Q: I am a hold over tenant with a court date coming up soon. I am up to date on rent, and my lease has gone month to month

A: Good evening,

Well, a lot of this depends on the grounds. If the Landlord gave you proper notice to vacate and your lease term is up (ie month to month) then you will almost assuredly lose the case. All the Landlord has to prove is that a) the lease term is up, b) you were given proper notice to vacate and c) you failed to vacate.

You mention retaliation. Did you file a rent escrow or the like that would allow you to raise a defense of retaliation?

As to appeal: there is always a right to appeal, but to prevent frivolous appeals, the Court will often set an appeal bond in some amount, ranging from a month to a few month worth of rent. You do not have a right to a jury trial though.

Good luck!

A: I agree with the previous answer. I am aware of no law that would force a landlord to lease their premises to someone solely to accommodate their medical disability or condition, when there is no lease term in place that otherwise provides a legal right to possession. The lease term is over. The landlord cannot discriminate based on a Constitutionally protected class, such as on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, but may deny a lease based on almost any other reason. You do not describe the basis for your retaliation claim, but that defense typically only applies to efforts to evict a tenant before their lease term ends. You do not state whether your disability would place you within the purview of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but you might inquire of an ADA lawyer whether there is any action you could take under that law. However, unless the lease termination is based on your disability (you would need to prove that), then the ADA would not apply. Assuming you lose your court date, a judgment of possession/warrant of restitution will be granted to the landlord. The landlord then has to request that the clerk's office issue a writ of possession to the Sheriff's Office, which will then contact the landlord to schedule an eviction date. The eviction date will vary from county to county, based on the number of evictions and the number of deputy sheriffs assigned to conduct evictions, often meaning weeks or even months after issuance of the writ in populous jurisdictions. They will not tell you the date of eviction (they want you to leave voluntarily sooner out of fear). These are not normal times, however. You need to keep up to date on the MD Courts page to monitor new and changing directives that affect evictions: https://mdcourts.gov/legalhelp/housingtenants

Go to the above link, and scroll down to the CDC Agency Order. This CDC continues to update and issue new orders, so by the deadline in each order you should obtain, prepare, and have served on the landlord a declaration in compliance with the order, and keep a dated copy for your records. Bring or submit those declarations as exhibits in any eviction proceeding. It may or may not work in your case, but no reason to not try. Good luck to you.