Maryland Landlord Entry Notice Law 2025: 24 Hours Required

Maryland now requires a landlord to give a tenant at least 24 hours' written notice before entering an occupied rental unit, effective October 1, 2025.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

The version of this bill that actually passed reduced the notice period from an initially proposed 48 hours down to 24 hours during the legislative amendment process.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

A landlord who saw early reporting on this bill, before it moved through committee amendments, may have the outdated 48-hour figure in mind. The enacted, currently operative standard is 24 hours, not the longer period some earlier coverage described.

Entry is limited to between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, unless the tenant agrees in writing to a different time.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That window also changed from what was originally drafted. An earlier version of the bill proposed a narrower 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. window; the version that passed widened it to 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

The notice has to state the date and approximate time the landlord intends to enter, and the specific purpose of that entry.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

A generic notice announcing only that entry will occur "sometime this week for maintenance," without a specific date, approximate time, and a stated purpose, doesn't satisfy this requirement even if it technically arrives more than 24 hours in advance.

Notice can be delivered by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, by a paper notice affixed to the tenant's door, or, if the tenant elects this option, electronically through email, text message, or an accessible electronic tenant portal.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That electronic option is specifically tenant-elected, not something a landlord can impose unilaterally as the default delivery method. A landlord relying primarily on a tenant portal for notices should confirm the tenant actually opted into that delivery method rather than assuming portal access alone satisfies this requirement.

A landlord may enter without notice in the event of an emergency, specifically to ensure the imminent protection or preservation of the property, the imminent protection and safety of any occupants, or the health, safety, and welfare of other tenants and staff.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That's a genuinely narrow standard built around imminent risk, not a general convenience exception. A landlord citing this exception for a routine maintenance issue that isn't actually urgent risks having that entry treated as a standard notice violation rather than a legitimate emergency entry.

A tenant may agree in writing to allow a landlord to enter the leased premises with less than 24 hours' notice from receipt.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That waiver has to be the tenant's own voluntary written agreement. A landlord can't establish a blanket lease clause pre-waiving the 24-hour standard for all future entries; the structure here contemplates the tenant agreeing to a shorter window on a specific, presumably case-by-case, basis.

A court may issue an injunction against the landlord, assess appropriate damages for breach of the tenant's covenant of quiet enjoyment of the leased premises, or both.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

Framing this as a breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment ties an entry-notice violation to an existing, well-established area of landlord-tenant law, rather than creating an entirely novel legal theory a court would have to interpret from scratch.

A landlord remains liable for violations of this notice requirement committed by an agent acting under the landlord's direction.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That means a property management company, a maintenance contractor, or any other agent entering on a landlord's behalf has to follow the same notice, timing, and content requirements as the landlord would directly, and the landlord can't avoid liability by pointing to the agent's independent conduct.

Both of this law's core numbers moved during the legislative process: the notice period shortened from 48 to 24 hours, and the entry window widened from 9am-5pm to 7am-7pm.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

That's worth flagging specifically because secondary coverage published while the bill was still moving through committee may still reference the earlier, unenacted figures. A landlord updating internal policy documents or lease templates based on older news coverage of this bill risks encoding the wrong numbers.

A landlord scheduling routine, non-emergency maintenance now needs to build in at least a 24-hour lead time before the scheduled visit, confirm the visit falls within the 7am-7pm Monday-Saturday window, and ensure the notice sent states both the approximate time and the specific purpose of the visit.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, enrolled text]

For a landlord managing recurring maintenance across a larger portfolio, that's a meaningful scheduling constraint compared to same-day or minimal-notice entry practices that may have been common before this law took effect.

The law lists specific permitted reasons for entry that trigger this notice requirement: completing repairs, maintenance, modifications, renovations, or improvements; inspecting the premises; showing the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, or contractors; responding to a tenant's own request; and completing government-ordered work.

[Cite: Maryland HB 1076, Chapter 564, 2025 Regular Session, fiscal and policy note]

That showing-related category is worth flagging on its own. A landlord scheduling a unit tour for a prospective buyer or a prospective new tenant during an existing tenancy has to follow the same 24-hour, written, 7am-7pm Monday-Saturday standard as a maintenance visit, not a separate, looser standard sometimes assumed to apply to showings.

Testimony supporting this bill argued that Maryland previously lacked a clear statutory entry-notice standard, leading to unauthorized landlord entries and disputes that were difficult to resolve without an enforceable rule. Supporters specifically pointed to the injunction and monetary-damages remedy as what would make the standard actually enforceable, rather than aspirational.

[Cite: Public Justice Center testimony on Maryland HB 1076]

That context matters for understanding why the remedy structure ties directly to the existing covenant of quiet enjoyment rather than creating a freestanding penalty scheme: the goal was giving tenants an existing, recognized legal theory to invoke, backed by a clear, specific notice standard that hadn't existed in Maryland law before.

The practical starting point is auditing existing lease templates, maintenance notice templates, and internal scheduling procedures against the actual enacted standard, 24 hours, 7am-7pm Monday-Saturday, rather than any earlier draft figures that may have been built into those materials before the bill's final amendments.

Training maintenance staff and any third-party contractors who enter units on a landlord's behalf on both the timing requirements and the emergency-exception standard closes the most likely compliance gap, since agent conduct creates landlord liability under this law.