Baltimore County Landlords Must Properly Register Their Properties

By Amar S. Weisman, Esquire

Baltimore County recently enacted legislation, effective July 1, 2008, directing the Department of Permits and Development Management (DPDM) to penalize owners of unlicensed rental properties with fines of up to $1,000.00. The passage and implementation of the legislation follows a decade-long debate over rental housing involving a multiplicity of interest groups, including realtors, college students, nannies, neighborhood associations, among others.

From the moment legislation providing for the registration of all property containing between one and six rental units was passed by the Baltimore County Council, rumors of its repeal have abounded within the local real estate community. According to Donald I. Mohler, of DPDM, who is in charge of enforcing the new regulatory regime, and who recently spoke with the Law Offices of Amar S. Weisman, this program is here to stay.

Mr. Mohler noted that over 10,000 properties have been properly registered, making more than half of the 18,000 eligible properties in compliance. This figure indicates that the current, Countywide program is being implemented more smoothly than its smaller-scale pilot program predecessors (which only required registration in select neighborhoods.) For example, former Baltimore County Auditor Robert B. Rowe noted that only 38 of 1,500 targeted properties were voluntarily registered in the months following the 2003 pilot program’s implementation. An obvious question: why would the county repeal a program that is being followed by over half of the county’s landlords?

Those out of compliance face fines of $1,000.00 per property, according to Moeller, who laid to rest false media reports that fines will be levied at a rate of $1,000.00 per day. The enforcement czar also indicated that fines will likely be assessed against intentional and flagrant violators. While the law is effective as of July 1, 2008, those properties not currently in compliance have until January 1, 2009, when full enforcement commences, to obtain lawful status.

Non-compliant landlords are well-advised to immediately begin getting their ducks in a row to meet the deadline, which generally means making any necessary improvements to bring the property up to code and scheduling a home inspection with a licensed Maryland home inspector (the cost is about $150.00) to examine each unit’s safety, electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and certify they meet prevailing standards, and repair whatever does not.

By far the most common code violations have been related to the requirement that each property has hard-wired (not battery operated) smoke detectors. Interested landlords should allow time not only for installing the smoke detectors but also for acquiring them; shortages have been reported at Baltimore County Lowes and Home Depot locations. Not having operational hard-wired smoke detectors at the time of the home inspection will require scheduling and paying for yet another inspection.

It is worth noting that property owners seeking exemptions have not been having great difficulty obtaining them, according to Mr. Moeller. There are eight qualifying exemptions under the law, including properties being rented to former owners (for less than one year), legally designated apartment buildings, and properties exempt under prevailing state or federal law.

Certain landlords may wish to be especially careful to ensure their properties are registered, such as landlords renting to university students, insofar as they were targeted by original proponents of the legislation, like Ed Kilcullen, the former President of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, who labeled rental registration as, “a critical tool in dealing with the increasing number of rental properties around the universities.”

Baltimore County has made clear, in its efforts to discourage rental properties, that registration is here now and into the foreseeable future. Given the large dollar penalty for not complying with the law, landlords are cautioned to register their properties. If I can be of assistance to you as you consider the issues of rental registration, please do not hesitate to give me a call.

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