Maryland HOA Flag Display

Section 1: Overview — Flag display rules for Maryland HOAs

Start with what Maryland forbids. A homeowners association, a condominium, a cooperative, or a landlord may not prohibit one portable, removable United States flag displayed in a respectful manner. That protection lives in Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128, and it carries a caveat: the board or landlord may still set reasonable rules on placement, on the manner of display, and on any flagpole used to fly the flag. Every other flag answers to the recorded covenants and CC&Rs.¹ A federal law sets the floor beneath all of this. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, codified at 4 U.S.C. § 5, bars covered associations across the country from restricting a member's display of the U.S. flag on the member's own property or area of exclusive possession.² Maryland's statute reaches further than a typical flag law. Section 14-128 covers HOAs, condominiums, housing cooperatives, and the landlord-tenant relationship alike.¹ The surrounding framework comes from the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Real Property §§ 11B-101 et seq.) for planned communities³ and the Maryland Condominium Act (Real Property §§ 11-101 et seq.) for condominiums.⁴ When the association process cannot settle a flag dispute, it moves to a Maryland circuit court, and from there to the Appellate Court of Maryland and then the Supreme Court of Maryland — the two appellate courts renamed effective December 14, 2022.⁵ The sections that follow lay out the federal floor, the state statute, the role of the covenants, and what an association may and may not do.

Quick-Reference: Flag display rules at a glance (Maryland)

Section 2: The legal framework

2A. The federal floor: Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005

The federal baseline is the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572. The House passed it on June 27, 2006, the Senate passed it on July 17, 2006, and President George W. Bush signed it on July 24, 2006; Congress set it out as a statutory note to 4 U.S.C. § 5.⁸ The act says a condominium association, a cooperative association, or a residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which the member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use.² Those three covered entity types capture the common forms of community association. The act carves out two things: nothing in it permits a display inconsistent with the Federal Flag Code, and nothing bars a reasonable restriction on the time, place, or manner of displaying the flag that is necessary to protect a substantial interest of the association.² Two limits matter for Maryland readers. First, the act reaches only the flag of the United States, defined by reference to 4 U.S.C. § 3, and only a display consistent with chapter 1 of Title 4.² It does not protect a state flag, a military flag, or any other flag. Second, the act supplies no enforcement mechanism and no private right of action. A federal court said so in Murphree v. Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb Master Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 3:13-cv-713-J34MCR (M.D. Fla. 2014), which held that the act "does not provide any enforcement mechanism, or explicitly create a private right of action for individuals such as Murphree to bring a lawsuit against a condominium association," and added that "nothing in the language, structure or legislative history of the Act creates a private right of action against such entities, even by implication."⁷ Practical enforcement therefore runs through state law and the recorded governing documents.

2B. Maryland's flag statute, Real Property § 14-128

Maryland writes its own protection into Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128, titled "Display of United States Flag by Homeowner or Tenant." Subsection (a) sets the scope: the section applies to any residential property, including property subject to Title 8, Title 8A, Title 11 (the Condominium Act), Title 11A, or Title 11B (the Homeowners Association Act) of the Real Property Article, or Title 5, Subtitle 6B of the Corporations and Associations Article (the Cooperative Housing Corporation Act).¹ Subsections (b) and (c) state the protection. Regardless of the terms of any contract, deed, covenant, restriction, declaration, rule, bylaw, lease agreement, or rental agreement, a homeowner or tenant may display one portable, removable flag of the United States in a respectful manner, consistent with 4 U.S.C. §§ 4 through 10, subject to reasonable rules adopted under subsection (d); no such document may prohibit or unduly restrict that right.¹ Subsection (d) marks the permitted regulation. The board of directors of a condominium, a homeowners association, or a housing cooperative — or a landlord — may adopt reasonable rules on the placement and manner of display of the U.S. flag and on a flagpole used to display it. Before adopting such a rule, the board or landlord must hold an open meeting at which affected homeowners and tenants may be heard, and must give advance notice of that meeting.¹ The breadth is the distinctive feature. Section 14-128 reaches HOAs, condominiums, cooperatives, and the landlord-tenant relationship, and it expressly authorizes rules on a flagpole — broader entity coverage than a typical HOA-only flag statute. On remedy, the section folds the federal respectful-display standard into Maryland law but sets out no damages or fee provision of its own; an owner enforces it as an ordinary state statute through the Maryland courts, a sharp contrast with the federal act's silence on a private right of action. On scope, § 14-128 protects only one portable, removable U.S. flag. The Maryland state flag and every other flag stay with the recorded covenants and CC&Rs.

2C. The governing framework, covenants, and CC&Rs

The statutes around § 14-128 supply the rest of the framework. The Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Md. Code, Real Property §§ 11B-101 through 11B-118) governs HOAs and planned communities and, by its own terms, does not reach condominiums or cooperatives.³ The Maryland Condominium Act (Md. Code, Real Property §§ 11-101 through 11-143) governs condominiums, and § 11-142 addresses those created before July 1, 1982.⁴ Cooperatives fall under the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act (Corporations and Associations, Title 5, Subtitle 6B).¹ The Maryland Contract Lien Act (Real Property §§ 14-201 through 14-206) governs association liens.⁹ Maryland is not a UCIOA state; it keeps its own Homeowners Association Act and Condominium Act. The recorded covenants and CC&Rs govern every flag § 14-128 does not protect, including the Maryland state flag and the military, POW-MIA, first-responder, service, decorative, and message flags. The order of precedence runs from federal law and § 14-128, to the recorded declaration and covenants, to the bylaws, and then to board rules. A covenant or flag dispute goes to a Maryland circuit court, with appeals to the Appellate Court of Maryland (formerly the Court of Special Appeals) and then the Supreme Court of Maryland (formerly the Court of Appeals), both renamed effective December 14, 2022.⁵ In practice, a property manager applies the federal U.S.-flag floor and § 14-128 to the U.S. flag, applies any reasonable board rule on placement, manner, and flagpole, and reads the covenants for every other flag.

Section 3: What a Maryland association can and cannot do

A. Flags the association must permit

Under the federal act, a covered association may not restrict a member's display of the U.S. flag on the member's own property or area of exclusive possession (FEDERAL LAW).² Under Real Property § 14-128, no one may prohibit a homeowner or tenant from displaying one portable, removable U.S. flag in a respectful manner, and that protection reaches HOAs, condominiums, cooperatives, and the landlord-tenant relationship (MARYLAND STATUTE).¹ No Maryland statute compels an association to permit any flag other than the U.S. flag; every other flag is a matter for the covenants (CC&Rs).

B. Reasonable restrictions the association may impose

Under § 14-128(d), the board or landlord may adopt reasonable rules on the placement and manner of display of the U.S. flag and on a flagpole used to display it, after an open meeting with notice (MARYLAND STATUTE).¹ The federal act separately allows a reasonable time, place, or manner restriction necessary to protect a substantial interest of the association (FEDERAL LAW).² Size, number, placement, and flagpole rules on all flags other than the protected U.S. flag come through the covenants and CC&Rs (CC&Rs). Any rule reaches its limit where it would prohibit or unduly restrict the protected U.S. flag (MARYLAND STATUTE).¹

C. Actions the association or landlord may not take

An association or landlord may not prohibit one portable, removable U.S. flag displayed respectfully, and may not adopt a rule that unduly restricts it (MARYLAND STATUTE).¹ It may not enforce a covenant or rule that restricts or prevents display of the U.S. flag on the member's own property beyond a reasonable time, place, or manner restriction (FEDERAL LAW).² And if a board enforces a facially valid rule selectively or as a pretext against a flag display, it exposes itself to challenge under the same statute and the covenants (MARYLAND STATUTE; CC&Rs).¹

D. Enforcement and dispute resolution

The federal act carries no private right of action, so an owner cannot sue an association under it (FEDERAL LAW).⁷ Section 14-128 is enforceable through the Maryland courts as a state statute; it creates no special remedy, so a dispute proceeds as ordinary civil enforcement (MARYLAND STATUTE).¹ A Maryland flag dispute goes first through the association process and, if it continues, to a Maryland circuit court, with appeals running through the Appellate Court of Maryland to the Supreme Court of Maryland (MARYLAND STATUTE).⁵ Some counties run commissions on common ownership communities that hear certain disputes. Montgomery County's Commission on Common Ownership Communities, created by Chapter 10B of the County Code, "can hear and resolve certain disputes between members of the communities and their governing bodies, and its decisions are legally binding on the parties" (county law),¹⁰ and Prince George's County operates a commission with an alternative dispute resolution process (county law).¹¹ Because an association's fining authority is often the pressure point in a flag dispute, a fine imposed to enforce a rule that unduly restricts the protected U.S. flag is open to challenge (MARYLAND STATUTE; CC&Rs).¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the Maryland General Assembly over the past 24 months created or amended the substantive flag-display rule in Real Property § 14-128. The Community Associations Institute's Maryland Legislative Action Committee reported that it "tracked 98 bills of relevance across both chambers" and "submitted testimony on 42 different bills" during the 2026 session (January 14 to April 13, 2026), advocating for "the approximately 1,062,000 Marylanders living in 406,100 homes in more than 7,100 community associations." None of the session's community-association measures touched the flag rule; they concerned elections, insurance, reserves, and a proposed common-ownership ombudsman.¹²

B. Recent rulings

No decision from a Maryland circuit court, the Appellate Court of Maryland, or the Supreme Court of Maryland in the past 36 months applies Real Property § 14-128 or the federal flag act to a community-association flag dispute. The section has generated essentially no reported Maryland appellate case law. The decision most often cited on the federal act is an out-of-state federal ruling, Murphree v. Tides Condominium (M.D. Fla. 2014), not a Maryland one.⁷

C. Active legislative debates

No active Maryland legislative debate is specific to flag display in community associations. The flag rule sits in Real Property § 14-128 and has stayed substantively stable.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland belongs to the narrow, U.S.-flag-only statute states, alongside Alabama (Ala. Code § 35-1-5)¹³ and Louisiana (La. R.S. 9:1114), which protect the American flag and leave every other flag to the covenants. Two features set Maryland apart within that group: § 14-128 reaches across HOAs, condominiums, cooperatives, and the landlord-tenant relationship, and it expressly authorizes board rules on a flagpole.¹ That places Maryland apart from the content-neutral states such as Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5),¹⁴ from the broad enumerated-list states such as Arizona, Florida (Fla. Stat. § 720.304),¹⁵ and Idaho (Idaho Code § 55-3210),¹⁶ from the moderate two-flag states such as Connecticut (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261b) and Kansas, and from the federal-floor-only states such as Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Maine. For a multi-state operator, Maryland folds the federal U.S.-flag floor into state law and adds reasonable flagpole-rule authority, so the operator applies § 14-128 to the U.S. flag, reads the covenants for everything else, and uses the renamed appellate courts. Because the federal U.S.-flag floor is identical in every state, the answer for the U.S. flag itself does not change at the Maryland border.

HOA Weekly's Maryland Flag Display coverage updates quarterly as the Maryland General Assembly and the Maryland appellate courts — the Appellate Court of Maryland and the Supreme Court of Maryland — act. Federal frameworks, including the flag act plus the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD, apply to Maryland associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. § 14-128, Display of United States Flag by Homeowner or Tenant (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
2. 4 U.S.C. § 5, statutory note, Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 (Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. Code) ↩
3. Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. §§ 11B-101 et seq., Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
4. Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. §§ 11-101 et seq., Maryland Condominium Act, including § 11-142 (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
5. Voter-approved constitutional change renames high courts to Supreme and Appellate Court of Maryland, Maryland Judiciary (Dec. 14, 2022) ↩
6. Federal Flag Code, 4 U.S.C. ch. 1 (Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. Code) ↩
7. Murphree v. Tides Condominium at Sweetwater by Del Webb Master Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 3:13-cv-713-J34MCR (M.D. Fla. Mar. 31, 2014) ↩
8. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572 (July 24, 2006) (U.S. Government Publishing Office) ↩
9. Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. §§ 14-201 through 14-206, Maryland Contract Lien Act (Maryland General Assembly) ↩
10. Commission on Common Ownership Communities, Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs ↩
11. Commission on Common Ownership Communities (CCOC), Prince George's County ↩
12. 2026 Maryland End of Legislative Session Report, Community Associations Institute Advocacy Blog ↩
13. Ala. Code § 35-1-5, Display of United States Flag ↩
14. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5, Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (Colorado Division of Real Estate) ↩
15. Fla. Stat. § 720.304, Right to display flags (Online Sunshine, Florida Legislature) ↩
16. Idaho Code § 55-3210, Flags, Idaho Homeowner's Association Act ↩