Committee approves 14-day eviction-notice expansion and county notification requirements

The Planning, Housing and Parks Committee unanimously approved Expedited Bill 31-25, advancing a local change that extends landlord notice of scheduled evictions from the state minimum of six days to 14 days and establishes a county notification and recordkeeping framework to accelerate homelessness-prevention outreach.

Ms. Wellens, county staff, said the state law that took effect Oct. 1, 2025, permits localities to extend the six-day advance notice up to 14 days. The bill the committee considered requires landlords to provide 14 days’ advance notice to tenants and—by amendment—deliver the full written notice to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) in a manner and format required by the director so DHCA can file and share those notices with Services to End and Prevent Homelessness (SEF) for immediate outreach.

Scott Bruton, DHCA director, told the committee the notification is important for enforcement and prevention. "The notification is important... so the county it's very difficult for the county to know if the landlord is doing what they're responsible for under this," Bruton said, describing a proposed intake workflow: landlords would forward the emails they already send tenants to a DHCA email address; a DHCA staffer would log each notice in a shared database and coordinate daily with SEF and the office of landlord-tenant affairs to trigger outreach.

Christine Hong, chief of Services to End and Prevent Homelessness at DHHS, cited recent county data and trends and explained why additional notice time matters for interventions. "Over the last 5 years, homelessness has increased by 162% in Montgomery County," Hong said, adding that families have been hardest hit and that the extra time allowed teams to prevent evictions in prior examples, saving the county in shelter costs.

Committee members supported the 14-day requirement but raised questions about enforcement and staffing. The Chair said he supports the extension but expressed skepticism about the assumption that citation revenue would fully cover a new staff position and asked staff to verify operational costs and how peer jurisdictions (for example, Gaithersburg) are implementing similar requirements.

The committee considered, and declined, an amendment to remove the DHCA copy requirement; instead, members adopted related amendments requiring DHCA to maintain a one-page resource list (updated annually with SEF), require landlords to include the DHCA resource link in notices, and require DHCA to retain records and share notices with SEF upon receipt. The committee also clarified the bill would require landlords to provide the "full written notice" as defined by state law in the format the DHCA director requires to reduce ambiguity and duplicate itemization.

The committee approved Expedited Bill 31-25 as amended by a unanimous committee vote (3-0) and forwarded it to the full council.