2026-09-12 · Maryland · Regulation

What happened. The City of Gaithersburg has taken its community associations out of the Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities. The Mayor and City Council approved the change on 7 April 2025; the ordinance took effect 27 April 2025, and became operative for common ownership communities on 1 July 2025.¹

Montgomery County's CCOC is the most active local HOA tribunal in the United States — roughly 1,100 registered associations, binding decisions, a 15-member commission. Gaithersburg opted into it by Ordinance No. 2835, adopted 3 May 2021. The 2025 ordinance repeals that opt-in by amending § 2-6 of the City Code, the section exempting the city from Montgomery County legislation.¹

What changes for a Gaithersburg association

Three things:

• Registration is no longer mandatory. City associations are not required to register with the CCOC or pay the county's per-unit fee.
• County Chapter 10B no longer applies inside city limits — which is the substantive point, because Chapter 10B is where the county's association-governance requirements live.
• The binding dispute forum is gone by default. An owner with a complaint against a city association is directed instead to the Montgomery County Conflict Resolution Center and to the state housing department.¹

The exit is not absolute. An individual Gaithersburg association may still register voluntarily with the CCOC, and one that does remains subject to Chapter 10B. So the city converted a mandate into an option, association by association.

1. City of Gaithersburg, Commission on Common Ownership Communities — the city's account of its repeal of the opt-in: approved 7 April 2025, ordinance effective 27 April 2025, operative for communities 1 July 2025, with voluntary registration still available ↩
2. Montgomery County Register, adopted regulations — Executive Regulation MCER No. 20-25, Establishment of Annual Registration Fee for Common Ownership Communities, adopted and effective 29 July 2025 ↩
3. Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Common Ownership Community registration fee schedule — per-unit fee history through FY2024, the $500 civil fine with each day a separate offence, and ineligibility to file a dispute under County Code § 10B-7(a)(2) ↩
4. Montgomery County Council, Expedited Bill 7-25, Common Ownership Communities – Registration Fees — public hearing 25 March 2025 ↩