Worcester County, MD Short-Term Rentals: Repeat Violator Strikes (2026)

Worcester County does not count strikes. Section TR 2-106(g) of the Code of Public Local Laws instead lets the County Commissioners pull a rental license for cause and then imposes a fixed bar. Under subsection (g)(6), after providing the owner of the licensed property an opportunity to be heard, the County Commissioners can revoke, suspend or refuse to renew a license for any of five reasons: material falsification of application information (A); any activity on the premises detrimental to public health, safety or welfare as determined by the Commissioners (B); conviction of an applicant, owner, manager or person in control of any felony, regardless of where committed, or of a gambling, alcoholic beverage, controlled substance or prostitution violation by any person on the property during the license period (C); repeated failure to conform to the license conditions, rules adopted by resolution, the zoning article as it applies to rental properties, or the Rental Housing Code (D); and recurrent offensive conduct or behavior causing a public nuisance or disturbance as determined by the Commissioners (E).

The repeat-violator provisions are D and E. Neither names a number of incidents, so the Commissioners decide when failures are repeated or conduct is recurrent. That is a discretionary call made at a hearing, not an automatic third-violation trigger.

Subsection (g)(5) sets the consequence of revocation: the Department shall not issue a rental license for that particular property for a period of three years to the former license holder or to a member of the former license holder's housekeeping unit as defined in § ZS 1-103(b). Because licenses are not transferable and expire when the property is transferred, a sale does not hand the new owner the old license.

Before reaching revocation, the Department notifies the owner and any manager or resident agent by certified mail, posting, or e-mail with delivery and read receipts, orders correction within a reasonable period, and can then take any action authorized by law. Operating afterward without a license is itself a separate civil infraction.