Maryland to begin sealing eviction records from the public

EASTERN SHORE, Md – Legislation has become law in Maryland to seal eviction records starting in October.

This means courts must shield records within 60 days of a resolution that doesn’t end in a tenant losing possession of their home. A growing debate in our country has been whether eviction records be shielded from public access, to give tenants a better shot at finding another home.

Maryland Multi-Housing Association, Government and Community Affairs Manager Matt Pipken says this has been a problem since the pandemic.

“It stems back to the COVID years, where there was a large fear there was going to be a large number of evictions. The ability for people to be able to rent after the long set of evictions.”

With eviction filings surging to over 50 percent pre-pandemic, Housing Attorney for Shore Legal Access BiBi Barnes thinks this new law balances the roles of power between Landlords and Tenants.

“Oftentimes when they go to find housing for somewhere else, even if they weren’t evicted, it shows up as a dismissal, just the fact they were sued initially and can be prejudicial to them.”

According to MMHA, they work with landlords and managers in over 210,000 rental units which equates to approximately 500 thousand residents across the state. Pipkin says they strive for fairness and balance.

“It seemed like there was room for compromise, and at the end of the day, for our landlords and members, we want to be able to accept more people. We want to be able to have tenants that will be more responsible and we’re open to giving people second chances.”

Meanwhile, Barnes encourages tenants to find representation, to avoid being vulnerable to landlords in the court system. “It’s almost unheard of, and still kind of for tenants to have representation, whereas landlords are much more likely to have representation, so it makes a huge difference, because a lot of people, a lot of tenants, and landlords don’t even know what tenants’ rights are so to have an advocate there makes a ton of difference.”

Barnes encourages people struggling with their landlord, to fight their case, because in most cases landlords, will get a default judgement in the case. Meaning they will win by default due to a tenant’s lack of presence.

You can find legal counsel at Shore Legal Access, contact here.