Over the course of our adult lives, most of us engage in any number of transactions without consulting a lawyer. From buying a home to buying a car to obtaining a credit card, we enter into all sorts of legal obligations without obtaining legal counsel. And for the most part, it works out fine. As we all know, lawyers can be quite expensive, and people generally do not want to pay a lawyer for every quasi-legal issue or question they may have. One area, however, where I see far too many people forego legal counsel, to their detriment, is in residential leasing.
There are a number of folks out there that are professional landlords and for whom being a landlord is more or less a profession. Most landlords, though, are people that own one home besides their own, and are not looking to get rich in the real estate business. They are just looking to recoup their costs and maybe make a little money off their house. As such, they often do not feel it is worth their money to consult a lawyer before leasing their property. I have always felt this was a big mistake.
Many small landlords, if they have a written lease, either use a form that was given to them or one they have created themselves. Rarely have I seen one that is fully compliant with the law in Maryland. In Maryland, residential tenants have a number of protections by law. Many of them cannot be bargained away. Many of them must be contained in the written lease. If they are not, it can prevent the landlord from holding the security deposit for damages to the property and/or unpaid rent. Further, if the court holds that you unreasonably withheld the security deposit in violation of the tenant’s rights, you can be held responsible for three times the amount of the deposit plus attorney’s fees. It can be dangerous ground to walk on.
Most lawyers can either draft a lease for you for a couple hundred dollars or help you make your own lease compliant with Maryland law for about the same amount. These leases can be used over and over. It is a little money up front, but it can save you so much money (and headache) in the long run. This is one of the many services we provide here at Hillman, Brown and Darrow, P.A. Feel free to contact me or the other attorneys in the firm if you would like to discuss these types of services.
