(a) The County Executive must establish procedures to collect and analyze housing data for rental dwelling units in the County, and must make every effort to centralize the data collection functions to minimize the burden for landlords.
(b) The reporting process is mandatory for landlords of licensed rental housing, including new dwelling units as they come on the market and all vacant units.
(c) The data must be collected annually.
(d) The Director must use a survey form for collecting data designed to minimize the repeated reporting of unchanged information, while maintaining an accurate data base.
(e) The housing data collected must be used to measure the supply and availability of rental housing, as well as other operating characteristics. Each landlord must provide the following to the County:
(1) The location of each rental facility, including the zip code;
(2) Structure type;
(3) Year built;
(4) Distribution of units by standard bedroom sizes;
(5) The number of units by bedroom size that were re-rented during the month;
(6) The number of vacant days applicable to those units;
(7) The rent charged for each rental unit;
(8) The rent charged for each re-rented unit before vacancy; and
(9) The new turnover rent charged for each re-rented unit.
Sec. 3. Rent Increase Notices – Transition. If a landlord notifies a tenant, prior to the effective date of this Act and prior to the effective date of Method (2) regulations adopted under this Act, of a rent increase for a regulated rental unit that would occur after the effective date of the Act and the regulations:
(1) the rent increase must not occur unless the increase is equal to or less than the lesser of:
(A) CPI-U plus 3 percent; or
(B) 6 percent; and
(2) the landlord must notify the tenant in writing either that the notice is void, or that the notice is modified to an increase equal to or less than the lesser of:
(A) CPI-U plus 3 percent; or
(B) 6 percent.
Sec. 4. Transition. The requirements of this Act must not apply, and must not be enforced, until the Method (2) regulations required under the Act take effect.
(f) Each landlord must maintain records for each project on an aggregate basis containing the following information, that must be made available to the County upon request:
(1) A description of utilities that are included in the rent;
(2) The landlord's actual monthly utility costs, including gas, electric, heating, fuel, trash removal, and water and sewer;
(3) The availability of certain amenities, including air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpeting, dishwasher, garbage disposal, washer/dryer in apartment unit or on the site, patio-balcony, swimming pool and tennis courts;
(4) The actual operating expenses, by category;
(5) The actual operating revenues, by category;
(6) A schedule of any other fees and income; and
(7) Tenant rent/income ratio for prospective tenants that protects the confidentiality of personal income information and that is available to the landlord as part of the normal renting process.
(g) Each landlord of a rental dwelling unit in a common ownership community must report to the governing body of the common ownership community the rental status of each unit owned by the landlord. Any status change must be reported to the governing body, or its delegated agent, within 10 days after the change.
(h) The governing body of a common ownership community must file with the Department information provided by the landlord identifying each dwelling unit in the community that is rented by the owner to another person. The information must identify the unit and the name and address of the landlord to the extent that the landlord provides this information.
(i) The Director is primarily responsible for controlling rental housing data surveys for the County. The Director must share this information with other governmental agencies that need it without invading individual privacy. In this regard, the Director must coordinate survey activities with other County departments, and make available to the departments the results of all surveys in accordance with applicable procedure.
(j) The Director must publish, unless the publication is prohibited under State law, the information collected in the rental housing data survey on the County website, including a table listing all rental housing consisting of two or more dwelling units by unit type and building type.
(k) Any landlord who violates any provision of this Section is liable for payment of a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $1,000 for each violation. (1978 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 1; 1978 L.M.C., ch. 43, § 3; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 31, § 1; 1983 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 12; 1984 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 2; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 1; 1995 L.M.C., ch. 17, § 1; 1996 L.M.C., ch. 13, § 1; 2000 L.M.C., ch. 32, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 39, § 1.)
Editor's note—The above section is cited in Lawrence N. Brandt, Inc. v. Montgomery County Commission on Landlord-Tenant Affairs, 39 Md.App. 147, 383 A.2d 688 (1978).
1983 L.M.C., ch. 24, § 13, provides in part as follows: "The amendments to chapter 29 approved by this act shall be repealed and of no force or effect on or after March 8, 1985." This sentence was deleted by 1985 L.M.C., ch. 40, § 1, thus giving the law permanent status.