants outright, the Contract Lien Act, the Consumer Debt Collection Act and the Discrimination in Housing law. Together with the federal laws that apply nationwide, that is the whole of it. HOPB hosts the full text of every one.

Maryland HOA law guideEvery Maryland statute that governs community associations, indexed by the decision you are making — beginning with which of the three acts is yours.

Nine things are worth knowing about how Maryland HOA law works:

• The Condominium Act settles conflicts itself. Section 11-124(e): where the title, the declaration, the plat, the bylaws and the rules disagree, they control “in the succession listed hereinbefore commencing with ‘title’” — statute first, rules last. And § 11-142 applies the Act to all condominiums, while sparing those established before 1 July 1982 from having to amend their declaration, bylaws or plat to match it.
• The HOA Act cannot be contracted around. Section 11B-103 says its provisions “may not be varied by agreement, and rights conferred by this title may not be waived”, and bars a declarant or vendor from using a power of attorney or any other device to evade it. Section 11B-111 then applies “[e]xcept as provided in this title, and notwithstanding anything contained in any of the documents of the homeowners association”. When you are told your declaration overrides one of these rules, that is the sentence to check it against.
• A cooperative is different in kind, not in degree. Section 5-6B-16: a cooperative interest is personal property. So there is no assessment lien on the home and no super-lien; a lender takes a UCC Article 9 security interest; and the pressure point is eviction. Read § 5-6B-31 as a restraint rather than a grant, and note which way its scope limit cuts: it applies only to a project no longer subject to a mortgage or deed of trust, and there it bars an eviction based solely on unpaid assessments until the member is three months delinquent and has had notice, a hearing and a chance to cure. A project that still carries a mortgage is outside the section entirely — which means less protection, not more.
• Your association probably cannot foreclose over fines. Real Property § 14-204(d), notwithstanding the declaration, articles, bylaws, rules or regulations, lets a common ownership community foreclose only where the damages are delinquent assessments and interest plus reasonable costs and fees directly related to filing the lien, capped at the delinquent assessments excluding interest — and never fines, or the fees of chasing them. Fines can still be secured by the lien, and every other means of enforcement survives.
• You get 30 days, and then the burden flips. Once a lien notice is served under § 14-203, you may file a complaint in the circuit court within 30 days to test whether probable cause exists — and if you do, “the party seeking to establish the lien has the burden of proof.” Miss it and nothing tests the claim before it reaches the land records. The notice itself must come within 2 years of the breach and must tell you about this right.
• The super-lien is 4 months and $1,200, and it can be lost. It lives in § 11-110(f) and § 11B-117(c), not in the Contract Lien Act: not more than four months of unpaid regular assessments, capped at $1,200, against a first mortgage recorded on or after 1 October 2011. If the governing body fails to give a requesting lender written information about the priority portion within 30 days of filing the statement of lien, the priority is gone.
• A late charge waits 15 days — unless you are a co-op, where it waits 10. Section 11-110(e)(2) — and § 11B-112.1 for a homeowners association — lets the documents allow $15 or one-tenth of the delinquent amount, whichever is greater, once per delinquency and only after 15 calendar days; § 11B-112.1 is the homeowners association parallel. Section 5-6B-29 is the same charge after 10 days. It is a real difference, not a rounding of one rule.
• Records run on a 21 / 45 day clock. Under § 11-116, § 11B-112 and § 5-6B-26, financial statements or minutes requested in writing must be delivered within 21 days if prepared in the last three years and 45 days if older. The condominium and HOA acts add that records must first be made available to a new owner within 15 business days of conveyance from the developer or declarant; Subtitle 6B has no such rule. Note also what may be withheld: the six grounds are identical across all three acts, and the one that bites is “[a]n individual's personal financial records, including assets, income, liabilities, net worth, bank balances, financial history or activities, and creditworthiness”. Discussion of individual owner assessment accounts is a separate thing — a ground for closing a meeting under § 11-109.1(a)(8) and § 11B-111(4)(viii), not for withholding a record.
• Eight sections beat your covenants, and one of them is not what it looks like. Solar collectors, portable basketball apparatus, low-impact landscaping, accessory dwelling units, the United States flag, clotheslines and recorded transfer fees are all answered by the general Real Property sections, three of which — §§ 2-119, 2-124 and 2-125 — define “restriction on use” to include the bylaws or rules of a condominium or homeowners association, while the accessory dwelling unit section, § 2-126, reaches a homeowners association only. And § 10-708 has its own limit: § 10-708(b)(6) exempts a fee payable to the association itself, so it does not beat that covenant. But Real Property § 2-121, on family child care homes, expressly does not apply to a condominium, a homeowners association or a cooperative — for a condominium § 11-111.1 takes over and for a homeowners association § 11B-111.1 does; a cooperative's family child care provision is Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-22.1.

Discrimination, and the two clocks. The Maryland Discrimination in Housing law sits in the State Government Article, Title 20, Subtitle 7 — not in Real Property, which is why boards so often believe the State imposes no accommodation duty. It does: § 20-706(b)(4) forbids refusing “to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services” where necessary to give a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. Twelve classes are protected, including source of income, which is defined to reach housing vouchers. A complaint to the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights↗ must be filed within 1 year of the practice; a civil action must be brought within 2 years, not counting time while the administrative case was pending, and no sooner than 130 days after the complaint. The federal Fair Housing Act runs alongside it, with its own complaint route through HUD↗.

Debt collection. The Maryland Consumer Debt Collection Act is four sections long and its definition of a “collector” has no carve-out for the party owed the money, so an association collecting its own assessments is inside it alongside its manager, its collection agency and its law firm. Section 14-202 lists eleven prohibited practices — among them contacting your employer before final judgment, disclosing information affecting your reputation to someone known to have no legitimate business need for it, and threatening to enforce a right known not to exist. The Maryland Act sets no limitations period, so the general three-year rule in Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-101 applies; the one-year period often quoted belongs to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Complaints about a collection agency go to the State Collection Agency Licensing Board↗, whose jurisdiction expressly covers violations of this Act and not only of the licensing statute. Federal routes: the FTC↗ and the CFPB↗.

Solar panels. Real Property § 2-119 is unusually concrete about what “unreasonable” means: a restriction is unreasonable if applying it to a particular proposal raises installation cost by at least 5% or cuts the energy generated by at least 10%. The owner carries the documentation burden and it must come from an independent specialist certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, or one who attests to having designed at least 30 systems in the prior three years. The association keeps the common elements — it may restrict or prohibit installation there, and its board may install a system there notwithstanding the governing documents. A reported Maryland appellate decision on this section, Blood v. Stoneridge at Fountain Green Homeowners Association↗, 215 A.3d 415 (2019), is worth reading alongside the text. Programme information: the Maryland Energy Administration↗ and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory↗.

Two counties run their own machinery. Real Property § 14-131↗ applies only in Prince George's County and requires both community associations and management companies to register with the county by 31 January each year — and a person who fails to register may not file a dispute under the county's administrative hearing process until they do. See the county programme↗, Subtitle 13 of the county code↗, § 13-183↗ and §§ 13-314 et seq.↗ Montgomery County runs an Office and Commission on Common Ownership Communities — see the county's own Chapter 10B↗. Neither county code is reproduced on this site and nothing here states what it provides — take the county's own published code as the source.

Other statutes this hub used to point at. Real Property §§ 10-201 et seq.↗ are the express and implied warranties on a new home. Section 14-118↗ is the immunity that routes a claim against an officer or director to the governing body instead — explained, with the Courts Article provisions that carry it, on the related and miscellaneous page. And § 11A-128↗, which this hub previously offered as the books-and-records rule, is in Title 11A, the Maryland Real Estate Time-Sharing Act: it governs a time-share association. If you own a condominium unit or a lot, your records provisions are § 11-116 and § 11B-112.

Find HOA contact information & documents.

Maryland keeps the pieces of your association’s paperwork in four different places, and none of them is a “county recorder” — that office does not exist here.

• The declaration, bylaws, plat and any lien are recorded among the land records of the county where the property is, through the Clerk of the Circuit Court. A statement of lien under the Contract Lien Act is filed among the land records of each county holding any part of the property, and takes priority from the date of filing.
• The charter and corporate filings are with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, searchable through Maryland Business Express↗. This is where you learn whether your association is incorporated, who its resident agent is, and whether it is in good standing.
• The current budget, minutes, contracts and account records are held by the association itself, and the statute is what gets you a copy: § 11-116, § 11B-112 or § 5-6B-26 — 21 days for financial statements or minutes prepared in the last three years, 45 days if older, on a written request. Six grounds allow withholding, and individual owner files including assessment account records are among them.
• For a homeowners association, there is a depository. Real Property § 11B-113 puts one in the office of the clerk of the court in every county and Baltimore City — a document file kept separate from the land records, holding the § 11B-105, § 11B-106 and § 11B-107 disclosures the association must deposit under § 11B-112(c), and open to the public on request. For an HOA it is the first place to look.
• In Prince George’s County, both the association and its management company must appear on the county registry: registered associations↗ and registered management companies↗.
• If the association has fallen apart, Real Property § 11-109.3 and § 11B-111.5 let three or more owners petition the circuit court to appoint a receiver where the community has failed to fill enough vacancies to constitute a quorum on the board.