Lawmakers in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County are working to standardize the eviction process, including mandating that landlords give more notice before an eviction date and allowing people more time to retrieve their belongings.

The changes follow a 2025 state law that requires landlords to alert tenants of their scheduled eviction date at least six days in advance. The legislation also requires notices include certain information, such as the court case number and the landlord’s contact information. Local governments could enact their own laws providing up to two weeks’ notice or as little as four days, according to a legislative analysis.

Baltimore’s proposal, cosponsored by seven councilmembers, would require landlords to give tenants 14 days to leave a property, as opposed to seven now.

Landlords would be able to charge tenants up to $5 to meet the new notice provisions, according to the draft legislation.

Councilmembers are also weighing whether to give tenants 30 days to collect their belongings after an eviction. They would need to ask the landlord in writing within 10 days. The landlord could charge “reasonable” costs for storage.

The city’s current policy considers all belongings left behind after an eviction abandoned, even if a tenant argues they did not receive proper notice.

Anne Arundel’s bill would also give tenants 14 days’ notice of their eviction date, up from six.

Under the proposal, the landlord couldn’t put tenants’ belongings on the street. Instead, landlords would have to take belongings to a landfill, put them in storage or sell or donate them. Property owners and managers would be explicitly barred from keeping a tenant’s property for “personal use.”

The Anne Arundel County Council could vote on the proposal Monday night. A hearing in Baltimore was canceled last week due to Winter Storm Fern and will be rescheduled.

Proponents of a more compassionate eviction process have allies in Baltimore Sheriff Sam Cogen and Anne Arundel County Sheriff Everett Sesker.

Cogen’s office has lobbied for increasing the amount of notice given to tenants being evicted, which the sheriff said minimizes testy interactions with deputies and gives households more time to plan for displacement.

“We’re still following the rule of law,” Cogen said, “but that doesn’t mean we do it in a way that’s cruel or inhumane.”

Cogen, who has called for “humanizing” the eviction process since his election in 2022, said he was influenced as a sheriff’s deputy, after countless interactions with children, older adults and working people who couldn’t afford their housing.

Evictions cause trauma, Cogen said, and create desperation and instability in communities.

Sesker said he supports Anne Arundel’s legislation. The bill, sponsored by councilmembers Julie Hummer and Lisa Rodvien, would save his deputies time, he said.

Under Anne Arundel legislation, a tenant would be given twice as much notice of an eviction as under existing law, but their belongings would be considered abandoned once the locks are changed.

Hummer pointed to the mistaken eviction of Glen Burnie resident Sharnae Hunt in 2022 as inspiration behind the legislation.

Hunt came home from work to her belongings strewn about the lawn of her apartment complex. Many of her things were missing — including her young son’s pet turtle, Mikie.

Landlords and their lobbyists took issue with last year’s changes to state tenant laws.

The Maryland Multi-Housing Association, which represents landlords, has called the changes “problematic on many fronts” and said tenants should bear responsibility for understanding their eviction and removing their belongings ahead of time.

The organization also expressed concerns about “prolonging” the inevitable.

“We are not solving but rather creating more problems,” the organization said in legislative testimony.

Tenants across Maryland generally have few legal avenues for reclaiming their belongings after an eviction.

Dante and Ashley Simms, a couple living in Baltimore with their six children, were evicted from their home late last year after missing rent. The family lost clothes, electronics, jewelry and furniture.

The Simmses said they attempted to pay back the landlord with eviction prevention grant funds. The landlord refused.

The family moved into a house in Cherry Hill that Dante Simms inherited from his father. But he said evictions can easily be “family killers” for those who don’t have other options.

“It needs to stop,” Simms said. “Not overnight, but it needs to be said, it needs to be brought to light, and it needs to be talked about and amended.”

Statewide attitudes toward eviction began to change in 2019, after Baltimore residents Marshall Todman and Tiffany Gattis came home from work after getting evicted to find their lives’ possessions locked in the house. All they had left were the clothes they were wearing.

A federal judge awarded them $186,000 in damages in 2022, saying a city ordinance allowing landlords to take immediate possession of belongings was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman also questioned the city’s lack of a requirement to provide notice of an eviction to “hold over” tenants accused of staying in a property after their lease ends. City law requires notice be given only to those who don’t pay rent.

After Boardman’s ruling, Cogen’s office temporarily paused holdover evictions and asked the city in 2023 to amend the law to require that tenants get the same notice in all eviction cases, according to a letter reviewed by The Banner. The city declined, responding in its own letter that state law governs tenant and landlord relationships and that it disagreed with the U.S. District Court’s decision.

On appeal, a panel of judges in 2024 upheld the lower court’s ruling.