Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act: New Tenant Screening Rules for Housing Providers
Maryland’s Fair Chance Housing Act took effect October 1, 2026. The law changes when covered housing providers may obtain and use a prospective tenant’s criminal-history information.
For most covered landlords, criminal history can no longer be part of the initial rental-application process. Instead, the landlord generally must evaluate other qualifications first, make a conditional offer of housing, and then follow Maryland’s new review and notice requirements before withdrawing that offer based on criminal history.
The law is formally known as Senate Bill 937, Chapter 752. Read the signed Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s overview.
Who must follow Maryland’s Fair Chance Housing Act?
The law generally applies to a housing provider that owns or manages five or more residential rental units in Maryland, including units controlled directly, indirectly, or through legal entities.
It does not apply to:
Owner-occupied residential rental units
Housing providers that do not conduct criminal-history checks on prospective tenants
A housing provider that elects to conduct criminal-history checks under the law must do so consistently for every prospective tenant.
The core rule: conditional offer before criminal-history review
Before extending a conditional offer, a covered housing provider generally may not:
Ask an applicant whether they have a criminal history
Require disclosure of crimes, charges, or accusations
Make an oral or written criminal-history inquiry
Use an application form or advertisement that imposes criminal-history restrictions inconsistent with the law
A conditional offer is an offer to lease residential property that is contingent on a later criminal-history inquiry.
This does not prevent a housing provider from reviewing other lawful rental qualifications first, such as income, rental history, lease violations, utility-payment history, property damage, references, or other commercially reasonable and nondiscriminatory criteria.
What must be provided before accepting an application fee?
Before accepting an application fee, a covered housing provider must give the applicant written notice that explains:
Whether criminal history will be used in determining rental eligibility
That certain convictions may be considered only after a conditional offer
The applicant’s ability to provide evidence of inaccuracies, rehabilitation, or mitigating factors
That the housing provider will conduct an individualized assessment
Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development is developing voluntary model documents. Until those are available, housing providers should have counsel review their notices, screening criteria, and withdrawal process.
What convictions may be considered?
The Act does not create a blanket rule that every criminal conviction may be considered. After a conditional offer, it limits the convictions that may serve as potential grounds for withdrawing that offer.
The permitted categories include certain recent Maryland felony convictions, equivalent out-of-state or federal felony convictions, lifetime sex-offender registration crimes, and specified serious convictions within a three-year period, such as certain sexual offenses, child pornography, kidnapping, first-degree arson, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary, manufacturing controlled dangerous substances, and felony fraud.
There are separate, limited circumstances in which a housing provider may ask about or act on certain serious convictions before a conditional offer. These include specific federally assisted-housing methamphetamine convictions, certain sexual offenses, child pornography, certain recent murder convictions, human trafficking, and specified sex-offender-registration history.
Because these categories, dates, and exceptions are detailed and fact-specific, a screening report should not be treated as an automatic decision. Housing providers should consult qualified counsel before denying housing based on criminal history.
Individualized assessment and withdrawal of a conditional offer
A covered housing provider may withdraw a conditional offer based on criminal history only if it determines that withdrawal is necessary to fulfill a substantial, legitimate, and nondiscriminatory interest.
If the provider withdraws the offer, it must give the applicant written notice with:
The specific reason for withdrawal
A statement that the applicant may request reassessment
Information about submitting evidence of inaccuracies, rehabilitation, or other mitigating factors
If the applicant requests reassessment, the housing provider must consider:
The nature and severity of the offense
The applicant’s age when the offense occurred
The time since the offense
Rehabilitation and good-conduct information
Whether recurrence could affect the safety of other tenants or the property
Whether the offense occurred at a property rented or leased by the applicant
The applicant may request copies of the information relied upon, including criminal-history records, within 30 days of the withdrawal notice. The housing provider must provide the requested information within 10 days.
Maryland reusable tenant-screening reports now have a three-year criminal-history period
Maryland separately defines a reusable tenant screening report as one prepared within the preceding 30 days by a consumer reporting agency at the applicant’s request and expense, then made directly available to a prospective landlord at no charge.
For this specific type of report, the required criminal-history component now covers the previous three years, rather than seven years, and remains subject to the Fair Chance Housing Act. The report may still include a credit report, seven-year eviction history, employment and income verification, and address and rental history.
This statutory definition matters. A standard landlord-ordered tenant report is not necessarily a Maryland reusable tenant screening report. Housing providers and screening providers should assess the exact workflow and report type.
Related Maryland fair-housing update: The Fair Chance Housing Act focuses on when and how a landlord may use a prospective tenant’s criminal history. Maryland also adopted a broader fair-housing disparate-impact standard for tenant screening also on October 1st, 2026, which may affect criminal-history, eviction, credit, income, and score-based rental criteria—even when a policy was not intended to discriminate.
What landlords may not do
Covered housing providers generally may not:
Publish “no criminal record” or similar exclusionary housing advertisements
Use application questions that conflict with the law’s criminal-history restrictions
Require drug or alcohol testing
Request release of substance-use-disorder treatment information
Distribute criminal-history information to people who do not need it for a lawful, compliant tenancy decision
Use criminal-history information for a purpose inconsistent with the law
Violations may be treated as unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practices and can result in civil penalties.
What Global Background Screening does—and does not—do
Global Background Screening can provide tenant background checks, help deliver consumer reports, and support an applicant’s FCRA dispute rights.
GBS does not decide whether an applicant should be approved or denied housing. The housing provider must determine whether the Maryland law applies, make the conditional offer when required, conduct the individualized assessment, consider an applicant’s response, and issue any legally required notice.
If a housing provider considers an adverse housing action based in whole or in part on a consumer report, it must also follow applicable FCRA adverse-action requirements. GBS can help clients manage notice delivery and report disputes through its adverse-action procedures, but that assistance does not transfer the housing provider’s legal responsibility.
Maryland tenant-screening checklist
Before ordering or reviewing criminal history for a Maryland applicant, covered housing providers should:
Confirm whether they own or manage five or more Maryland residential rental units.
Review non-criminal rental qualifications first.
Provide the required written notice before taking an application fee.
Make a conditional offer before conducting a criminal-history inquiry, unless a narrow statutory exception applies.
Use criminal history only within the limits of the Act.
Avoid automatic denials or blanket criminal-record policies.
Conduct and document the individualized assessment.
Provide a written withdrawal notice and reassessment opportunity when required.
Preserve the report, decision rationale, notice, applicant response, and reassessment documentation.
Follow applicable FCRA requirements in addition to Maryland law.
