It’s the call every Baltimore landlord dreads. Rent was due on the first. It’s now the fifth — or the fifteenth — and nothing has come through. No payment, no explanation, no response to your messages. What do you do?

The answer depends almost entirely on whether you follow Maryland’s Failure to Pay Rent (FTPR) process correctly. Miss a step, use the wrong form, skip a required notice period, or file on an unlicensed property — and you could find yourself back at square one, weeks of lost rent behind you and a court system that has no sympathy for procedural errors.

This guide covers the complete Baltimore City FTPR process as it stands in 2026, including the updated filing fees and wait periods that took effect under the 2024 Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act.

Before You File Anything: Two Critical Checks

Before you send a notice or step near a courthouse, confirm two things — because both can derail an otherwise solid FTPR case.

Check 1: Is rent actually past due under your lease? Maryland law allows landlords to file for failure to pay rent as soon as rent is overdue, but “overdue” depends on what your lease says. If your lease includes a grace period (common in many Baltimore leases), rent isn’t legally late until that window closes. Filing before the grace period ends is a technical error — and it will show in court.

Check 2: Is your Baltimore rental license current? This is the one landlords most often overlook. Since 2019, Baltimore City landlords cannot legally file a Failure to Pay Rent complaint — or collect any rent in arrears — on a property without a valid, current rental license. An expired license doesn’t just slow you down; it can result in the case being dismissed entirely. Before you do anything else, confirm your license status through Baltimore City DHCD.

Step 1: Send the 10-Day Written Notice

Once rent is legally overdue and your rental license is confirmed active, your first formal action is to serve the tenant a written 10-day notice demanding payment. Maryland law requires this notice before you can file an FTPR complaint.

The notice must clearly state the amount of rent owed and give the tenant 10 days from receipt to pay in full or vacate. You can use Maryland District Court form DC-CV-115 (available at mdcourts.gov) or write your own, as long as it meets the legal requirements.

Delivery matters. You can serve the notice by first-class mail, by posting it on the property door, or electronically if the tenant has agreed in writing to receive notices that way. Keep proof of delivery — a certificate of mailing, a timestamped photo, or a signed acknowledgment. You will need this in court.

Step 2: File the FTPR Complaint at District Court ($60 in Baltimore City)

If the tenant hasn’t paid in full by the end of the 10-day window, you can file a Failure to Pay Rent complaint with the District Court for the jurisdiction where the property is located. For Baltimore City properties, that’s the District Court of Maryland located at 5800 Wabash Ave.

The filing fee for a nonpayment of rent case in Baltimore City is currently $60 — a significant increase from the pre-October 2024 rate of approximately $8. This change was part of the Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act signed in April 2024. While $60 is not a large sum on its own, it’s important to understand that this is just the opening cost in what can become a much larger expense.

After filing, the District Court will set a hearing date — typically within five business days of the filing. Both you and the tenant will be notified of the date and time.

Step 3: Wait Period, Warrant of Restitution, and the Sheriff

Here is where the 2024 law changes create the most significant impact on Baltimore landlords’ timelines.

After a judgment of possession is entered, you must wait 7 days before you can request a Warrant of Restitution — the court order that authorizes the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office to physically remove the tenant. Before October 2024, this wait period was 4 days. The additional 72 hours may seem small, but it extends an already lengthy process.

Once the 7-day period passes, you file the Warrant of Restitution request with the same District Court. You have up to 60 days from the judgment date to do so. Once the warrant is signed by a judge, you coordinate with the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office to schedule the physical eviction — typically 5 to 10 days out.

There is one more required step before the sheriff arrives: under current law, tenants must receive at least 14 days’ advance written notice of the scheduled eviction date. The notice must be sent by first-class mail with a certificate of mailing, with Day 1 being the day you mail it and Day 14 being the day before the scheduled eviction. This requirement applies regardless of how long the process has already taken.

What a Baltimore Eviction Actually Costs in 2026

Most landlords focus on the filing fee and miss the full financial picture. Here is a realistic breakdown of what a completed FTPR eviction costs a Baltimore City landlord in 2026.

The Only Real Solution: Don’t Get Here in the First Place

Every step in this guide exists because a tenant was placed who either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay rent consistently. The FTPR process is a legal remedy, not a business strategy. The landlords who rarely deal with nonpayment are not the ones who have mastered the court system — they’re the ones who never had to use it.

In Baltimore’s rental market, that comes down to one thing: who you place. A tenant with a genuine ability and history of paying rent on time will almost never generate a single line of this guide. A tenant placed based on a superficial credit check — without MD court database review, employment verification, SDAT cross-check, and former landlord calls — is a coin flip.

The economic case is straightforward. One eviction — even a clean, straightforward one — costs between $3,500 and $7,000 and erases months of rental income. Rigorous screening at the front end is not a cost center. It is the most efficient capital allocation decision a Baltimore landlord can make.

If you’re currently dealing with a nonpaying tenant in Baltimore City or Baltimore County, follow the FTPR steps in this guide carefully — or engage a professional who knows the District Court process. The margin for error is thin, and procedural mistakes add weeks and dollars to an already expensive situation.

If you’re not currently dealing with this but you’ve had tenants who’ve paid late, skipped months, or required constant follow-up — that is a screening problem, not a tenant problem. The right management partner can solve it before it costs you anything.