Maryland HOA Estoppel & Resale

Section 1: Overview — Estoppel and resale disclosure in Maryland

Maryland requires a resale certificate for condominium sales and resale disclosures for homeowners association sales, under two separate statutes in the Real Property article. The condominium instrument sits in the Maryland Condominium Act at Md. Code, Real Property § 11-135, and the homeowners association instrument sits in the Maryland Homeowners Association Act at § 11B-106 (with § 11B-107 covering certain non-residential initial sales).^1,2 These are non-uniform statutory instruments drafted by the Maryland General Assembly; the condominium document is called a "resale certificate" and the homeowners association document is a set of "resale disclosures" (the statute labels the package "MHAA information"). Neither is a Florida-style "estoppel certificate," and neither derives from the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, which Maryland didn't adopt.^1,2

The two regimes reach different communities: condominiums fall under § 11-135, and homeowners associations under § 11B-106. In each, the association prepares the financial and governance information, the selling owner delivers it to the buyer, and the buyer gains a statutory right to rescind the contract within a stated window after receiving the complete package.^1,2 Nationally, Maryland is a non-uniform statutory-disclosure state that reaches both community types through separate acts, which distinguishes it from single-statute UCIOA states such as Alaska. The scale is significant: the Community Associations Institute counts about 1,062,000 Marylanders living in 406,100 homes across more than 7,100 community associations, so the resale certificate is a routine, high-volume compliance event.⁴ The sections ahead set out the statutory architecture, the operational lifecycle of a request, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The statutory requirements

2A. The condominium resale certificate and the homeowners association resale disclosures

The condominium requirement lives at Md. Code, Real Property § 11-135, within the Maryland Condominium Act (§ 11-101 et seq.). The homeowners association requirement lives at § 11B-106 of the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, with § 11B-107 governing certain initial sales of lots not intended for residential occupancy.^1,2 Both are non-uniform Maryland provisions, not UCIOA section 4-108 or 4-109 resale certificates.

An owner-to-owner resale triggers both documents. For a condominium, a contract for the resale of a unit by an owner other than a developer isn't enforceable unless the selling owner furnishes the buyer, not later than 15 days before closing, a copy of the declaration, the bylaws, the rules, and a certificate containing the enumerated financial and governance information.¹ The council of unit owners (or its managing agent) must furnish that certificate within 20 days after a written request by a unit owner and payment of a reasonable fee.¹ For a homeowners association, the vendor must give the buyer the required disclosures on or before entering the contract or within 20 calendar days of entering it, and the association or its managing agent must supply that information within 20 days after a written request by a lot owner other than a declarant and payment of the fee.²

On fees, Maryland does set dollar ceilings, and they aren't silent or open-ended. Each act caps the base preparation fee at a maximum of $250. Under § 11-135(c)(4)(i), the Department of Housing and Community Development "shall adjust the maximum fee ... every 2 years, beginning October 1, 2018, to reflect any aggregate increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI–U) for the Washington Metropolitan Area, or any successor index, for the previous 2 years," and publishes the list on its website.^1,2,3 A condominium may add up to $100 for a required unit inspection; a homeowners association may add up to $50 for a required inspection.^1,2 Both acts permit an expedited fee of up to $50 for delivery within 14 days and up to $100 for delivery within 7 days.^1,2 This is a capped-reasonable-fee model, not a Florida-style indexed estoppel fee, but the biennial CPI adjustment means the ceiling isn't permanently fixed at $250.

Developer first sales run on a separate track. Initial sales by a declarant use Maryland's offering-disclosure provisions (the public offering statement) rather than the resale instrument: the condominium public offering statement under § 11-126 and the homeowners association initial-sale disclosures under § 11B-105.^1,2 The resale certificate and resale disclosures govern owner-to-owner resales only.

2B. Required contents and the seller's package

For condominiums, § 11-135(a)(4) requires the council's certificate to disclose the effect of any right of first refusal, the amount of the common expense assessment and any unpaid common expense or special assessment due from the selling owner, any other fees payable to the council, approved capital expenditures not in the current budget, the most recent balance sheet and income and expense statement, the current operating budget including the reserve study report or summary and the status of any reserve fund, any unsatisfied judgments or pending lawsuits (excluding assessment collection suits), a description of insurance policies, any known health or building code violations affecting the common elements, a description of recreational facilities, and any warranty-claim settlement statements.¹ The selling owner adds statements under § 11-135(a)(5) about known alteration or code violations, any extended lease, and, since October 1, 2024, actual knowledge of asbestos in the unit, plus a written notice of the owner's responsibility for the association's insurance deductible.¹

For homeowners associations, § 11B-106(b) requires the vendor to disclose whether the lot is in a development, the current monthly fees or assessments, the total fees and charges imposed in the prior fiscal year, whether any charges are delinquent, the management agent's contact information, whether the owner has actual knowledge of unsatisfied judgments or pending lawsuits against the association or of pending claims or covenant-violation actions against the lot, and copies of the articles, declaration, recorded covenants, bylaws, and rules.²

The broader package a selling owner delivers therefore pairs the association-prepared statement with the governing documents (declaration, bylaws, rules) so the buyer receives both the financial picture and the rules that will bind the lot or unit.^1,2 The disclosed assessment balance and any pending special assessment are the financial heart of the document: the certificate is the mechanism by which a buyer and closing agent learn the exact payoff figure and pending obligations before settlement.

2C. Binding effect, remedies, and scope

The condominium act carries an explicit binding effect. Under § 11-135(d), a purchaser is not liable for any unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount set forth in the certificate prepared by the council of unit owners, and a unit owner isn't liable to the purchaser for the council's failure or delay in providing the certificate.¹ This is the estoppel function: the figure the association states caps what it can later collect from the buyer. The homeowners association act doesn't contain an identical excess-liability cap; its protection operates through the contract-enforceability and rescission mechanics rather than a stated-figure ceiling.²

The purchaser's remedy for nondelivery is that the contract isn't enforceable by the seller or vendor until the required information is furnished, and the buyer holds a statutory right to rescind. A condominium buyer may rescind in writing within 7 days after receiving all required information, and that right cannot be waived, though it terminates at closing.¹ A homeowners association buyer who didn't receive the disclosures at least 5 calendar days before contracting has 5 calendar days to cancel after receiving them, and 3 calendar days to cancel after notice of a mandatory-fee change exceeding 10 percent or another material amendment.²

On scope, § 11-135 reaches condominium resales but doesn't apply to units used for nonresidential purposes or to foreclosure sales, and a reduced content set applies to a condominium of fewer than 7 units.¹ The homeowners association disclosures reach resales of any lot and initial sales in developments of 12 or fewer lots, and don't apply to foreclosure sales.² The leading judicial gloss on the binding effect is MRA Property Management, Inc. v. Armstrong, in which the Maryland high court held that where a council of unit owners and its management company violate the § 11-135 disclosure obligations "they engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices 'in the sale of consumer realty,'" and that such liability can attach even though the defendants were not parties to the sale and were not merchants.⁵

Section 3: The resale transaction in practice

A. Requesting the certificate

The statutory requester is the selling owner: for a condominium, a unit owner submits a written request to the council of unit owners; for a homeowners association, a lot owner other than a declarant submits a written request to the association.^1,2 In practice the request is generated by the seller's agent, a title company, or a closing attorney acting on the owner's behalf, and most managing agents accept requests through an online portal. The written request plus payment of the fee starts the statutory clock.^1,2

B. The statutory clock and delivery

Both acts require the association to furnish the information within 20 days after the written request and receipt of the fee.^1,2 The homeowners association act counts in calendar days; the condominium act doesn't specify a business-versus-calendar basis, so the count runs in calendar days by default.^1,2 For a condominium, the selling owner must in turn deliver the completed package to the buyer no later than 15 days before closing.¹ If the association is late, the condominium seller isn't liable to the buyer for the council's delay, but the contract remains unenforceable and the closing can't safely proceed until the buyer has received the full package and the rescission window has been satisfied.^1,2

C. Fees and refunds

Each act permits a base preparation fee capped at $250, adjusted biennially by DHCD for CPI, with condominiums adding up to $100 for a required inspection and homeowners associations up to $50.^1,2,3 Unlike Florida, Maryland doesn't tie the fee to an annually indexed statutory schedule with a hard single-number ceiling; it uses a capped reasonable fee subject to a biennial adjustment.^1,2 Both acts address expedited delivery, permitting up to $50 for 14-day and up to $100 for 7-day turnaround.^1,2 Neither act provides for a refund if the sale doesn't close, and the preparation fee is generally treated as non-refundable.^1,2

D. Consequences and the binding effect

Once a condominium certificate issues, § 11-135(d) prevents the association from later collecting from the purchaser any unpaid assessment or fee above the amount disclosed.¹ On association exposure, the condominium act shields a selling owner from liability for erroneous information the council supplied, and, following HB 1007 (2016), limits a council's or homeowners association's liability for errors and omissions in the content of the resale certificate to the amount of the fees paid for the certificate, a change enacted in direct response to MRA Property Management v. Armstrong; the council retains potential Consumer Protection Act exposure for misleading disclosures under that decision.^1,5 The purchaser's contract-cancellation remedy for nondelivery is the rescission right described above, available until the stated window closes or, for condominiums, until closing.^1,2

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent Maryland appellate rulings

No published Maryland appellate decision issued between July 2023 and July 2026 squarely interpreting § 11-135 or § 11B-106 resale disclosure was identified. The controlling appellate authority remains MRA Property Management, Inc. v. Armstrong, decided by the Court of Appeals of Maryland (renamed the Supreme Court of Maryland in December 2022).

C. Active legislative debates

Fee and timeline pressure continues. In the 2026 session, HB 1132 (the "Keeping Affordable Housing Affordable Act") would have shortened the condominium resale certificate delivery period from 20 to 10 days and lowered the base fee cap from $250 to $100; it died before enactment after opposition from community association advocates.⁸ Separate 2025 reserve-funding legislation (HB 292 / SB 63) tightened reserve study and funding-plan duties that feed the operating-budget and reserve disclosures inside the certificate, and is covered on HOA Weekly's Assessment Limits page.⁸

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland sits between the main national camps on resale disclosure. Hard-mandate states such as Florida use statutory estoppel certificates with short business-day clocks and indexed fee caps (Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8) for condominiums and § 720.30851 for homeowners associations); detailed-disclosure states such as California require a statutory resale package with enumerated documents and disclosure summaries (Davis-Stirling, Civ. Code § 4525 et seq.); UCIOA resale-certificate states such as Alaska, Colorado, and Washington require a resale certificate with a short turnaround, a reasonable fee, and a binding effect; and some states leave the matter to CC&R-only treatment with no statutory mechanism. Maryland straddles the categories: it has a non-uniform statutory resale certificate for condominiums with an explicit estoppel effect and a capped fee, plus a separate statutory disclosure regime for homeowners associations that works through contract unenforceability and rescission rather than an excess-liability cap. For a multi-state operator entering Maryland, the practical implication is to verify each act separately rather than assume a single uniform certificate, and to note that Maryland recently amended the condominium instrument (2024 asbestos disclosure) while leaving the core fee and deadline structure in place.

HOA Weekly's Maryland Estoppel and Resale coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the Appellate Court of Maryland and the Supreme Court of Maryland act. Federal frameworks also apply to Maryland associations regardless of the state regime, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act where a disclosed balance is being collected, along with the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

Footnotes

1. Md. Code, Real Property § 11-135 (Maryland Condominium Act, resale of unit) ↩
2. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-106 (Maryland Homeowners Association Act, resale of lot) ↩
3. Maryland DHCD, Common Ownership Communities ↩
4. CAI Maryland Legislative Action Committee, Maryland community association facts and figures ↩
5. MRA Property Management, Inc. v. Armstrong, 426 Md. 83, 43 A.3d 397 (2012) ↩
6. SB 46 (2024), Condominiums – Sales Contracts – Asbestos Disclosure, Chapter 291 ↩
7. HB 1221 (2025), Common Ownership Communities – Online Publication of Resale Disclosures ↩
8. CAI, 2026 Maryland End of Legislative Session Report ↩