There is no Maryland task force on community associations, and the deadline being cited comes from withdrawn bills
There is no Maryland task force on community associations, and the deadline being cited comes from withdrawn bills
2026-09-12 · Maryland · Regulation · Reported — unconfirmed
What happened. Nothing — and that is the story. Maryland has no Task Force on Common Ownership Communities. It has no active workgroup, advisory committee or stakeholder body studying condominium and HOA governance. The “31 December 2026” reporting deadline that circulates in search results and machine-generated summaries is real text, lifted from real bills — bills that their own sponsors withdrew.
We report this because it is the kind of error that gets repeated, and because a board or owner who believes a state task force is about to report on their sector is waiting for a document that does not exist.
The paper trail
Four filings, none surviving:
- HB 286 (2024), Task Force on Common Ownership Communities. Heard in House Environment and Transportation on 13 February 2024. That hearing is the last recorded action. Died in committee. Its reporting deadline: 31 December 2025.1
- HB 294 (2025), Delegate Holmes. Withdrawn by the sponsor on 10 February 2025. Reporting deadline in the bill: 31 December 2026.2
- SB 71 (2025), Senator Sydnor, the cross-file. Withdrawn by the sponsor on 27 January 2025. Same 31 December 2026 deadline.3
- 2026: no version was introduced at all.
So the widely quoted deadline comes from a pair of 2025 bills that were pulled within three weeks of each other, before either received a hearing.
The body that did exist, and expired twenty years ago
Maryland has had a Task Force on Common Ownership Communities exactly once. It was created by Chapter 469 of the Acts of 2005, reported to the Governor and the General Assembly in December 2006, and its authorisation expired on 31 December 2006. The Maryland State Archives lists it among defunct commissions.4
Its charge included whether Maryland should adopt the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act of 1994. Maryland did not, and still has not.
What Maryland created instead
The 2026 session did produce one study, and it is worth knowing precisely what it is and is not.
Chapter 779 of the Acts of 2026 (House Bill 956) requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to study every building in the State more than 40 years old containing a condominium, and to report to the General Assembly on or before 1 December 2026. It took effect 1 June 2026 and abrogates itself on 30 June 2027.5
Note the differences from a task force. It is a data-gathering exercise assigned to an agency, not a deliberative body. There are no members, no stakeholders, no meetings, no public participation, and no recommendations required. It asks six factual questions — how many such buildings, how many units in each, the average age and income of owners, the date of the most recent reserve study, and the gap between what each reserve fund holds and what it must hold.
And the deadline is 1 December 2026, not 31 December. Anyone conflating the two is merging a real obligation with a withdrawn bill's text.
We verified that Chapter 779 is the only such creation. Across every 2026 Maryland enactment carrying a condominium, HOA or cooperative subject index, no act creates a task force or workgroup.
The other absences, each searched for
Because this is a piece about what does not exist, the list is the point. Each of the following was looked for and not found.
No interim briefing. The General Assembly's own Summary Reports of Committees to the Legislative Policy Committee — 2025 Interim Report, published February 2026, runs to 80 pages and does not mention condominiums, common ownership, homeowners associations, reserve studies or an ombudsman once.6 The nearest item is a Maryland Insurance Administration briefing to House Economic Matters at its Cambridge retreat on 14–15 October 2025 about the homeowners' market generally — not condominium master policies.
Nothing on the 2026 interim calendar. The Department of Legislative Services' Dates of Interest — 2026 Interim schedules no condominium or HOA briefing. One thread remains open: an Insurance Administration item sits on the meetings calendar for 17 September 2026 with no published agenda.7
Nothing from the department that owes the report. DHCD's own 79-slide State of Maryland Housing 2026 Update, delivered to House Economic Matters on 27 January 2026, mentions condominiums, HOAs and reserves zero times — and its common-ownership-communities page does not acknowledge that the Chapter 779 study exists.8 The briefing predates the act, so this is not evidence the work is not happening. There is simply no public sign of it.
No published 2027 priorities. Not from CAI's Maryland Legislative Action Committee, which published a detailed 2026 scorecard and no forward agenda. Not from Maryland REALTORS, whose session summary is retrospective. Not from the Maryland Multi-Housing Association. Not from CHARM Maryland, the homeowner-reform group, which has published nothing since 8 April 2026.
No 2027 bills. None exist in the legislature's system. The pre-file drafting-request deadline is 20 November 2026 and pre-file approval is 10 December 2026, so the first 2027 bill numbers appear in late autumn.
No announced administration agenda. The only forward-looking statement on the public record is a single line in a DHCD press release of 26 May 2026: “Our team is already preparing for the 2027 session.” The 2026 housing agenda, announced on 7 January 2026, was entirely about production and supply and touched association governance nowhere.
Why a verified absence is worth publishing
Two reasons, both practical.
A board or manager deciding whether to engage with a state process needs to know there is no process to engage with. Time spent watching for a task force report is time not spent on the 1 October 2026 ADU local-law deadline, the 4 January 2027 GSE reserve floor, or the 1 October 2027 insurance mandate — all of which are real and dated.
And the fabrication risk on this particular subject is high. A withdrawn bill leaves its full text on a public website indefinitely, complete with a plausible reporting deadline, and nothing on the page announces that the deadline is hypothetical. That is a reliable source of confident, wrong summaries.
What to watch next
Late November. The Chapter 779 report is due 1 December 2026 and there is no interim output, so its arrival — or its absence — will be the first hard information about Maryland's aging condominium stock that the State has ever published.
The timing is awkward in a way worth noting: pre-file drafting requests are due 20 November, ten days before the report. A legislator who wants a 2027 bill built on its findings has to commission the drafting before the findings exist.
Related Maryland HOA Topics
- House Bill 286 (2024), Task Force on Common Ownership Communities — heard in House Environment and Transportation 13 February 2024, no further action, died in committee; reporting deadline of 31 December 2025 ↩
- House Bill 294 (2025), Task Force on Common Ownership Communities — withdrawn by the sponsor 10 February 2025; the source of the 31 December 2026 reporting deadline in circulation ↩
- Senate Bill 71 (2025) — the cross-file; withdrawn by the sponsor 27 January 2025 ↩
- Maryland State Archives, Maryland Manual — Task Force on Common Ownership Communities, created by Chapter 469 of the Acts of 2005, reported December 2006, authorisation expired 31 December 2006; listed among defunct commissions, with a charge including whether Maryland should adopt UCIOA (1994) ↩
- Chapter 779 of the Acts of 2026 (HB 956), enrolled text — the DHCD study of condominium buildings more than 40 years old, its six required findings, the 1 December 2026 report deadline, and the 30 June 2027 abrogation ↩
- Department of Legislative Services, Summary Reports of Committees to the Legislative Policy Committee — 2025 Interim Report, February 2026: no mention of condominiums, common ownership communities, homeowners associations, reserve studies or an ombudsman ↩
- Department of Legislative Services, Dates of Interest — 2026 Interim (24 April 2026): no condominium or HOA briefing scheduled; pre-file drafting requests due 20 November 2026, pre-file approval 10 December 2026, 2027 session convening 13 January 2027 ↩
- Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, Common Ownership Communities — the State's statutory information portal, carrying no reference to the Chapter 779 study as of 12 September 2026 ↩
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