Maryland HOA Condo Safety Inspections
Maryland HOA Condo Safety Inspections
Section 1: Overview
Maryland has no milestone inspection statute, no structural inspection statute, and no structural integrity reserve study requirement for condominiums; it's a reserve-study state, not a structural-mandate state. Condominium safety-inspection obligations in Maryland instead arise from a layered set of sources: the council of unit owners' general duty to maintain, repair, and replace the common elements under the Maryland Condominium Act,1 the 2022 statewide reserve study requirement,2 the statewide Maryland Building Performance Standards and locally enforced building and fire codes,3 insurer requirements, and each condominium's recorded declaration.
Maryland enacted reserve study requirements in 2022, phased in and effective statewide beginning October 1, 2022, but that legislation is a funding-adequacy tool and imposes no scheduled structural or milestone inspection.4 The distinction controls this page: a reserve study estimates the cost and remaining life of components so an association can fund their eventual replacement, while a structural inspection is a physical examination of the building.
Operationally, structural integrity is a live concern in Maryland despite the absence of an inspection mandate, because Ocean City's oceanfront corridor holds a dense stock of high-rise condominium towers along the roughly 94th-to-117th Street stretch known as Hi-Rise Row, developed in the 1970s and 1980s and exposed to storm wind, surge, and salt-air corrosion.5 Nationally, this places Maryland between structural-mandate states such as Florida, which adopted milestone inspections and SIRS in 2022, and reserve-study states that fund replacement without inspecting the structure. The sections below set out the statutory and regulatory framework, the specific compliance obligations and their sources, recent legislative and judicial activity, and Maryland's national position.
Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework
2A. The Maryland Condominium Act: maintenance, insurance, and the 2022 reserve study requirement
The Maryland Condominium Act, codified at Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-101 et seq., governs condominiums statewide; the separate Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Real Property Title 11B) governs non-condominium planned communities and sits outside the scope of this page, though it carries a parallel version of the 2022 reserve requirement. The foundational maintenance obligation appears at Section 11-108.1: except as otherwise provided by the declaration or bylaws, and subject to the insurance provisions of Section 11-114, the council of unit owners is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements, and each unit owner is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of the owner's unit.1 This is a general standard of responsibility, not a fixed-schedule inspection requirement, and the allocation between council and owner can be modified by the governing documents.
The 2022 reserve study requirement, codified for condominiums at Section 11-109.4, requires the governing body of a residential condominium to obtain an independent reserve study and to update it at least every five years.2 The requirement was created statewide by House Bill 107 (2022, Chapter 664), which took effect October 1, 2022, and extended to the entire state a reserve regime that previously applied only in Prince George's County and Montgomery County.4
Compliance deadlines are phased by county and by the date of any prior study: associations outside Prince George's and Montgomery Counties that hadn't obtained a study since October 1, 2018 were required to obtain one by October 1, 2023, with updates at least every five years after that.2 A reserve study must be prepared by a qualified person — a licensed architect or engineer, a designated reserve specialist or professional reserve analyst, or a person who has prepared a set number of studies — must be available for inspection by unit owners, and must be reviewed by the governing body in connection with the annual budget.2
The statute is a funding tool. It doesn't require a scheduled structural or milestone inspection, and it doesn't use Florida's SIRS framework.
The Act's insurance obligation sits at Section 11-114, which requires the council of unit owners to maintain property insurance on the common elements and units (exclusive of improvements and betterments installed by owners) and to promptly repair or replace damaged or destroyed common elements and units.6 Read together, Sections 11-108.1, 11-109.4, and 11-114 impose a general duty to maintain, a duty to fund future replacement, and a duty to insure. None of the three imposes a periodic obligation to physically inspect the building structure.
2B. Building performance standards, fire and life safety, and elevators
Maryland's building code is the Maryland Building Performance Standards (MBPS), which requires every local jurisdiction to adopt the same editions of the International Building Code, International Residential Code, and International Energy Conservation Code, with state modifications; local jurisdictions administer and enforce the code, and may amend it to suit local conditions within limits.3 Because enforcement is local, the authority with jurisdiction over a high-rise or multifamily condominium is the building department of the county or municipality where it sits, and larger jurisdictions such as Montgomery County and Baltimore operate their own strong local programs.3 The MBPS governs construction, alteration, and occupancy; it doesn't impose a recurring structural re-inspection of an existing condominium's envelope.
Fire and life safety is enforced by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, an agency of the Maryland Department of State Police, which enforces the State Fire Prevention Code through plan review, acceptance testing, and on-site inspections coordinated with local building authorities.7 Several jurisdictions, including Prince George's County, Baltimore County, and Howard County, operate their own fire marshal or code-enforcement offices that conduct preventive inspections under both the local and state fire codes.8 These programs impose ongoing fire and life-safety obligations, but they're directed at fire protection systems and occupancy conditions, not at structural integrity.
Elevators, escalators, and related conveyances are administered by the Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry, through its Safety Inspection Unit.9 State law requires a periodic annual inspection of each elevator unit and prohibits operation without a valid certificate of inspection issued by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry; owners may contract with an authorized third-party qualified elevator inspector or use a state inspector, and must re-register units annually.10 Taken together, the building, fire, and elevator regimes impose obligations at construction and for specific systems — fire protection, elevators — but none of them creates the comprehensive periodic structural inspection of the building envelope that Florida mandates for older condominiums.
2C. Insurance, the declaration, and the practical inspection drivers
The statutory property and casualty insurance requirement under Section 11-114 is the only insurance obligation the Condominium Act imposes.6 In practice, the more demanding inspection triggers are market-driven: property insurers commonly condition coverage or renewal on roof, wiring, plumbing, and general-condition inspections, and on evidence of adequate reserves. Those carrier conditions are contractual, not statutory.
The recorded declaration and bylaws are the operative documents for inspection cadence at most Maryland condominiums; because Section 11-108.1 lets the declaration and bylaws reallocate maintenance responsibility, a given building's inspection schedule is typically set by its own governing documents and its board rather than by statute.1 At the corporate-formality level, a council of unit owners may be incorporated as a nonstock corporation and is then subject to the Maryland Corporations and Associations Article, Title 5, Subtitle 2, to the extent not inconsistent with the Condominium Act; those corporate provisions govern governance formalities and impose no inspection duty.11
The operational takeaway: absent a statutory inspection mandate, a Maryland condominium's actual inspection obligations come from the building performance standards and local codes, insurer conditions, and the declaration, read together.
Section 3: Compliance obligations
The following map groups what a Maryland condominium must actually do regarding safety inspections, with the source type identified for each obligation. There's no single Maryland condominium safety-inspection statute; most obligations are code-based, insurer-driven, or declaration-based.
A. Structural and building-envelope obligations
- The council of unit owners must maintain, repair, and replace the common elements, which include the structure and envelope unless the declaration provides otherwise (source type: statutory, Section 11-108.1).1 This is a general duty to maintain plus building-code compliance, not a periodic statutory structural inspection.
- New construction, additions, and alterations must comply with the Maryland Building Performance Standards as adopted and enforced by the local jurisdiction (source type: building code).3
- Any structural inspection cadence beyond code compliance is set by the recorded declaration and bylaws or by board decision (source type: declaration-driven).1
B. Fire and life-safety obligations
- Condominium buildings are subject to the State Fire Prevention Code, enforced by the Office of the State Fire Marshal within the Department of State Police, through plan review and inspections (source type: fire code).7
- In jurisdictions with local fire marshal or code-enforcement offices — for example Prince George's, Baltimore, and Howard Counties — those offices conduct preventive fire inspections under the local and state fire codes (source type: fire code).8
C. Elevator and mechanical-systems obligations
- Each elevator unit in a condominium must undergo a periodic annual inspection and hold a valid certificate of inspection issued by the Commissioner of Labor and Industry; operation without a current certificate is prohibited (source type: statutory, administered by the Department of Labor).10
- Owners must re-register elevator units annually with the Division of Labor and Industry (source type: statutory).9
D. Reserve, insurance, and disclosure obligations
- The governing body must obtain an independent reserve study and update it at least every five years (source type: statutory, Section 11-109.4).2
- As of 2025 legislation effective October 1, 2025, the annual budget must include reserve funding in accordance with the most recent reserve study and the governing body must adopt a funding plan (source type: statutory, Section 11-109.2 as amended).12
- The council of unit owners must maintain property and casualty insurance on the common elements and units under Section 11-114 (source type: statutory);6 carrier-imposed condition inspections are separate and market-driven (source type: insurance-driven).
- The reserve study must be available for inspection by unit owners and summarized with the proposed annual budget (source type: statutory).2
- Developers owe implied warranties on the common elements, including structural elements, under Section 11-131, which the council may enforce (source type: statutory).13
Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity
A. Recent bills
HB 292 · 2025 Session
HB 292 and its cross-filed companion Senate Bill 63 (Chapter 518) amend the annual budget provisions of the Condominium Act to require that the budget include reserve funding in accordance with the most recent reserve study, that the governing body prepare a funding plan, and that reserve contributions be deposited by the last day of each fiscal year; the law adds a narrow financial-hardship deviation by a two-thirds owner vote.[12] It strengthens the funding side of the 2022 reserve regime and doesn't create a structural or milestone inspection.
| Property managers | Build reserve contributions matching the current study into each annual budget and document a funding plan. |
| HOA board members | Adopt the funding plan and deposit reserve funds by fiscal year-end, or invoke the hardship deviation by two-thirds vote. |
| Community association attorneys | Advise boards on funding-plan compliance and on the conditions and documentation required to claim the hardship exception. |
| Homeowners | Expect assessments to reflect the study's recommended funding level, reducing the risk of large future special assessments. |
HB 956 · 2026 Session
HB 956 directs the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to study condominium buildings in the state that are more than 40 years old, including unit counts, reserve-study history, and reserve adequacy, and to report to the General Assembly on or before December 1, 2026.[14] It imposes no new obligation on associations and creates no inspection mandate, but it signals legislative attention to aging condominium stock and may inform future proposals.
| Property managers | No action required now; monitor the December 2026 DHCD report for signals of future requirements. |
| HOA board members | Aging buildings may want current reserve studies and condition records in anticipation of possible future legislation. |
| Community association attorneys | Track the DHCD study as a potential precursor to structural or reserve legislation in later sessions. |
| Homeowners | Owners in buildings over 40 years old should note the state is examining the financial and structural health of older condominiums. |
No bill enacted in the past 24 months creates a condominium structural or milestone inspection regime or a SIRS-style requirement. A separate 2026 measure, SB 747/HB 469, requires individual unit owners to carry HO-6 coverage effective October 1, 2027; it addresses insurance allocation, not structural inspection.
B. Recent appellate rulings
No published Maryland appellate opinion in the past 36 months addresses a condominium council of unit owners' duty to maintain, repair, or replace common elements, or condominium water-intrusion, structural-defect, or construction-defect liability affecting maintenance obligations. The one recent condominium-related opinion from the Supreme Court of Maryland, The Council of Unit Owners of the Millrace Condominium, Inc. v. Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, P.A. (No. 58, Sept. Term 2025, filed July 13, 2026), is a malicious-use-of-process and anti-SLAPP decision that turns on the "special injury" pleading element and doesn't bear on maintenance or defect obligations.15 The controlling Maryland authority on an association's duty to investigate and pursue common-element defects remains Greenstein v. Council of Unit Owners of Avalon Court Six Condominium, Inc., 201 Md. App. 186 (2011), which predates the current window and held that an association can be liable to its unit owners for negligently failing to timely investigate water intrusion and pursue the developer.16
C. Active legislative debates
Momentum since 2022 has focused on reserve funding rather than structural inspection, and the 2026 DHCD study of condominiums over 40 years old is the closest active step toward examining the structural condition of aging coastal and high-rise stock.14 No milestone or structural inspection mandate is pending as of this review.
Section 5: National positioning and related coverage
Maryland sits in the middle of the national condo-safety spectrum. At one end are structural-mandate states led by Florida, which after the 2021 Surfside collapse adopted, through Senate Bill 4-D signed May 26, 2022, milestone structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or taller and mandatory structural integrity reserve studies that funding budgets may no longer waive; under Florida Statutes Section 553.899, the initial milestone inspection is due by December 31 of the year the building reaches 30 years of age, or 25 years if within three miles of a coastline, and every 10 years after that.17
California occupies an adjacent category with its exterior elevated element inspections under Civil Code Section 5551, added by SB 326, which require condominium associations to inspect wood-supported balconies, decks, and walkways, with the first inspection due by January 1, 2025 and every nine years after that in coordination with the reserve study.18 Maryland, by contrast, requires reserve studies but not structural inspections.
For multi-state operators the practical implication is direct: a firm managing Florida condominiums must not assume Florida's milestone or SIRS obligations exist in Maryland, and the absence of a Maryland mandate doesn't eliminate liability, because the duty to maintain, the building and fire codes, insurer conditions, and the reserve-study requirement all still apply. As of this review, Maryland shows legislative momentum toward reserve funding and a study of aging buildings, not toward a structural or milestone inspection mandate. Maryland's 2022 reserve-study mandate does double duty here: the same reserve study that Section 11-109.4 requires every five years supplies much of the reserve-funding and physical-condition documentation that federal FHA and VA project-approval review independently consumes, so a study surfacing a funding shortfall can complicate a Maryland building's ability to obtain or keep FHA-approved status even though FHA approval, VA approval, and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac eligibility remain three fully independent determinations.19
Related Maryland HOA Topics
- Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-108.1, Responsibility for Maintenance, Repair, and Replacement (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-109.4, Reserve Study of Condominium Common Elements (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- Maryland Building Performance Standards, Building Codes Administration (Maryland Department of Labor) ↩
- House Bill 107 (2022), Chapter 664, Reserve Studies (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- Ocean City oceanfront high-rise condominium stock, Hi-Rise Row (94th to 117th Streets) (Grant Fritschle real estate) ↩
- Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-114, Required Insurance Coverage; Reconstruction (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- Office of the State Fire Marshal, Code Enforcement, Licensing and Regulation (Maryland Department of State Police) ↩
- Fire Safety Inspections, Office of the State Fire Marshal ↩
- Elevator and Escalator Safety, Safety Inspection, Division of Labor and Industry (Maryland Department of Labor) ↩
- Maryland Elevator Safety Law, References, and Publications, Division of Labor and Industry (Maryland Department of Labor) ↩
- Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-109(d), Council of Unit Owners (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- House Bill 292 (2025), Chapter 519, Funding of Reserve Accounts and Preparation of Funding Plans (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- Md. Code, Real Property Section 11-131, Implied Warranties (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- House Bill 956 (2026), Condominiums - Buildings More Than 40 Years Old - Study (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
- The Council of Unit Owners of the Millrace Condominium, Inc. v. Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, P.A., No. 58, Sept. Term 2025 (Supreme Court of Maryland) ↩
- Greenstein v. Council of Unit Owners of Avalon Court Six Condominium, Inc., 201 Md. App. 186 (2011) (Maryland Judiciary) ↩
- Florida milestone structural inspection requirements (Senate Bill 4-D; Florida Statutes Section 553.899) (St. Johns County) ↩
- California Civil Code Section 5551 (SB 326), Exterior Elevated Element Inspections (Davis-Stirling Act reference) ↩
- HUD, FHA Condominiums (insurance coverage, financial condition, pending legal action, physical property condition; projects must comply with applicable state law and remain in good standing) ↩
Stay on top of Maryland HOA law
Every week: new maryland legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.