The cost is not theoretical, and 2026 supplies the examples

Arguments for uniform acts are usually made in the abstract. Maryland's 2026 record makes the case concretely, because a year of parallel drafting across three statutes produced three separate discrepancies.

A wrong word. The 2026 Annual Corrective Bill, Chapter 153, fixed an erroneous reference to a “condominium” in HOA Act § 11B-111.5(a) — a provision governing homeowners associations that described the wrong entity.³

An exemption that exists in one form and not the others. Chapter 375 of 2025 bars associations from prohibiting a licensed family child care home. As reported, an age-restricted cooperative is exempt — and the age-restriction exemption was removed from the condominium and HOA versions. Three 55-plus communities, three answers, depending on which statute they were organised under.⁴

A section number nobody agrees on. Chapters 523 and 522 of 2025 bar an association from requiring sensitive information as a condition of using recreational common areas. The legislature's own record puts the HOA provision at § 11B-111.11; a Maryland firm's summary cites § 11B-112.12(a). Whichever is right, the confusion exists because the same rule was written into three places at once.

Every substantive Maryland community-association change now requires triple drafting. The 2026 sign-display act amended § 11-111.2, § 11B-111.2 and § 5-6B-23 simultaneously; the reserve-funding act reached § 5-6B-26.1, §§ 11-109.2 and 11-109.4, and §§ 11B-112.2 and 11B-112.3. Three chances for the versions to diverge, every time.

What Maryland has instead of consolidation

Convergence by accumulation. The three statutes are drifting together through parallel amendment rather than being merged, and the 2025–2026 sessions accelerated it:

• Reserve funding — mandated across all three forms from 1 October 2025.
• Candidate and proposition signs — 45-day window across all three from 28 April 2026.
• Family child care homes — protected across all three from 1 October 2025, with the co-op asymmetry noted above.
• Sensitive information — barred across all three from 1 October 2025.
• EV charging — board-side protection in the condominium and HOA Acts from 1 October 2026. Not extended to cooperatives.

That last line is the point. Piecemeal convergence leaves gaps, and nobody is tracking which form has which rule. A consolidated act would make the question “does this apply to co-ops?” unnecessary; the current architecture makes it a research task on every provision.

Maryland's two county commissions handle this by ignoring the distinction — Montgomery County's and Prince George's County's programmes both reach condominiums, HOAs and cooperatives as one category, and Prince George's March 2026 rules apply to all three without differentiation. The local regulators have effectively adopted the unified model the State has not.

Why nobody is proposing it

Three reasons, all visible in the 2026 record.

The State has no standing body to propose it. Maryland has no active law-revision commission output on this subject, no task force since 2006, and — as of today — no legislative workgroup, interim briefing or stakeholder group on community associations at all. Consolidation is the kind of project that comes from a commission with staff and a multi-year mandate, not from an individual delegate's bill.

The advocacy groups want specific changes, not architecture. CAI's Maryland Legislative Action Committee tracked 98 bills in 2026 and its published asks are particular: narrow the independent-election requirement, exempt small associations, fix the proxy provisions. Maryland REALTORS' asks are about resale fees and timelines. CHARM Maryland wants a right to record meetings and a complaint office. None is asking for a rewrite.

The session that just ended could not pass a one-sentence fix. SB 955 and HB 955 proposed a single clause limiting the election requirement to contested races. Both died without a committee vote in either chamber. A legislature that cannot move a one-line technical amendment is not going to recodify three titles.

What to watch next

The 1 December 2026 report on condominium buildings over 40 years old is the only State document in the pipeline that might create an appetite for structural reform — because if it shows a widespread reserve shortfall, the follow-on questions about inspection, funding and enforcement reach all three forms at once, and answering them three times is where the case for consolidation gets made.

It is a thin thread. Pre-file drafting requests for the 2027 session are due 20 November 2026, ten days before the report, and nothing about a rewrite has been announced by anyone.