Maryland STR Fire-Safety Law: Your October 1, 2026 Checklist

The checklist

Print this, walk the property, tick the boxes.

A posted evacuation diagram showing all exitsPer unit, posted where guests will see it — most hosts put it on the back of the bedroom door or inside the entry closet. It has to show the exits, not just the floor plan. If your unit has two floors, both.
A posted list of emergency contactsLocal emergency number, your number (or your local contact’s), and the property address written out — a panicked guest cannot recall an address. Post it next to the diagram.
A working fire extinguisherKitchen is the standard placement. Check the gauge is in the green and that it is not past its service date. Mount it where a guest can actually reach it.
Functioning smoke alarms — interconnected where multiple alarms are requiredThis is the one that catches people. Where more than one smoke alarm is required, they must be interconnected so that when one sounds they all sound, and they must be audible in all sleeping rooms. The statute does allow an alternative approved by the State Fire Marshal. Any alarm more than ten years old — or undated, or not working — has to be replaced.
Functioning carbon monoxide alarmsAudible in every sleeping room, and replaced at ten years. Note the difference: the statute's interconnection requirement applies to smoke alarms only. CO alarms are not required to be interconnected.
Documentation you can hand a platformThe law requires booking platforms to collect compliance documentation per unit. Photograph everything now — diagram in place, extinguisher gauge, alarm model plates showing the date — and keep it in one folder per property. You will be asked.

The part almost nobody has read: by July 1, 2028, every Maryland county and Baltimore City — except any county that prohibits short-term rentals outright — must adopt a law or regulation requiring annual inspections of short-term rentals, and report it to the State Fire Marshal. Counties may charge fees and may use certified third-party inspectors. That is the real shift — October is a documentation deadline, 2028 is an inspection regime.

What this does not do

The Act itself carries no penalties. The enforcement will come from two directions: the platforms, which must require your compliance documentation, and your county, once its inspection ordinance exists. So the practical risk before 2028 is a listing that gets restricted for missing paperwork, not a fine.

Does this law require two ways out of the unit?

No, and this is worth being precise about, because it is two different rules stacked on top of each other. The Act itself does not create a two-exit requirement — it requires you to post a diagram identifying the exits your unit already has. It does not say how many that has to be.

Separately, and this predates the Act by decades: under the building and fire code your jurisdiction has adopted, a room used as a bedroom generally needs its own way out that is not the bedroom door — an exterior door, or a compliant egress window if it is not on an exterior wall. A basement bedroom with no qualifying window is the most common quiet code violation in short-term rental listings, law or no law. Whether your specific structure needs a second path out of the building entirely is a call for your local fire marshal or building department, not something this statute answers for you. If any bedroom in your rental does not have its own way out, that is worth a call regardless of October 1.

On top of this, your town still has its own rules

The state law is a floor, not a ceiling. Here is what the coastal markets require in addition — these are the ones I get asked about most.

Ocean City, Maryland

Item	What it is
License	Annual rental license $196 plus a $50 short-term-rental supplement — $246 total, running May 1 to April 30.
Local contact	An agent who can physically respond within 60 minutes. This is the rule that quietly decides whether an out-of-town owner can operate here at all.
Inspections	Five-year rotation.
Platforms	Must verify your license number.
Occupancy	In R-1 and MH districts: two per bedroom plus two.
Enforcement	Fines $500–$1,000 per day. Three service calls in twelve months triggers an automatic 30-day suspension.
Room tax	Worcester County raised it from 5% to 6% on January 1, 2026, on top of the 6% state sales tax.

Some context on why Ocean City feels tense right now: the R-1 district went through a full year of whiplash — a moratorium in February 2025, a five-night minimum passed in March, repealed by voter referendum in July, the moratorium extended in December, a 10% cap drafted in February 2026 and then dropped, and the moratorium finally repealed on February 17, 2026 to avoid a second referendum. The rules are now settled, and the city manager’s stated posture is to “fairly strictly enforce the regulations that are on the books.” That means the licence, the 60-minute contact and the service-call count are being watched.

West Ocean City and unincorporated Worcester are different: a Class 1 license at $200/yr, your license number in every advertisement, and for permits issued after 2020, three dedicated 10×20 on-site parking spaces.

The Delaware beaches

Delaware is a separate state with a separate regime, and if you own on both sides of the line you are complying with two sets of rules.

Where	What applies
Statewide	A 4.5% lodging tax on stays of 31 nights or fewer, in effect for agreements from January 1, 2025. Platforms collect and remit it. If you take direct bookings you need a Delaware accommodations-intermediary business license ($25) and you remit monthly by the 15th. There is no statewide operating permit — the real rules are local.
Rehoboth Beach	Residential rental license; 7% local rental tax on top of the state tax, due February 15; occupancy of two per bedroom plus two, with children under six not counted; a local 24/7 contact; an annual self-inspection; and the license posted inside the rental. Renewals accepted up to 60 days early.
Lewes	Rental license on a January–December year; stays of 30 consecutive days or fewer; local 24/7 contact with a two-hour response requirement; your rental ID in every advertisement; booking records maintained; gross receipts rental tax with the annual filing.
Dewey, Bethany, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, unincorporated Sussex	Each sets its own licensing, occupancy and inspection rules, and they differ meaningfully town to town. Sussex County rejected a proposed 3% county lodging tax on December 10, 2024. Confirm with the town directly before you list — do not assume Rehoboth’s rules apply four miles down the road.

The pattern worth noticing: Rehoboth wants a 24/7 contact, Lewes wants a two-hour response, Ocean City wants 60 minutes. Every one of these markets is quietly requiring that somebody real is reachable near the property. That is solvable without handing a co-host 20% of every booking — but it has to be solved deliberately, before you list.

What I’d do this month if I owned here

One: do the four fire-safety items and photograph them. Two: pull your town’s licence page and check your renewal date and your posted local contact. Three: if you are buying or about to list, find out what your specific address requires before you spend money on furniture — because in a few of these towns the answer is “not at this address,” and it is much cheaper to learn that now.

Want this done for your exact address?

The Flight Plan ($499) is a written compliance report for your specific city and county — every permit, licence and tax registration you need, with the forms, the fees and the real timelines, plus a market and pricing brief and a 45-minute call. If you go on to a full launch, the $499 comes off the price.

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Sources

Maryland HB 1221 / Chapter 9 of 2026 (enacted text, Maryland General Assembly); Governor’s signing announcement, April 14, 2026; Maryland Association of Counties; Town of Ocean City licensing; Worcester County room tax notice, effective January 1, 2026; Delaware Division of Revenue lodging tax; municipal codes for Rehoboth Beach and Lewes. Rules change — verify with your jurisdiction before you rely on any of this.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is a working host’s summary of published requirements, written to save you the reading.