Maryland could pass two big tenant protections in this General Assembly session

The Maryland General Assembly will wrap up April 10, meaning that potential state laws have one week to get passed. But two bills with important tenant protections stand a strong chance of becoming law and would do a lot of good to make lives better for renters in Montgomery County and the rest of Maryland. HB691, the Tenant Safety Act, passed the House by a decisive margin and reforms the rent escrow process. Rent escrow is where tenants pay their rent into a court controlled fund, rather than to a landlord, to legally withhold rent due to failure to make appropriate repairs to a building.