Maryland HOA Mediation & Dispute Resolution

Key Findings

• Maryland runs on contracts and courts. It is not an administrative-forum state, and it has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA). Enforcement authority and remedies come from the recorded declaration and from three separate statutes, with the courts standing behind them.¹
• Both the Condominium Act (RP §11-113) and the Homeowners Association Act (RP §11B-111.10) spell out nearly identical dispute-settlement mechanisms. Each one demands a cease-and-desist demand, written notice, and a hearing before an association imposes sanctions. Legislation passed in 2022 added or reworked these rules, effective October 1, 2022.^2,3,4
• Under both mechanisms, the court awards fees to the prevailing party "as determined by the court," and associations collect unpaid assessments through liens under the Maryland Contract Lien Act.^2,5
• The latest statewide reform effort, 2026's House Bill 402 — which would have created an ombudsman unit, a document database, and a county-commission framework — passed the House 99 to 35 but died in the Senate. Its cross-file, Senate Bill 981, never left committee. Comparable task-force bills failed in 2023, 2024, and 2025.^6,7,8

Details

SECTION 1: Overview — How HOA disputes are resolved in Maryland

Maryland settles community-association disputes through a contract-and-court model. In a small number of jurisdictions, county-level Commissions on Common Ownership Communities offer an administrative forum as well. The state governs community associations through three separate statutes: the Maryland Condominium Act (Real Property (RP) Title 11), the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (RP Title 11B), and the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act (Corporations and Associations (CA) Title 5, Subtitle 6B).¹ Lawsuits move through the trial courts and, on appeal, to Maryland's two appellate courts. Those courts took new names on December 14, 2022: the former Court of Appeals is now the Supreme Court of Maryland, and the former Court of Special Appeals is now the Appellate Court of Maryland.⁹ The Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act (Courts and Judicial Proceedings (CJP) Title 3, Subtitle 2) governs arbitration clauses in recorded declarations, and the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) governs them when a contract involves interstate commerce; court-referred mediation runs under Maryland Rules Title 17.^10,11 The county commissions are a distinctive Maryland feature, but they operate only in the jurisdictions that created them. They are not a statewide agency.¹² Across the country, Maryland stands as a contract-and-court state with a limited set of county administrative commissions, and it has not adopted UCIOA. The sections that follow lay out the statutory framework, the general civil ADR and arbitration rules, the role of recorded declarations, the dispute-resolution pathways in practice, and the recent legislative and judicial activity.

SECTION 2: The dispute resolution framework

2A. Statutory dispute resolution under the three statutes

The Maryland Condominium Act sets out an express dispute-settlement mechanism at RP §11-113. The 2022 legislation that amended it — Chapter 282, House Bill 615, effective October 1, 2022 — bars a council of unit owners or a board of directors from fining an owner, suspending voting rights, or curtailing other rights for a rule violation until it follows a defined procedure. The association must issue a written cease-and-desist demand that identifies the violation and gives the owner at least 15 days to fix it, provide written notice of the right to request a hearing, and schedule that hearing at least 10 days after the request.^2,3 A unit owner may appeal a decision under this section to the Maryland courts, and the council or another unit owner may sue a noncompliant owner for damages or injunctive relief. RP §11-113(c)(2) entitles the prevailing party in such a proceeding to an award of counsel fees as the court determines.² Separately, RP §11-110 lets an association enforce unpaid assessments — along with interest of up to 18 percent per year, late charges, collection costs, and reasonable attorney's fees — by placing a lien under the Maryland Contract Lien Act (RP §14-201 et seq.).^13,5

The Maryland Homeowners Association Act carries a parallel, nearly identical mechanism at RP §11B-111.10, added by the same 2022 Act and effective the same day. It requires the same cease-and-desist, notice, and hearing sequence before a homeowners association fines a lot owner or suspends rights, it makes those decisions appealable to the courts, and at RP §11B-111.10(c)(2) it entitles the prevailing party to counsel fees as the court determines.⁴ RP §11B-117 governs HOA assessment liens, again enforced through the Maryland Contract Lien Act, and it gives those liens a limited priority over first mortgages — four months and $1,200.¹⁴

The Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act (CA §5-6B-01 et seq.) governs cooperatives. It includes open-meeting and governance provisions — CA §5-6B-19, for example — but it does not carry a §11-113-style dispute-settlement mechanism. Under CA §5-6B-15, general Maryland corporation law applies to cooperative housing corporations wherever it does not conflict with the subtitle, so cooperative enforcement and internal disputes run through the corporation's governing documents, general corporate law, and the courts.¹⁵

No Maryland statute imposes a single statewide, mandatory pre-suit mediation or arbitration requirement of the kind some other states use. The §11-113 and §11B-111.10 mechanisms require an internal notice-and-hearing process before sanctions — not pre-suit mediation — and each one applies "unless the declaration or bylaws state otherwise."^2,4

2B. General civil ADR and arbitration

When a recorded declaration contains an arbitration clause, the Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act (CJP §3-201 et seq.) governs how the Maryland courts enforce it. A court asked to compel arbitration decides only one thing — whether a valid arbitration agreement exists — and, if it does, orders arbitration (CJP §§3-206, 3-207, and 3-210). It does not reach the merits.¹⁰ In Park Plus, Inc. v. Palisades of Towson, LLC, No. 7, Sept. Term 2021 (2022), the Court of Appeals of Maryland — now the Supreme Court of Maryland — held that a petition to compel arbitration sits in equity and does not fall under the three-year limitations period of CJP §5-101.¹⁶ For declarations and contracts that involve interstate commerce, the FAA (9 U.S.C. §1 et seq.) applies and preempts conflicting state law — though Maryland's procedural rules, on matters such as whether an order can be appealed, still operate where the FAA does not displace them.

Maryland Rules Title 17 governs court-annexed ADR. Chapter 200 covers circuit court proceedings, and Chapter 300 covers District Court proceedings. A circuit court may order the parties into mediation or another ADR process, but the rules never let a court force a party to settle, and in ordinary civil cases referral is discretionary, not automatic.¹¹ In the District Court, Rule 17-305 spares litigants any fee for a court-designated mediation or settlement conference.¹¹ In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Maryland approved amendments to Title 17 that set up a centralized application process for ADR practitioners who serve the circuit and orphans' courts.¹⁷

Associations can pursue lower-value money disputes, such as unpaid assessment claims, in the District Court of Maryland. That court holds exclusive small-claim jurisdiction over money claims of $5,000 or less (CJP §4-405) and civil jurisdiction up to $30,000, which it shares with the circuit courts above $5,000.^18,19 Appeals from the circuit court run to the Appellate Court of Maryland, and the Supreme Court of Maryland may review further at its discretion.

2C. CC&R-based dispute resolution and order of precedence

The recorded declaration — the CC&Rs — is a binding contract among the owners, and its dispute-resolution clause, if it has one, controls how a dispute proceeds. These clauses take familiar forms: mediation as a condition of filing suit, binding or non-binding arbitration, venue and choice-of-forum provisions, and prevailing-party attorney-fee provisions. Many declarations also build in internal grievance procedures or architectural-review appeals that an owner must exhaust before escalating. Maryland follows a standard order of precedence: the governing statute controls over the declaration, the declaration controls over the bylaws, and the bylaws control over board-adopted rules.¹ In practice, that means you identify the governing statute — the Condominium Act, the Homeowners Association Act, or the Cooperative Housing Corporation Act — determine whether the property sits in a county that runs a Commission on Common Ownership Communities, and then read the declaration's dispute clause against that statutory and administrative framework.

SECTION 3: Dispute resolution pathways and obligations

A. Internal / association-level resolution. Before a condominium or homeowners association fines an owner or suspends rights for a rule violation, it must follow the statutory notice-and-hearing procedure in RP §11-113 (condominiums) or RP §11B-111.10 (homeowners associations) — a cease-and-desist demand that allows at least 15 days to fix the problem, and a hearing on request. This obligation is STATUTORY, and it applies to CONDOMINIUMS and HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS; cooperatives rely on their governing documents. Many declarations add internal grievance or architectural-appeal steps that are CONTRACTUAL.^2,4

B. Mediation. Court-referred mediation in a pending case runs under Maryland Rules Title 17. A circuit court may order mediation but cannot force a settlement, and District Court court-designated mediation carries no fee under Rule 17-305. This pathway is RULE-BASED, and it applies to every association type once a case is filed. Outside of court, community mediation centers — coordinated through the Maryland Judiciary's Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) and Community Mediation Maryland — offer voluntary mediation.^11,17

C. Arbitration. If the declaration contains an arbitration clause, it is generally enforceable under the Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act (CJP §3-201 et seq.), and under the FAA (9 U.S.C. §1 et seq.) where interstate commerce is involved. This obligation is CONTRACTUAL in origin and STATUTORY/FEDERAL in enforcement, and it applies to CONDOMINIUMS, HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS, and COOPERATIVES, depending on the declaration. The clause itself decides whether the arbitration binds the parties.¹⁰

D. Litigation and appeals. The Circuit Court is the general trial venue for injunctions, covenant enforcement, and larger money claims; the District Court handles small claims of $5,000 or less (CJP §4-405) and civil claims up to $30,000. An association collects assessments by lien under RP §11-110 (condominiums) or RP §11B-117 (homeowners associations), working through the Maryland Contract Lien Act (RP §14-201 et seq.). The general limitations period is three years (CJP §5-101), and specialty or sealed instruments carry a twelve-year period (CJP §5-102). Appeals run to the Appellate Court of Maryland and then, by certiorari, to the Supreme Court of Maryland. These forums are STATUTORY.^{18,13,14,20,9}

E. County administrative commissions (Maryland-specific). Some Maryland counties run a Commission on Common Ownership Communities that adjudicates or formally resolves association disputes under county code. Montgomery County's Commission, established under Chapter 10B of the County Code and first enacted in 1990, hears disputes through an administrative hearing-panel process (§10B-13), offers mediation (§10B-11), and issues orders that the courts can enforce and review.²¹ Prince George's County runs a comparable program: it created its Common Ownership Communities Division in 2007 (CB-015-2007), established the Commission itself through CB-49-2015, and added alternative dispute resolution authority through CB-58-2015, codified in Subtitle 13, Division 11 of the County Code.²² Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development keeps a statewide list of local common ownership community programs, which as of 2026 remain concentrated in a few jurisdictions.¹² These forums are ADMINISTRATIVE (county), and they cover condominiums, homeowners associations, and cooperatives within those counties only. A county-level forum exists only where a jurisdiction has built one; most of Maryland relies on the courts, and there is no statewide equivalent.

SECTION 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

The most active proposal right now is the recurring effort — 2026's HB 402 / SB 981, following failed attempts from 2023 through 2025 — to create a statewide Common Ownership Community Ombudsman Unit, a state governing-document database, and a standardized framework for county local commissions. It has repeatedly drawn hearings or passed one chamber, but it has not become law.⁶ Prince George's County, meanwhile, expanded its own registration requirements effective July 1, 2025 — a sign that the county-commission model keeps growing, rather than any move toward a statewide forum.²⁴

SECTION 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland is a contract-and-court state layered with county administrative commissions. That structure sets it apart from administrative-forum states such as Florida, where the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes plays a formal statewide role in resolving complaints and running mediation, and from comprehensive single-framework states such as California.²⁵ Maryland has not adopted UCIOA, and it regulates condominiums, homeowners associations, and cooperatives through three separate statutes rather than one unified code.¹ The county commissions and the three-statute structure shape dispute strategy: the governing statute decides which enforcement and lien tools you have, and the presence of a Commission on Common Ownership Communities decides whether an administrative forum exists at all. For a multi-state operator, that means a Maryland dispute starts with two threshold questions — which of the three statutes governs, and whether the county has established a Commission on Common Ownership Communities — before you turn to the declaration and the courts.

Recommendations

• First step for any Maryland dispute: classify the community. Determine whether the property is a condominium (RP Title 11), a homeowners association (RP Title 11B), or a cooperative (CA Title 5, Subtitle 6B). The governing statute sets the notice-and-hearing rules, the lien mechanism, and the fee-award language, and misclassifying the community is the most common substantive error. What changes this step is the recorded declaration and the entity it created (see Logan v. Dietz).
• Second step: check the county. If the community sits in Montgomery or Prince George's County, the county Commission on Common Ownership Communities offers an available, often lower-cost administrative forum with its own filing, mediation, and hearing rules; in most other counties, the courts are the forum. Confirm that a program is still running against DHCD's list of local common ownership community programs before you tell a client an administrative option exists.
• Before imposing any fine or sanction, complete the statutory process. Follow RP §11-113 (condominiums) or RP §11B-111.10 (homeowners associations) to the letter: a written cease-and-desist demand, at least 15 days to fix the problem, notice of hearing rights, and a hearing at least 10 days out. A procedural defect here is a common defense, and it can defeat both the sanction and any later fee claim.
• Read the declaration for a dispute clause before you file. A mediation-condition-precedent or arbitration clause can bar or delay a lawsuit, and an arbitration clause is generally enforceable under CJP §3-201 et seq. and, for interstate-commerce contracts, the FAA. For assessment claims of $5,000 or less, the District Court small-claims docket is the efficient venue; use the circuit court for injunctions and covenant enforcement.
• Monitor the recurring statewide reform bill. If a future version of HB 402 / SB 981 becomes law, it would add a statewide ombudsman, a document database, and a standardized county-commission framework — a real change to intake and early dispute handling. Treat the enactment of any such bill, or the release of a Task Force report, as your signal to revise internal enforcement and complaint-response procedures.

Caveats

• Legislative status is current as of July 14, 2026. The 2026 session adjourned Sine Die in early April. We report HB 402 and SB 981 as failed because no enactment action followed their last recorded steps — House passage for HB 402, first reading for SB 981 — and the post-session page timestamps bear that out. Editors should re-verify on mgaleg.maryland.gov before each quarterly update.
• Park Plus, Inc. v. Palisades of Towson, LLC is a general commercial-arbitration decision, not an HOA case; we cite it only for its Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act holding on limitations. Confirm the reporter-volume citation against the published Maryland Reports before formal citation.
• Logan v. Dietz is the confirmed, on-point published Appellate Court of Maryland decision on HOA covenant and declaration enforcement in the past 36 months. Independent searching turned up no newer published appellate decision squarely on declaration arbitration-clause enforcement or statutory fee awards in the community-association context; if one issues, add it.
• County-commission availability shifts as jurisdictions create, expand, or, rarely, restructure programs. Montgomery and Prince George's are the established, verified examples; other localities may build programs, so confirm current status against the county code and DHCD's list rather than assume statewide coverage.

Footnotes

1. Md. Code, Real Property §11-101 (Maryland Condominium Act), §11B-101 (Homeowners Association Act); Corporations & Associations §5-6B-01 (Cooperative Housing Corporation Act), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
2. Md. Code, Real Property §11-113 (Dispute Settlement Mechanism), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
3. Chapter 282 (House Bill 615), 2022 Laws of Maryland, effective October 1, 2022 (dispute settlement in condominiums and homeowners associations) ↩
4. Md. Code, Real Property §11B-111.10 (Dispute Settlement Mechanism), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
5. Md. Code, Real Property §14-201 et seq. (Maryland Contract Lien Act), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
6. Maryland General Assembly, House Bill 402 (2026 Regular Session) – Common Ownership Communities (bill history and status) ↩
7. Maryland General Assembly, Senate Bill 981 (2026 Regular Session) – Common Ownership Communities (bill history and status) ↩
8. Maryland General Assembly, House Bill 294 (2025 Regular Session) – Task Force on Common Ownership Communities (Withdrawn by Sponsor, Feb. 10, 2025) ↩
9. Maryland Judiciary, "Voter-approved constitutional change renames high courts to Supreme and Appellate Court of Maryland" (Dec. 14, 2022) ↩
10. Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-201 et seq. (Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
11. Maryland Rules of Procedure, Title 17 – Alternative Dispute Resolution (including Rule 17-305, no fee for District Court court-ordered ADR), mdcourts.gov ↩
12. Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, Common Ownership Communities (list of local common ownership community programs, HB 844) ↩
13. Md. Code, Real Property §11-110 (Common Expenses; Assessments; Liens), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
14. Md. Code, Real Property §11B-117 (Liability for Homeowners Association Assessments; lien priority), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
15. Md. Code, Corporations and Associations §5-6B-15 (applicability of general corporation law) and §5-6B-19 (meetings), Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
16. Park Plus, Inc. v. Palisades of Towson, LLC, No. 7, Sept. Term 2021 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2022) (now Supreme Court of Maryland), mdcourts.gov ↩
17. Maryland Judiciary, Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) (noting November 2024 Supreme Court of Maryland amendments to Title 17) ↩
18. Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings §4-405 (Small Claim Action; $5,000 exclusive jurisdiction), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
19. Maryland State Archives, District Court of Maryland – Origin & Functions (civil jurisdiction up to $30,000; concurrent with circuit courts above $5,000) ↩
20. Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-101 (three-year general limitations) and §5-102 (twelve-year specialties), via mgaleg.maryland.gov ↩
21. Montgomery County Code, Chapter 10B – Common Ownership Communities (incl. §10B-11 mediation; §10B-13 administrative hearing) ↩
22. Prince George's County, Common Ownership Community Associations – Legislation (CB-015-2007; CB-49-2015; CB-58-2015 adding Alternative Dispute Resolution) ↩
23. Logan v. Dietz, 258 Md. App. 629 (2023), Appellate Court of Maryland, mdcourts.gov ↩
24. Prince George's County, Common Ownership Communities registration (annual registration required as of July 1, 2025) ↩
25. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes (comparative reference) ↩