Howard County, MD Rental Property Rules: Just Cause Eviction (2026)

Section 16.516 of the Howard County Code, part of the mobile home park licensing subtitle, is the county's just-cause eviction protection, and it applies specifically to mobile home park residents rather than to rental housing generally. Subsection (a) confines a park owner or operator to three grounds for eviction: nonpayment of rent; a violation of federal, state, or local law that is detrimental to the safety and welfare of other park residents; and repeated violations, over a six-month period, of a rule the owner identified in the lease as grounds for eviction. Subsection (b) sets the notice floor: the owner or operator must deliver the resident written notice of the cited violation at least 30 days before the date the resident must vacate.

The section also builds in a retaliation shield. Subsection (c) bars a park owner or operator from evicting or harassing a resident, or arbitrarily raising rent or cutting services, because the resident filed a complaint against the owner with a public agency, filed a lawsuit against the owner, or belongs to a tenants' or residents' organization. A resident who proves a retaliatory-eviction defense can recover reasonable attorney's fees and court costs, and if the eviction has already happened, the resident's forced-move expenses as well.

This protection sits inside Title 16, Subtitle 5, Mobile Home Development, alongside related tenant protections such as the 12-month minimum lease offer and the security-deposit limits for long-term residents. Section 16.518 makes a violation of the surrounding sections 16.513 through 16.517, which includes Section 16.516, a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100 to $1,000, treated as a Class D offense on a first violation and a Class B offense after that, on top of the licensing authority's civil-penalty power under Title 24 of the County Code.