Maryland HOA Political Signs

Section 1: Overview — How political signs are regulated in Maryland HOAs

Maryland law bars an association from prohibiting the display of a candidate sign or a ballot-question sign, while allowing reasonable restrictions on number, size, manner, and timing.¹ Maryland counts as a protective-statute state, and the protection runs through two parallel provisions: Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.2 for homeowners associations and § 11-111.2 for condominiums.^1,2 The two provisions share the same structure, and the correct one to cite depends on whether the community is a homeowners association or a condominium. Suppose an association imposes a timing restriction and no local law specifies a display period — it may not compress the allowed window below 45 days before the start of early voting (or 45 days before the election if there is no early voting) and 7 days after, a floor that 2026 legislation raised from 30 days; the protection covers candidate signs and proposition (ballot-question) signs, not every political sign.³ The protection is statutory, not constitutional: a Maryland association is a private entity, not a state actor, so the First Amendment does not constrain its sign rules, and an owner's protection comes instead from the HOA Act and the Condominium Act.⁴ That places Maryland among the owner-protective states alongside California, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, and Kansas, though Maryland stands apart in using parallel homeowners-association and condominium provisions and a timing floor rather than one fixed statewide window.⁵ The sections ahead lay out the statutory architecture, explain why the protection is statutory rather than a First Amendment right, show how the statutes override conflicting covenants, spell out the operational do's and don'ts, and cover recent legislative activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for political signs

2A. The statutes that protect political signs

Maryland regulates association political signs through two parallel statutes. The homeowners-association provision is Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.2, part of the Maryland Homeowners Association Act (Title 11B); the condominium provision is § 11-111.2, part of the Maryland Condominium Act (Title 11).^1,2 The provisions read in parallel, and the correct citation depends on community type: § 11B-111.2 governs a homeowners association, and § 11-111.2 governs a condominium. Don't conflate or cross-apply them.

Each provision follows the same three-part structure. Subsection (a) defines a "candidate sign" as a sign on behalf of a candidate for public office or a slate of candidates for public office.¹ Subsection (b) sets the default rule: except as provided in subsection (c), a recorded covenant or restriction, a provision in a declaration, or a provision in the bylaws or rules may not restrict or prohibit the display of a candidate sign, or a sign that advertises the support or defeat of any question submitted to the voters under the Election Law Article.¹ Subsection (c) then lists what an association may still restrict: display in the common areas (homeowners association) or common elements (condominium); display in accordance with federal, State, and local law; and the time period, subject to a statutory floor.³

People most often get the timing floor wrong. If a local law doesn't specify a display period, an association may restrict display to no less than 45 days before the start of early voting for a primary election, general election, or vote on the proposition (or, absent early voting, 45 days before the election), plus 7 days after.³ Read this as a floor on the window the association must allow if it chooses to impose a timing restriction — not a cap on display, and not itself the protected window. Where a controlling local ordinance specifies a display period, that period governs instead.⁶ The floor stood at 30 days before the election until 2026, when House Bill 855 (Chapter 289) raised it to 45 days before the start of early voting.^3,7

Scope matters here. The protection reaches candidate signs for public office and proposition signs on ballot questions submitted to voters under the Election Law Article.¹ It doesn't protect every political sign; an issue-advocacy sign unconnected to a candidate or a ballot question can fall outside the statutory protection and back under the declaration and rules. Maryland's separate flag provision, Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128, covers the display of one portable, removable United States flag on residential property — that's a subject for the Flag Display page, not this one.⁸

2B. The First Amendment and the source of the protection

The federal First Amendment limits government action, not private conduct. It applies through the state-action doctrine, which reaches legislatures, agencies, and municipalities but not private parties acting in a private capacity. A Maryland homeowners association or condominium is a private entity created by contract, and its authority arises from a recorded declaration, bylaws, and rules that owners accept when they buy in. Because an association is not a state actor, the First Amendment does not constrain its sign rules, and an owner cannot defeat a sign restriction by invoking the First Amendment against the association.⁴

The protection Maryland owners enjoy is therefore a statutory grant under the Homeowners Association Act and the Condominium Act, not a constitutional right.^1,2 The legislature, not the Constitution, stops a Maryland association from banning candidate and proposition signs. Maryland doesn't take the approach Illinois uses of folding constitutional free-speech standards into association rulemaking; here the operative source is the text of §§ 11B-111.2 and 11-111.2. Owners commonly misunderstand this distinction, assuming a free-speech right runs against the board; the accurate framing holds that the statutes, not the First Amendment, supply the protection.

Government sign regulation forms a separate body of law. United States Supreme Court decisions on municipal sign codes, including Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) and City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising (2022), govern how a town or county may regulate signs; they do not constrain private associations.⁴ The Maryland Declaration of Rights protects freedom of speech in Article 40, but that provision isn't the operative source of the association-sign protection either.⁹ For association purposes, the controlling authority is statutory.

2C. How the statutes interact with covenants, and their limits

The statutes override conflicting private documents. Subsection (b) of each provision states that a recorded covenant, a declaration provision, or a bylaw or rule may not restrict or prohibit candidate or proposition signs, so a covenant banning such signs is unenforceable to that extent.^1,2 An association can't rely on older recorded language to prohibit what the statute protects.

What the association may still do is bounded but real. Under subsection (c), it may impose reasonable restrictions on location (keeping signs out of common areas or common elements), on number and size, on manner of display, and on timing, subject to the statutory floor and any controlling local ordinance.³ A rule requiring signs to sit on the owner's lot rather than in common areas, or capping sign dimensions, fits within this authority when properly adopted.

What falls outside the protection falls back under the declaration and rules. Signs outside the protected categories — an issue-advocacy sign unconnected to a candidate or a ballot question, say — aren't covered by §§ 11B-111.2 or 11-111.2, and displays inconsistent with reasonable, validly adopted restrictions on number, size, manner, and timing may be limited. Two risk frames deserve attention. First, apply restrictions consistently and on content-neutral terms; selective enforcement against particular viewpoints invites challenge.¹⁰ Second, watch how county ordinances interact with the floor: where a local law specifies a display period, that period controls. Baltimore County, Prince George's County (Code § 27-628), and Anne Arundel County all maintain sign ordinances that specify display windows for their jurisdictions.⁶ The operational takeaway: a Maryland association cannot ban candidate or proposition signs, but it retains bounded authority over location, number, size, manner, and timing, and, absent a controlling local law, must allow at least the statutory window.

Section 3: Operational rules for Maryland associations

A. What an association may not do

An association may not restrict or prohibit the display of a candidate sign or a ballot-question (proposition) sign. This applies to homeowners associations under § 11B-111.2 and to condominiums under § 11-111.2.^1,2 It may not impose a timing restriction that compresses the allowed window below 45 days before the start of early voting (or 45 days before the election if there is no early voting) and 7 days after, unless a controlling local law specifies a display period; this floor applies to homeowners associations under § 11B-111.2 and to condominiums under § 11-111.2.³ It may not enforce a recorded covenant, declaration provision, bylaw, or rule that bans protected signs, because subsection (b) of each provision makes such a document unenforceable to that extent.^1,2

B. What an association may regulate

An association may impose reasonable restrictions on the location, number, size, and manner of display of candidate and proposition signs, and on timing within the statutory limits and any controlling local ordinance. Under subsection (c) of § 11B-111.2 (homeowners associations) and § 11-111.2 (condominiums), it may keep signs out of the common areas or common elements and may act in accordance with federal, State, and local law.³ The same permitted categories apply to both community types.

C. Enforcement and fining constraints

Before an association may impose a fine or sanction for a sign-rule violation, the Homeowners Association Act requires a dispute-resolution process: written notice of the violation, a cure period of not less than 15 days, at least 10 days to request a hearing, a hearing at which the owner may present evidence and question witnesses, and minutes recording the result, all under § 11B-111.10 for homeowners associations.¹¹ The Condominium Act sets out a parallel dispute-settlement mechanism under § 11-113 for condominiums.¹² The governing documents must expressly grant the authority to fine, and a decision made under the dispute process can be appealed to the courts of Maryland.¹¹ The sign provisions don't authorize self-help removal of a protected sign.

D. Rule adoption and disclosure

A sign rule must be validly adopted under the association's governing documents and must appear in the recorded governing documents or duly adopted rules to be enforceable — a point that applies to homeowners associations under § 11B-111.2 and to condominiums under § 11-111.2.^1,2 A rule that prohibits protected candidate or proposition signs, or that compresses the display window below the statutory floor where no local law specifies a period, is unenforceable to that extent.³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Maryland lawmakers acted twice on this subject in recent sessions — once successfully, once not. House Bill 855 changed the timing floor in 2026; House Bill 908 would have added a notice requirement back in 2019 but never became law.

B. Recent rulings

No decision of the Appellate Court of Maryland (formerly the Court of Special Appeals) or the Supreme Court of Maryland (formerly the Court of Appeals) in the past 36 months has construed § 11B-111.2 or § 11-111.2 or the enforcement of association candidate- or proposition-sign rules.¹⁵ There's no qualifying sign ruling to report.

C. Active legislative debates

With HB 855 and SB 758 enacted in the 2026 session, no further Maryland proposal to change the association political-sign rules sits pending. A recurring proposal to require pre-election sign-display notice to owners last appeared as HB 908 in 2019 and hasn't been reintroduced into law.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Maryland sits firmly among the protective-statute states, alongside California (Civil Code § 4710), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1808 and 33-1261), Colorado (C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5), Indiana (Ind. Code § 32-21-13), and Kansas (K.S.A. 58-4601 et seq.), all of which bar associations from banning protected signs while allowing reasonable number, size, and placement rules.⁵ Maryland stands apart in running the protection through parallel homeowners-association and condominium provisions and in using a timing floor rather than one fixed statewide window: absent a controlling local law, an association may not compress the display window below 45 days before the start of early voting and 7 days after, a floor 2026 legislation raised from 30 days, and the protection stays confined to candidate and proposition signs.^3,7 For multi-state operators, the practical implication runs like this: a covenant banning candidate or ballot-question signs is unenforceable in Maryland, and local county ordinances may set the controlling display period that overrides the statutory floor.⁶

HOA Weekly's Maryland Political Signs coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the Maryland courts act. Federal frameworks such as the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD apply to Maryland associations regardless of the state framework, but the federal First Amendment supplies no basis to challenge an association's sign rules.

1. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.2 (Maryland Homeowners Association Act – Candidate or Proposition Sign), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text ↩
2. Md. Code, Real Property § 11-111.2 (Maryland Condominium Act – Restrictions on Candidate Signs and Propositions), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text ↩
3. 2026 Laws of Maryland, Chapter 289 (House Bill 855), amended text of §§ 11-111.2(c) and 11B-111.2(c), including the 45-days-before-start-of-early-voting and 7-days-after timing floor ↩
4. Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP, "Client Alert: Regulation of Political Signs in Maryland Community Associations" (July 14, 2022) (condominiums and homeowner associations are generally not subject to federal constitutional restrictions; enforcement of restrictive covenants does not create state action under the First Amendment) ↩
5. Community Associations Institute, "Political Sign & Flag Statutes in Maryland Community Associations" (reproducing §§ 11B-111.2 and 11-111.2); compare state statutes: Cal. Civ. Code § 4710; A.R.S. §§ 33-1808, 33-1261; C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.5; Ind. Code § 32-21-13; K.S.A. 58-4601 et seq. ↩
6. Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP, "Client Alert: Regulation of Political Signs in Maryland Community Associations" (where a local ordinance specifies a display period it controls; discussing Baltimore County, Prince George's County Code § 27-628, and Anne Arundel County ordinances) ↩
7. 2026 Laws of Maryland, Chapter 289 (House Bill 855), "Common Ownership Communities – Candidate or Proposition Signs – Display Period," emergency measure, approved by the Governor April 28, 2026 (repealing and reenacting Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-23 and Real Property §§ 11-111.2 and 11B-111.2) ↩
8. Md. Code, Real Property § 14-128 (Display of United States Flag by Homeowner or Tenant), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text ↩
9. Maryland Declaration of Rights, Article 40 (freedom of speech and press), Maryland General Assembly, Laws – Statutes ↩
10. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.10 (Dispute Settlements – Procedures Followed), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text (governing enforcement procedures; consistent enforcement of covenants and rules) ↩
11. Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-111.10 (Dispute Settlements – Procedures Followed – Suit for Damages), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text (notice, cure period, hearing, minutes, and appeal to the courts of Maryland) ↩
12. Md. Code, Real Property § 11-113 (Maryland Condominium Act – Dispute Settlement Mechanism), Maryland General Assembly Statute Text ↩
13. Maryland General Assembly, 2026 Regular Session bill search (Senate Bill 758, "Common Ownership Communities – Candidate or Proposition Signs – Display Period," crossfile of House Bill 855) ↩
14. Maryland General Assembly, House Bill 908 (2019 Regular Session), "Condominiums and Homeowners Associations – Candidate or Proposition Signs – Notice of Restrictions," status: Unfavorable Report by Environment and Transportation ↩
15. Maryland Judiciary, Appellate Court and Supreme Court of Maryland Opinions (court names effective December 14, 2022; no reported opinion construing §§ 11B-111.2 or 11-111.2 in the past 36 months) ↩