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Network for Public Health Law
Constitutional Rights and the Public’s Health

Velicky v. The Copycat Building, LLC, and Walke v. The Copycat Building, LLC (consolidated)

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Overview

Velicky v. The Copycat Building, LLC, and Walke v. The Copycat Building, LLC (consolidated) (Court of Appeals of Maryland, Nov. 29, 2021): Maryland’s highest court declined to eliminate a landlord’s right to seek repossession of their property upon expiration of a lease solely because the landlord is unlicensed. State law requires landlords to be licensed to ensure tenant health and safety. Although licensed landlords may take legal action to seek unpaid rent or for damages to property by renters, the Maryland Court of Appeals has held that unlicensed landlords may not obtain these kinds of remedies in court. Maryland law allows landlords to regain their property when a tenant wrongfully remains on the property after expiration of their lease. The renters argued that an unlicensed landlord should not be permitted to request that relief from a court, much like the limit on monetary damages for unlicensed landlords. The court refused to apply the same doctrine to prevent an unlicensed landlord from seeking to remove tenants from the property at the end of a lease because doing so would interfere with the landlord’s property rights and unnecessarily alter the legislatively determined balance between the rights of landlords and tenants. Read the full decision here.

View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – January 18, 2022.

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