Rent Escrow

Rent escrow is a legal procedure established by a judge and involves paying rent to the court until needed repairs are made. The court holds this money until a judge hears your case and makes a decision. You may get back all or part of your rent, depending on how bad property conditions are and how long it takes your landlord to fix the problem (People’s Law Library of Maryland). Rent escrow laws cover situations that could threaten the life, health, and safety of the tenant, such as defective heating equipment, bad plumbing, bad wiring, structural defects like a leaking roof, defective stairs, and a lack of heat and hot water when the landlord is required by the lease to provide them. In multifamily dwellings, rodent and vermin infestations, among other issues, are also situations in which rent escrow applies.

Baltimore City law now allows rent escrow to be used to cover items not essential to health and safety if such items were promised in the written lease or in a written inducement to rent. Examples of such items can include the failure to repair a dishwasher or to provide promised free parking.

If a tenant wishes to put rent into escrow, the first step in the procedure is for the tenant to inform the landlord of the needed repair by certified mail (a written notice from a housing inspector is also considered sufficient). The landlord must be given a reasonable time to make the needed repairs; a time frame exceeding 30 days is normally considered unreasonable.

Although this process is generally faster, it does involve some risk for the tenant. If the judge does not grant escrow, the tenant may have to pay late charges and court costs

To establish rent escrow, the tenant's case must include the following:

• Proper notice to the landlord
• Needed repairs that could affect the life, health, and safety of the tenant
• Damages that were not caused by the tenant
• A condition that has not been remedied
• The tenant has not refused reasonable entry for the landlord to make the repair
• The tenant has a good rent record

The tenant must also have the full rent to pay to the court. If a decision is reached in favor of the tenant, the judge may order the landlord to:

• Make the needed repair
• Reduce the rent to an amount that fairly represents the condition of the premise
• Order the rent to be paid to the court with a refund of part of the rent to be given to the tenant when the repairs are made.

If the tenant desires, the judge may also end the tenancy.

This information was created by Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., a local, non-profit organization seeking justice in housing; later adapted by the JHU Off-Campus Housing Office.