Maryland REALTORS® Online

Let’s Make a Deal

Lisa May
Director of Advocacy and Public Policy for Maryland REALTORS^®.

When we think about advocacy, we tend to view our efforts in the black-and-white terms of wins and losses. Wins occur when good bills pass, and bad ones fail.

When a bill that is less favorable to real estate passes, it’s tempting to put that in the “losses’ category. Yet there’s a lot of hard work and hard-won victories in shaping bad legislation to make it practicable or to secure concessions in other areas.

What do we mean by that? One example that will resonate with members in our commutable suburbs is the issue of traffic congestion. When I first joined the REALTOR^® family in the D.C. area, the number one factor buyers noted in their home searches was their commute. As a result, finding transportation funding was a key plank of our advocacy efforts.

When the legislature put together the most meaningful transportation bill in a generation, it included increases in real estate transaction taxes as a funding source, leaving REALTORS^® with difficult choices to make. Two important industry priorities—transportation improvements and keeping housing costs low—were in direct conflict with one another. Despite all advocacy efforts, there was no getting around the fact that REALTORS® would have to sacrifice one to get the other.

These types of trade-offs are common in REALTOR^® advocacy.

We cover a range of issues that impact not just our members, but also your clients, and all homeowners in general.

As the Renter’s Rights and Stabilization Act (HB 693) takes effect this month, you might feel that this was a legislative loss for the industry. After all, it included provisions that REALTORS^® had typically opposed at the State House. If we were to do that, however, we wouldn’t get the full picture of the tradeoffs, concessions, and larger victories that occurred along the way.

First, it comes as no surprise that Maryland REALTORS^®’ top priority in recent years has been increasing housing supply. Given the reluctance to enact changes at the local level, REALTORS^® welcomed state-level efforts to address our state’s housing shortage, which has reached crisis proportions.

While it is tempting to think of HB 693 in isolation, it was just one part of a broader housing package which also included HB 538, The Housing Expansion and Affordability Act, and HB 599, The Housing and Community Development Financing Act. Those bills will streamline housing approvals, provide a broader range of housing types like Middle Housing, and bolster funding to make housing more affordable.

Like the transportation example above, two key REALTOR^® priorities were placed in opposition to each other. Some corners of our membership may have felt that the tradeoff between HB 693 and the other housing bills was worth making right off the bat. Yet we continued to work to make the rental provisions better than what was introduced, and won key concessions on the following:

• State Agencies: As introduced, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) would create an Office of Tenant’s Rights. As passed, DHCD will create an Office of Landlord and Tenant Affairs.
• Eviction Filing Fees: As introduced, the filing fees were set at $93. As passed, the fee increase is limited to $43.
• Eviction Fee Recovery: As introduced, eviction filing fees would not have been recoverable under any circumstance. As passed, a landlord can recover eviction fees from the tenant’s security deposit if the court grants a judgement of possession in the landlord’s favor.
• Right of First Refusal Timing: As introduced, all tenants would exercise their rights of first refusal after the property was listed for sale and an offer from a third party was received, meaning all offers received would be put on hold and contingent upon the tenant refusing the right to purchase. As passed, the landlord has the option to use the Right of First Offer process to address a potential tenant purchase before the property is listed for sale, removing the need for contingent offers or waiting periods from third party buyers.

Offers to Purchase: As introduced, the landlord would have made the offer to purchase to the tenant, upending the standard contract offer and acceptance process. As passed, the tenant must develop their offer to the landlord once notified of the landlord’s terms to purchase.

The Renter’s Rights Act still represents a change for our industry, not all of which is positive for our property management practitioners. When taken with the other components of the 2024 Housing Package, we hope that some of the sting of those provisions is lessened, and you see that good advocacy work can result even from “bad” bills.