From the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development

In 2019, the Maryland General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 512, which amended §§ 7-105.1 and 8-401 of the Real Property Article. This is the first federal shutdown since SB 512 was enacted. Under the law, an involuntarily furloughed federal government employee at risk of eviction can ask the court to temporarily pause the eviction during the shutdown. Governor Moore sent Maryland Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Fader a letter highlighting this new provision to ensure that judges are aware of this protection when making eviction and foreclosure decisions.

Federal employees are protected even if they are required to work during a shutdown.

To be eligible, the federal employee must:

• be a current federal government employee,
• currently live in the property at risk of eviction or foreclosure,
• be unpaid during the shutdown, and
• show up to any scheduled court hearing and ask the judge to pause the eviction or foreclosure.

Federal employees may be asked to provide evidence that they are a current federal employee and have been involuntarily furloughed. Federal employees can ask the judge what evidence will satisfy the court and can ask for more time to gather evidence the court requests. The court will decide how long is reasonable to pause the eviction or foreclosure. Courts can only allow the pause to last 30 days beyond the end of the shutdown, unless the court agrees there is good reason for it to last longer. While the immediate concern is the impact on federal employees during the shutdown, the law extends the same protections to all government employees—federal, state, and local—who may face involuntary furloughs as a result of a federal shutdown.

According to statute, these protections only apply to government employees and not federal contractors or other people financially impacted by a federal government shutdown.. Additionally, the requirement for individual workers to attend a court hearing or submit a written request to the court to stay eviction proceedings places an additional burden on families who are already facing significant financial stress and uncertainty. It also adds an additional administrative burden on the court to review and verify each individual request.

DHCD is asking landlords, property managers, and other housing professionals to take the following steps to help impacted tenants and reduce the burden on families already in crisis.

• Communicate proactively to all tenants residing in your properties about their rights under state law and how to exercise them. This is particularly important for tenants who have already received a failure to pay rent eviction filing and are navigating the court process. Because this is a new law, most tenants will be unaware of these new rights without targeted outreach.
• Invite tenants to notify you if they are a federal employee or contractor, and impacted by the shutdown. We encourage you to accept self-attestation and not require tenants to show evidence of their government ID or employment (note that public utility companies are planning to do the same for residents at risk of utility terminations).
• Offer tenants who are federal employees or contractors the opportunity to enter into a payment plan for the duration of the federal shutdown, in lieu of filing for eviction.
• Proactively postpone or cancel any existing failure to pay rent eviction filings for federal employees and contractors until the federal shutdown ends.

Taking these proactive steps would demonstrate true corporate citizenship and provide a crucial safety net for all Marylanders, alleviating the need for impacted federal workers to navigate the court process.

If you have questions regarding a landlord-tenant issue not related to eviction, please fill out our intake form.