Breaking a lease in Maryland

Maryland gives a tenant no general right to leave a fixed-term lease early, but if a tenant moves out before the term ends, you have a duty to mitigate your damages, and a lease cannot waive it. You may re-rent the home without notice to the tenant, who then stays secondarily liable for the rent if you promptly report any default by the new tenant.

Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-207

• A service member, or the service member's spouse, who receives a change of assignment (permanent change of station, temporary duty over 90 days, orders into quarters on a military installation, or release from active duty) owes no more than rent then due plus 30 days' rent after giving written notice and proof, plus damage repairs. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-212.1
• The medical-condition rent limit can apply when the patient is a named party to the lease or an authorized occupant. Before leaving, the tenant must give the required medical certification and written termination notice with the move-out date. If the statutory conditions are met, liability for rent after departure is limited to two months. This statutory rent limit does not apply if the lease already requires one month or less of written notice and no more than two months of post-departure rent. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-212.2
• A tenant who is a victim of abuse, or whose legal occupant is, may end future liability with written notice and a protective order, peace order or a qualified third party's report signed within the last 60 days, then has 30 days to vacate and owes rent for no more than 30 days. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-5A-02 Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-5A-03
• If fire or another unavoidable accident makes the home untenantable, a tenancy for a term of seven years or less ends, and rent is owed only up to the day of the fire or accident. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-112
• The certification must address a condition that substantially restricts mobility at the home, requires a higher level of care elsewhere, or is a mental disorder meeting the statutory continued-habitation or higher-care test. It must state that the condition is expected to continue beyond the lease termination date. A diagnosis alone does not supply all of these statutory facts. Md. Code, Real Prop. 8-212.2
• Use a physician or psychologist licensed by the relevant Maryland board. Section 8-212.2 requires the certification on that professional's letterhead or printed prescription form, signed by that professional, in substantially the statutory form. These are conditions of the rent-liability limit; the provision does not promise a penalty-free exit in every medical situation. Md. Code, Real Prop. 8-212.2

To end a month-to-month tenancy, or a written lease for a stated term longer than one week, you must give the tenant written notice at least 60 days before it expires. A tenancy from year to year needs 90 days, and a week-to-week tenancy needs 7 days with a written lease or 21 days without one.

Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402(c)(2)

• A lease may not require the tenant to give longer notice to end the tenancy than you must give. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-501
• If the tenant tells you, even orally, at least 30 days before the end (90 days for year to year) that they will move out, and you can prove it, you need not send your own written notice to recover possession. This does not apply in Baltimore City. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402(c)(3)
• If a tenant stays on with your consent after the term ends, the tenancy becomes month to month (week to week if it was weekly) unless the lease says otherwise in a term the tenant initialed. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402(d)
• Accepting rent after giving notice does not waive the notice unless you agree otherwise in writing. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-402(c)(5)