2025 Maryland General Assembly Session update

The 2025 General Assembly session began its 447^th Session on January 8. As always, Montgomery Village Foundation (MVF) staff are monitoring legislation that may affect homeowners and condominium associations, as well as homeowners in general or the community at large. Several bills from previous sessions have been re-introduced, including Licensing of Property Managers, Governing Bodies and Annual Meetings, a Governing Document Database, Board Member Training, Homeowners Bill of Rights, and Reserve Account Funding. In addition, some new bills are being introduced that staff are keeping a close watch on.

HB0449/SB0446 - Condominiums - Property Insurance Deductibles - Unit Owner Responsibility: This bill seeks to increase the maximum amount of the council of unit owners' property insurance deductible for which a unit owner is responsible if the cause of damage to or destruction of any portion of the condominium originates from the unit owner’s unit from $10,000 to $25,000. Recent increases in both insurance deductibles and claims have become a large exposure for condominium boards of directors, and this legislation aims to help alleviate some strain on the association by sharing more of the cost with the unit owner. MVF supports this bill.

HB557 - Residential Owners in Common Ownership Communities - Bill of Rights: This bill has been proposed for several years to establish a bill of rights for unit owners of a condominium, members of a cooperative housing corporation and lot owners of a homeowners association. While MVF supports the spirit of this bill and the rights of homeowners, it does not support the actual legislation because many of the provisions conflict with Maryland common interest community law and association governing docs.

HB0581/SB0464 - Real Property - Condominiums - Assessments: This bill aims to help condominium boards of directors pass nominal assessment increases to maintain a community and fulfill their fiduciary duties. Some condominium governing documents contain provisions that give the Council of Unit Owners the vote to increase assessments; when increases are not passed regularly, boards of directors cannot budget for rising costs in materials and labor and must cut services at the detriment of the community. For instances where this provision occurs, this bill would give the board of directors the ability to increase an assessment for common expenses (not including Reserves) by up to 5% of the previous year, even if the Council of Unit Owners did not agree. MVF supports this bill.

SB0758 - Condominiums and Homeowners Associations - Elections, Financial Statements and Enforcement: This legislation would establish certain requirements for elections of the governing body of a condominium or homeowners association, require that the governing body of a condominium accommodate a unit owner organizing activities relating to the governance of the condominium, and prohibit unit owners and lot owners from being charged for examining certain records of the condominium or homeowners association in a certain manner.