Maryland · Law guide

Maryland HOA law guide.

Every Maryland statute that governs community associations, hosted in full on HOPB with the official text. Maryland legislates the three community forms separately — a condominium, a homeowners association and a cooperative each have their own act, and the late charge, the records clock, the collection route and the dispute procedure are all different between them. Underneath whichever is yours sits the corporation law, and around all of them a set of sections that beat your covenants outright. This index is how the pieces fit together, and which one answers your question.

8 statutes Full text on-site Source generated December 2025

Which act governs you

Maryland legislates the three community forms separately, and the answers differ.

Maryland is the opposite of a state with no homeowners association act. It has three, and they are genuinely different statutes rather than three names for one. Everything starts with what you own. A unit in a condominium is governed by Real Property Title 11. A lot in a covenanted subdivision is governed by Real Property Title 11B. A membership in a housing cooperative is governed by Corporations and Associations Title 5, Subtitle 6B. Section 11B-102(e) says so from the other direction, taking condominiums and cooperatives out of the HOA Act expressly — except, under § 11B-101(f)(2), where the condominium or cooperative property is itself part of a development. Read the one that is yours before anything else on this page — the late charge, the records clock, the collection route and the dispute procedure are all different between them, and a rule you read about a neighbour’s community may simply not be your rule.

01 Maryland Condominium ActReal Property Title 11, 63 sections, §§ 11-101 to 11-143. Creation of the regime, the council of unit owners, meetings and voting, assessments and the lien, records, the dispute procedure, resale disclosure. Read § 11-124(e) first, because it answers the question every other page argues about: where the title, the declaration, the plat, the bylaws and the rules conflict, they control “in the succession listed hereinbefore commencing with ‘title’” — the statute wins, then the declaration, then the plat, then the bylaws, then the rules. What it gives you: a meeting on not less than 10 nor more than 90 days’ notice (§ 11-109(c)(4)); a 25% quorum default unless the bylaws provide otherwise, and a failed-quorum second meeting at which whoever attends is the quorum — available only if the first meeting's notice pre-announced it and gave the second meeting's date, time and place and a majority of those present voted to call it, and which expressly cannot be used to change a vote percentage required to amend the declaration or bylaws; proxies that die at 180 days unless granted to a lessee or mortgagee; open board meetings with closed session limited to eight listed grounds (§ 11-109.1), one of which is discussion of individual owner assessment accounts. Records (§ 11-116): kept in Maryland or within 50 miles of its borders; financial statements or minutes delivered on written request within 21 days if prepared in the last three years and 45 days if older; and first made available to a new owner within 15 business days of conveyance from the developer. Money: a late charge of $15 or one-tenth of the delinquent amount, whichever is greater, once per delinquency and only after 15 calendar days, and only where the bylaws provide for one (§ 11-110(e)(2), and § 11B-112.1 for a homeowners association); the lien imposed under the Contract Lien Act; and the super-priority slice in § 11-110(f) — 4 months, capped at $1,200, against a first mortgage recorded on or after 1 October 2011, and forfeited if the board does not give a requesting lender written information within 30 days of filing the statement of lien. 02 Maryland Homeowners Association ActReal Property Title 11B, 44 sections, §§ 11B-101 to 11B-119. Section 11B-103 is the one most owners have backwards: except as the title expressly provides, its provisions “may not be varied by agreement, and rights conferred by this title may not be waived” — and a declarant may not use a power of attorney or any other device to evade it — and neither may a vendor. Then § 11B-111 applies “[e]xcept as provided in this title, and notwithstanding anything contained in any of the documents of the homeowners association”. Your declaration does not get to opt out. Scope: it applies to all homeowners associations existing in the State after 1 July 1987 (§ 11B-102(a)), with dated carve-outs in the rest of that section for the initial-sale disclosure provisions, common area improvements and developments of twelve or fewer lots. What it gives you: open meetings with the same eight closed-session grounds, including individual owner assessment accounts; a failed-quorum second meeting that likewise may not be used to change a declaration or bylaw vote threshold; a records right on the same 21 / 45 day clock and the same 15-business-day rule after conveyance by the declarant (§ 11B-112); reserve studies (§ 11B-112.3); a dispute settlement procedure (§ 11B-111.10); and Division of Consumer Protection enforcement (§§ 11B-115, 11B-115.1). Overrides written into the Act itself: family child care homes and no-impact home-based businesses (§ 11B-111.1), candidate and proposition signs (§ 11B-111.2), electric vehicle recharging equipment (§ 11B-111.8, which makes a conflicting covenant, bylaw or rule void and unenforceable), composting (§ 11B-111.9), accessory and deletion of covenants restricting ownership by race, religious belief or national origin on 180 days’ written request (§ 11B-113.3). Two Howard County carve-outs that summaries drop: the dispute mechanism does not apply to the Columbia Association or the village community associations of Columbia (§ 11B-111.10(e)), and § 11B-117(c)(1)(i) preserves the first priority the 1966 deed gives the Columbia Association Declaration’s annual charge. And note the range. The Act runs to § 11B-119, not § 11B-118. 03 Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation ActCorporations and Associations Title 5, Subtitle 6B, 39 sections, §§ 5-6B-01 to 5-6B-33. One sentence reorganises this whole Act. Section 5-6B-16(a): “A cooperative interest is personal property” — and § 5-6B-16(b) fuses the proprietary lease to the membership certificate so neither can be severed. Because there is no land, there is no assessment lien and no super-lien; a lender’s interest is a UCC Article 9 security interest under § 5-6B-17; and the collection route ends in eviction under § 5-6B-31 — which is a restraint on eviction rather than a grant of it. 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 an opportunity to cure. Where the project still carries a mortgage the section does not apply. Where it diverges from Titles 11 and 11B, and it does: the late charge waiting period is 10 days, not 15; the dispute settlement procedure applies to complaints arising on or after 1 October 2024, two years later; the cease-and-desist demand and the hearing notice must both go by certified mail, return receipt requested; and § 5-6B-30 reaches violations of the member’s proprietary lease, not only of the rules. It also has no 15-business-day post-conveyance records rule and no failed-quorum reconvening mechanism, both of which the other two acts have — though C&A § 5-206 gives nonstock corporations a failed-quorum procedure, and § 5-6B-15 applies the article's nonstock provisions to a cooperative housing corporation to the extent they are not inconsistent with the subtitle. What it does have: a records right on the same 21/45 day clock (§ 5-6B-26); an audit on the request of members of 5 percent of the units (§ 5-6B-28); one vote per unit unless the documents say otherwise (§ 5-6B-18); and statewide preemption of conflicting local law (§ 5-6B-32, apart from the local-government purchase provisions in §§ 5-6B-08 to 5-6B-10 and § 5-6B-12).

The corporation underneath

If your association is incorporated, a second statute is running alongside the first.

Most Maryland condominium councils and homeowners associations are incorporated as nonstock corporations, and when they are, a whole second body of law applies to how the board is elected, how it reaches a decision, and what happens when a director is on both sides of a contract. The hook is different for each form. Real Property § 11-109(d) says a council of unit owners — incorporated or not — is subject to the nonstock provisions to the extent they are not inconsistent with the Condominium Act. Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-15 does the same for cooperatives. The HOA Act has no equivalent sentence at all: § 11B-101(i)(1) defines a homeowners association as “a person having the authority to enforce the provisions of a declaration” and requires no corporate form. So for an HOA this applies only if your association is in fact incorporated, which the charter filed with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation will tell you. Where the two layers collide, Corporations and Associations § 1-102(d)(1) gives the specific statute priority over the general one.

04 Nonstock corporation law and the director provisionsCorporations and Associations Title 5, Subtitle 2 (§§ 5-201 to 5-209) and Title 2, Subtitle 4 (§§ 2-401 to 2-419) — 30 sections. Subtitle 2 is short and its first section sends you elsewhere: the Maryland General Corporation Law applies to nonstock corporations unless the context clearly requires otherwise, or a subtitle governing a specific class of corporation provides otherwise. Everything that decides a real argument is in Title 2. What the bylaws are allowed to do is § 5-202(b), and it is broader than most owners expect: notwithstanding any other provision of the Article, the charter or bylaws may divide directors or members into classes, set the quorum, deny or limit proxy voting, allow voting by mail or electronic transmission, provide that any action may be taken by any number or proportion of the votes, and regulate the allocation of voting power between the directors and the members. The standard of care is § 2-405.1: good faith, a reasonable belief that the act is in the corporation’s best interests, and the care of an ordinarily prudent person in a like position — with a presumption that a director’s act complied, and a statement that the section is the sole source of a director’s duties. The recall trap is § 2-406. Members may remove a director with or without cause by a majority of all the votes entitled to be cast — but unless the charter says otherwise, if the directors are divided into classes a director may not be removed without cause at all. Staggered boards are common and § 5-202(b)(1) expressly permits them. Also here: board quorum, its one-third floor and action by unanimous written consent (§ 2-408); the 24-hour deadline for recording a dissent after a meeting adjourns (§ 2-410); the self-dealing safe harbour and the burden it shifts when disclosure is skipped (§ 2-419); indemnification and D&O insurance (§ 2-418) — including § 2-418(l), which requires any indemnification or advance of expenses arising out of a derivative proceeding to be reported, with the notice of the next members' meeting or before it, in writing to the members with the notice of the next meeting.

What a board cannot do to you

Eight sections beat your covenants, and one statute reaches your rules whatever they are about.

Maryland puts most of its owner protections inside the three association acts, and then adds a set of general Real Property sections that apply whether or not there is an association at all. Four of those define “restriction on use” to include the bylaws or rules of an association — three of them (§§ 2-119, 2-124 and 2-125) say “of a condominium or homeowners association”, while § 2-126 names a homeowners association only — so a board cannot escape them by making its restriction a rule rather than a covenant. Watch one trap: Real Property § 2-121, on family child care homes, is the single section in that group that expressly does not reach a condominium, a homeowners association or a cooperative — § 2-121(b) removes all three, and § 11-111.1 and § 11B-111.1 take over instead. Separately, and reaching further than any of them, the fair housing law forbids refusing a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services — which is not limited to any subject at all.

05 The covenant-override sectionsReal Property §§ 2-119, 2-121, 2-124, 2-125, 2-126, 10-708, 14-128 and 14-130 — 8 sections from three Titles. Solar (§ 2-119) is the one that quantifies itself: a restriction is unreasonable if it raises installation cost by at least 5% or cuts generation by at least 10% — but the owner must document that through an independent specialist certified by NABCEP, or one who attests to having designed 30 systems in the prior three years. The association keeps the common elements: it may prohibit installation there, and the board may install a system there notwithstanding the governing documents. Landscaping (§ 2-125) names the mandatory lawn — an unreasonable limitation includes one requiring cultivated vegetation to consist “in whole or in part” of turf grass — while preserving reasonable design and aesthetic guidelines. Accessory dwelling units (§ 2-126) makes an outright ban the paradigm unreasonable limitation, but expressly does not stop a limit on short-term rental of the accessory dwelling unit — of the unit; the definition comes from Land Use § 4-501 and requires a primary single-family detached dwelling. The flag (§ 14-128) and clotheslines (§ 14-130) both require an open meeting with advance notice before any restricting rule is adopted. For the flag, § 14-128(b) and (c) make the right subject only to rules adopted pursuant to subsection (d), so a rule made without the meeting is arguably not one the right is subject to; § 14-130 carries no such cross-reference. Transfer fees (§ 10-708) works the other way round: it makes the covenant void. And § 10-708(b)(6) exempts fees payable to your own association, so it is not the answer to a resale packet charge. Five of the eight carry a historic property exemption — §§ 2-119(d), 2-124(c), 2-125(d), 2-126(c) and, in a narrower form, 14-130(b). 06 Maryland Discrimination in Housing lawState Government Title 20, Subtitle 7, 10 sections, §§ 20-701 to 20-710. It is in the State Government Article, not Real Property, which is why boards so often believe Maryland has no accommodation duty. Twelve protected classes: race, colour, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, source of income and military status. Source of income is defined to include housing vouchers, so a blanket refusal to accept one is a policy about a protected class — though § 20-704(d) preserves commercially reasonable, non-discriminatory income and creditworthiness verification. The section that reaches a board is § 20-706(b)(4): no refusal “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. § 20-706(b)(3) is the companion for physical modifications, which the resident pays for. Service dogs get their own rule in § 20-706(b)(6) and (d) — exempt from a no-dogs lease term, no extra rent or fee, and a retired service dog may stay for its life — and the definition excludes an animal providing only emotional support. That narrows subsection (d), not § 20-706(b)(4), which is a general accommodation duty. Deadlines: 1 year to complain to the Commission on Civil Rights, 2 years to sue (tolled while the administrative case is pending), and no civil action sooner than 130 days after the complaint. Actual and punitive damages, injunctions, and fees to the prevailing party.

When money is owed

One statute makes the lien; a different one governs how anyone may chase you for it.

The association acts give the power to assess and to lien. The procedure for turning an unpaid assessment into a recorded lien — and then into a foreclosure — is the Contract Lien Act, and the conduct of whoever is doing the collecting is the Consumer Debt Collection Act. Keep them apart: the first answers “can they?” and the second answers “like that?”. Cooperatives sit outside the first entirely, because a cooperative interest is personal property and there is nothing for a land lien to attach to.

07 Maryland Contract Lien ActReal Property Title 14, Subtitle 2, 7 sections, §§ 14-201 to 14-206. A lien arises only where the contract expressly provides for one and expressly names both the party who may enforce it and the property. The step almost nobody is told about is § 14-203(c): after the notice is served you have 30 days to file a complaint in the circuit court to test whether probable cause exists — and if you do, § 14-203(d) puts the burden of proof on the association. The court may award costs and reasonable attorney’s fees to any party, and its order must state a bond figure that removes the lien. The clocks: notice within 2 years of the breach; the statement of lien filed no earlier than 30 days after the order or the service, and within 90 days of that point or the whole notice process starts again; priority runs from the date of filing; and a foreclosure action must be brought within 12 years of recording. And § 14-204(d) is the limit worth memorising. Notwithstanding the declaration, articles, bylaws, rules or regulations, a common ownership community may foreclose only where the damages are delinquent assessments and interest plus reasonable costs and attorney’s fees directly related to filing the lien, capped at the delinquent assessments themselves — and never fines, or the fees of recovering fines. Fines can still be secured by the lien — though § 14-201(c) names only fines levied under the Condominium Act and the Time-Sharing Act — and § 14-204(d)(3) preserves every other means of enforcement. 08 Maryland Consumer Debt Collection ActCommercial Law Title 14, Subtitle 2, 4 sections, §§ 14-201 to 14-204. Its definition of “collector” has no carve-out for the party owed the money — “a person collecting or attempting to collect an alleged debt arising out of a consumer transaction” — so the association, its manager, its collection agency and its law firm are all inside the same definition, and the debt need only be alleged. Eleven prohibitions. The ones that come up: no contacting your employer before final judgment; no disclosing information affecting your reputation to a person known not to have a legitimate business need for it — which is where a delinquency list read out at an open meeting or pinned to a clubhouse board lands; no communication at a frequency or hour reasonably expected to abuse or harass; and no claiming or threatening to enforce a right known not to exist, which covers a foreclosure threat that § 14-204(d) of the Real Property Article does not permit. Damages include emotional distress or mental anguish “with or without accompanying physical injury” (§ 14-203). There is no fee-shifting in the subtitle itself — the fees come through the Consumer Protection Act, since Commercial Law § 13-301(14)(iii) makes a violation of this subtitle an unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practice and § 13-408 allows a fee award to a plaintiff who is awarded damages. There is also a route that is not a courtroom. Business Regulation § 7-205 gives the State Collection Agency Licensing Board power to take a written complaint, hold a hearing and issue cease-and-desist orders for a violation of this Act, not merely of the licensing title — but only against a collection agency, so it does not reach an association or its manager collecting in the association's own name. Penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, capped at $25,000, are for failing to obey the Board's order.

Everything that is somewhere else

Immunity, the county systems, which court, and how long you have.

Four acts still leave a layer out. Whether you can sue a board member personally is answered in the Courts Article and in Real Property § 14-118, not in any of them. Two counties run registration and dispute machinery of their own on top of state law. Your municipality may already have the power to plough your private streets, and your county to fund your roads and stormwater out of the property tax you already pay. And whether a claim is three years old or twelve turns on whether your declaration was executed under seal. All of it is on one page.

General information, not legal advice. Statutory references are to the Annotated Code of Maryland as published by the General Assembly of Maryland, from the official Article text generated in December 2025; the statutes are amended every session, so confirm the current text against the official source.

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