Landlord and Tenant - Residential Leases - Prospective Tenant Criminal History Records Check (Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act)
SB514, the Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act, restricts how landlords may use criminal history information when screening prospective residential tenants. The bill generally prohibits landlords from asking about or requiring disclosure of criminal history before making a conditional offer, and it bars landlords from considering arrests, non-conviction records, expunged or pardoned convictions, juvenile adjudications, and sealed records. It also limits the convictions that may be considered after a conditional offer is made, requires individualized assessment and written notice if a conditional offer is withdrawn, and gives applicants a right to submit evidence of inaccuracies, rehabilitation, and other mitigating factors.
The bill also regulates housing advertisements and application materials by prohibiting statements that exclude people with arrest or conviction histories and by limiting the use and disclosure of criminal history records. It requires the Attorney General to publish model notices, collect and report complaint data, and adopt implementing regulations. Violations are treated as unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practices under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act and may result in civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation.
SB514 would add a new subtitle to the Real Property Article governing discriminatory use of criminal history in residential leasing and would amend the Consumer Protection law to make violations enforceable as unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practices. It would change landlord screening practices statewide by limiting when criminal background checks may be requested, what information may be considered, and how adverse decisions must be documented and communicated. The bill also affects reusable tenant screening reports by limiting the criminal history information included in those reports to the new subtitle’s rules, and it creates new Attorney General duties for notice, data collection, reporting, and rulemaking.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the bill appears to be framed as a tenant-protection and fair-housing measure rather than a controversial enforcement expansion. Its title and structure suggest support for giving people with criminal records a clearer path to housing and for standardizing landlord screening practices. Because no committee discussion or voting history is included, there is no documented public sentiment in the record provided beyond the bill’s policy direction.
The main points of contention are likely to be the balance between fair-chance housing and landlord discretion, and the narrow set of convictions landlords may still consider after a conditional offer. Landlords may object to limits on pre-application inquiries, the requirement to conduct individualized assessments, the notice and document-production obligations, and the exposure to consumer-protection penalties. Supporters would likely emphasize reduced housing barriers for people with criminal records, while opponents may focus on property safety, administrative burden, and the risk of liability for screening decisions.