FAIR HOUSING – under Continuing Education requirements for licensees, the hours were adjusted to increase Fair Housing CE hours from 1.5 to 2.0 in another piece of legislation, R® HB 972/SB 680 Real Estate Commission - Continuing Education Requirements.

All of the following bills related to Fair Housing DID NOT PASS:

HB 13 Real Property - Residential Contracts of Sale - Buyer Privacy Rights

This bill would prohibit the name of an individual buyer from being included in a contract of sale until after the seller of the property had accepted the contract.

HB 242 Discrimination in Housing - Consumer Credit History WITHDRAWN

Adds consumer credit history as a protected class for housing and related services, preventing screening or qualifications based upon their credit history, creditworthiness or credit capacity.

HB 392/SB 107 Fair Housing Testing

If passed, this bill would conform Maryland to the federal standard of one-party consent for audio and video recording if the purpose of that recording is to enforce fair housing laws.

HB 896/SB 677 Income-Based Housing Subsidies

If using housing assistance to pay rent, a landlord could not have refused to rent based on the prospective tenant’s income, credit score, lack of credit score, or adverse credit history.

HB 1239 Housing Discrimination - Regulations, Intent, and Discriminatory Effect

This bill would have inserted federal standards on disparate impact evaluations and local requirements to affirmatively further Fair Housing into state law.

SB 484/HB 487 Unhoused Individuals - Rights, Civil Action, and Affirmative Defense

This provided unhoused individuals certain rights relating to engaging in “life-sustaining activities,” but would have intruded upon private property rights in some instances.

SB 514/HB 1077 Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act

If passed, a landlord would have been restricted from using a prospective tenant’s criminal history records in making a conditional offer to rent, and could only consider certain criminal history thereafter.