Free tool · Baltimore
What does a squatter cost you in Maryland?
Change the numbers to match your property. The rent is Maryland's own, from HUD; how long it drags on is your call; everything else is yours to overwrite.
Maryland estimate
$36,868
Your numbers.
These are national starting points, not claims about your property. The one figure that drives the total — how long it drags on — is yours to set. Nobody can source it, so we do not pretend to.
How long before you get it back?
6 months
Your assumption, not ours — courts do not publish how long this takes. A contested removal runs in months, not weeks, almost everywhere; how it goes in Maryland is in the guide.
How many bedrooms?
Sets the rent from HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for Baltimore — $2,358/mo.
Mortgage / loan payment — per month
$
Only you know this one. The placeholder is roughly a $300k loan at current rates.
Lost rent or delayed sale — per month
$
HUD's Fair Market Rent for this metro, at the bedroom count you picked. It is the 40th percentile of recent-mover rents, so on a renovated or market-rate property it is a floor, not a valuation.
Attorney fees — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate — nothing published backs it. No state bar and no court in any of these markets publishes fee data for an ejectment. Get a written quote and put it here.
Property taxes — per month
$
Your bill, divided by twelve. The placeholder is roughly a $250k property at Philadelphia's 1.3998% — Newark runs 1.845%, Los Angeles 1.187%.
Insurance — per month
$
No public data exists. Our estimate. Vacant cover genuinely does cost more, but the published figures for how much more disagree by a factor of five — anywhere from +25% to 5x. Use your own premium.
Utilities — per month
$
A national placeholder, unless your state overrides it below — Philadelphia's is the Water Department's own published bill. Whoever is inside, you are the ratepayer of record.
Damage and clean-out — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate, and we want to be blunt: NO government body in the United States publishes squatter-damage data. Every figure you have seen quoted traces to one news story or to a lobby survey that counted houses, not dollars. We are not going to launder a number we cannot stand behind — put yours here.
If it happens in Maryland
$36,868
at 6 months— and every extra month adds $4,728.
Against a $0–$120k range, so the bar means something as you drag.
Carrying it, empty ($4,728/mo × 6 mo)
$28,368
One-off costs (attorney, damage)
$8,500
What ruins you is the carry — the months. On top of this you will pay to file, for the sheriff to serve and remove, and for a lawyer. Those are set locally and we do not print a number we cannot cite — but next to the months, they are a sliver.
Can you get any of it back? YES — but only if you claimed damages in the complaint AND the occupant was personally served. Posted/mailed service (used when they won't answer the door) supports getting possession back but not a money judgment, so the squatter who never answers is the one you cannot bill.. Verified verbatim against the statute text. Recovery is conditional, not automatic.
Why Maryland costs what it does
Maryland routes a squatter through a wrongful detainer case in the District Court — a fast track built for someone holding property with no right to hold it, and separate from landlord-tenant law. The court must hold the hearing within ten business days of filing. A judge decides who is entitled to possession, then issues a warrant to the sheriff to restore it. It is a fast court track, not a sheriff-on-affidavit bypass.
How you must remove them
summary
“(a) In this section, "wrongful detainer" means to hold possession of real property without the right of possession. … (c) A person may not hold possession of property unless the person is entitled to possession of the property under the law.”
The statute
Md. Code, Real Prop. § 14-132 (wrongful detainer); hearing within 10 business days per § 14-132(d)(2)(ii)
“(ii) A hearing scheduled under subparagraph (i) of this paragraph shall be held not more than 10 business days after the complaint is filed under paragraph (1) of this subsection.”
Rent, by bedroom
1 bed $1,511 · 2 bed $1,857 · 3 bed $2,358 · 4 bed $2,611
FY2026 (effective Oct 1, 2025); verified 2026-07-14
Verified verbatim in the HUD FY2026 schedule PDF. The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD MSA row reads: Efficiency 1362, 1BR 1511, 2BR 1857, 3BR 2358, 4BR 2611. All four cited figures match.
Do you get your legal fees back?
YES — but only if you claimed damages in the complaint AND the occupant was personally served. Posted/mailed service (used when they won't answer the door) supports getting possession back but not a money judgment, so the squatter who never answers is the one you cannot bill.
“(2) The court may also give judgment in favor of the complainant for damages due to the wrongful detainer and for court costs and attorney fees if: (i) The complainant claimed damages in the complaint; and (ii) The court finds that: 1. The person in actual possession was personally served with the summons; or 2. There was service of process or submission to the jurisdiction of the court as would support a judgment in contract or tort.”
Verified verbatim against the statute text. Recovery is conditional, not automatic.
Is there a fast sheriff route?
No. Maryland has no statute letting a sheriff remove an occupant on the owner's sworn affidavit alone. HB 847 (2026) would have created exactly that, but it died in committee — introduced 4 Feb 2026, hearing 17 Feb 2026, no vote taken.
“(3) (I) … A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER SHALL REMOVE A PERSON IN POSSESSION OF RESIDENTIAL REAL PROPERTY AFTER RECEIVING AN AFFIDAVIT SUBMITTED UNDER PARAGRAPH (2) OF THIS SUBSECTION AND RETURN POSSESSION OF THE PROPERTY TO THE OWNER. (II) A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER MAY NOT REMOVE A PERSON … IF THE PERSON IN POSSESSION PRODUCES EVIDENCE OF LAWFUL POSSESSION OF THE PROPERTY TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER.”
This is a bill that did NOT pass — proof the affidavit-bypass route does not exist in Maryland. Even the bill would have been defeated by a produced lease ('evidence of lawful possession'), which is the fake lease itself.
This is the bill for finding out too late.
Nothing on this page will get an occupant out, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. What DeedProof does is earlier and duller: it verifies you own the property, structures the statement you swear before a notary, and files it — so that if someone does break in, the officer at the door has something to work from instead of a lease they cannot check.
The decision still belongs to the officer. Our job is to make it an easy one.
This page is the money. The law behind it is on Maryland’s guide — whether police can arrest, whether a sheriff can act on your affidavit alone, and how long occupation takes to become a claim. Every answer quoted from the statute.