Charles County, MD HOA Rules: CC&R Enforcement (2026)

Charles County's zoning and property-maintenance inspectors do not enforce a subdivision's recorded covenants and restrictions; that authority belongs to the homeowners' association's own governing body under its association documents and Maryland's Real Property Article. Charles County Code § 247-2 defines a 'DISPUTE' that the county's Homeowners' Association Dispute Review Board may hear as any disagreement over the authority of a governing body, under any law or association document, to require any person to take or not take action involving a unit or property, or to alter or add to a common area or element.

In other words, the Board reviews whether an association had the power to enforce a covenant in the first place, not whether the covenant was factually violated. The statute narrows that jurisdiction: under § 247-2(B), a dispute does not include the collection of an assessment validly levied against a party, or the judgment or discretion of a governing body in taking or deciding not to take any legally authorized action. That means the Board will not second-guess a validly authorized decision or a routine, properly levied charge; it steps in only when the governing body's underlying authority to act is genuinely contested.

Before filing, a homeowner must first exhaust the association's own internal grievance process under § 247-4(B), unless 60 days pass without resolution. The Department of Planning and Growth Management staffs the Board, created under Ord. No. 04-05 (Aug. 24, 2004) pursuant to Real Property Article § 11B-104(c) of the Maryland Code.