Lease Acceleration Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Maryland law says, what's specific to Baltimore - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- § 8-207(a) puts the duty on "The aggrieved party in a breach of a lease" when damages result from a "Termination of occupancy before the end of the term", the early move-out an acceleration clause is written for.
- § 8-207(d) says "No provision in this section may be waived in any lease." § 8-208(d)(2) separately bars a lease provision waiving any right or remedy provided by applicable law, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes one unenforceable by the landlord.
- The duty has a stated limit. Under § 8-207(b) it does not oblige the landlord to show or lease the vacated unit in preference to other available units.
- Re-letting does not end the departing tenant's exposure. Under § 8-207(c) the landlord may sublet without prior notice, and the tenant stays secondarily liable for rent for the original term, plus consequential damages, if the landlord gives prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
- Our record of Baltimore's Public Local Laws and Article 13 of the City Code finds no city rule on re-renting or on acceleration clauses. Public Local Laws § 9-21 says returning the keys does not relieve a tenant of rent due or to become due.
Understanding the Lease Acceleration Clause
An acceleration clause is the lease paragraph that makes every remaining month of rent payable at once. Miss a payment or leave early, and the clause writes up the rest of the term as due now.
Maryland meets that paragraph with a statute on mitigation. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-207(a) gives the aggrieved party in a breach of a residential lease a duty to mitigate the damages from a termination of occupancy before the end of the term. § 8-207(d) says no provision in the section may be waived in any lease, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes a lease waiver of a legal right unenforceable by the landlord.
A text search of the Title 8 sections in our record finds no section that mentions acceleration of rent. This page reads the clause against § 8-207 instead: what the duty asks of a landlord, where the section sets its limits, and what a departing tenant can still owe after a sublet.
What renters assume
A Baltimore lease that makes the rest of the term due the day you leave settles what you owe, whatever the landlord does with the empty unit.
What is actually true
Maryland writes a duty to mitigate into § 8-207(a) for damages from a termination of occupancy before the end of the term, and § 8-207(d) says no provision in the section may be waived in any lease. The duty has limits of its own: under § 8-207(b) the landlord need not show or lease your unit ahead of its other available units.
None of the 20 rows in the comparison on this page carries a figure; each is a short label. Baltimore's reads Mandatory, non-waivable, the same words as Austin's and New York City's.
Twelve of the 20 labels open with Mandatory: Austin, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix, Nashville, Portland, Las Vegas, Washington, Newark and Baltimore. Miami and Philadelphia read No duty to re-rent, Atlanta reads Likely no duty, Denver and Columbus read No statute; case law, Boston reads No statute; 93A limits, Detroit reads Non-waivable by lease and Charlotte reads Case law; tenant proves.
Three labels name the party who proves the effort: Los Angeles and Charlotte put it on the tenant, Newark on the landlord. Baltimore's label names no party, and the parts of § 8-207 our record quotes do not assign that proof either.
Plain English Version
If you leave a Baltimore lease early, Maryland law gives the landlord a duty to mitigate damages, and no lease can waive it. The duty does not make the landlord rent your unit before its other empty ones.
If the landlord sublets your place, it can do so without telling you first. You then stay secondarily liable for rent for the rest of your original term, plus consequential damages, as long as the landlord gives you prompt notice if the new occupant defaults.
In Baltimore, handing in the keys does not by itself end rent due or to become due.
Rent Acceleration Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Baltimore, MD
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Here is the lease paragraph as the Summers opinion set it out, less its final sentence, which deals with late charges and interest charged on an amount after it has been accelerated:
If any monthly installment under this agreement is not paid when due and remains unpaid after a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal rent amount owed for the full lease term shall at once become due and payable at the option of the Landlord and judgment may be had for all said amounts due. The foregoing provision shall not relieve the Landlord of its obligation to mitigate damages. In the event the rental premises is re-rented to another for full value prior to expiration of the lease term, Landlord shall file Notice of Partial Satisfaction of any judgment entered to the extent of the third party rental agreement.
[…]
Quoted from the published opinion in Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164, 357 Mont. 123, 236 P.3d 586 (No. DA 09-0489). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“a date specified by a notice to Tenant, the entire principal”
The clause runs on a deadline the landlord sets in its own notice. A text search of the Title 8 sections in our Maryland record, § 8-101 through § 8-1006, finds no section that mentions acceleration of rent. The notice Maryland's statute does speak of runs the other way: under § 8-207(c) a departing tenant's secondary liability for the rest of the term attaches if the landlord gives the tenant prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
“for the full lease term shall at”
This is the reach of the clause: the full term, at once. Maryland's statute reaches the full term too, by a slower road. Under § 8-207(c), if a tenant vacates before the end of the term, the landlord “may sublet the dwelling unit without prior notice to the tenant in default”. The tenant in default is then “secondarily liable for rent for the term of the tenant's original agreement”, plus consequential damages from the breach.
“to mitigate damages. In the event the”
In Maryland this sentence restates the statute rather than granting a favour. § 8-207(a) gives the aggrieved party a duty to mitigate damages from a “Termination of occupancy before the end of the term”, and § 8-207(d) says “No provision in this section may be waived in any lease.” § 8-208(d)(2) separately bars a lease line waiving any right or remedy provided by applicable law, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes such a line unenforceable by the landlord.
“any judgment entered to the extent of the third”
Summers' lease shrinks a judgment as a new renter pays. Baltimore law keeps the court side open in another way. Public Local Laws § 9-4 says a summary ejectment case and judgment of restitution do not stop the landlord from “filing and maintaining an independent suit for rent due and unpaid”. A judgment for the unit and a claim for the money can travel separately.
The Montana Supreme Court struck this paragraph down, and its conclusion is one sentence: “Thus, we conclude that the accelerated rent provision is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable.” The tenants had moved out of their apartment on October 13, 2006, and Crestview answered with a Statement of Deductions from the Security Deposit charging rent through the end of the lease in June - $6,505.75 billed against a $2,170 deposit. Two reasons carried the court. Acceleration undermines the landlord's duty to mitigate and reduces the incentive to re-rent promptly, because a landlord already holding a judgment for the whole term has little reason to fill the unit. And Crestview drafted the lease while these tenants had no meaningful choice and no opportunity to negotiate any of it. The case was reversed and remanded, and two justices wrote separately - their objection being that the majority had gone as far as treating acceleration clauses as unenforceable in themselves. So read the holding narrowly, as the majority wrote it: this provision, in this residential lease, unconscionable and unenforceable. It is a Montana decision and it binds no other state's courts. What travels is the reasoning, and the reasoning is about mitigation - which is exactly the question the statute in your own city's decode answers.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Maryland Law on Lease Acceleration Clause
- The duty runs both ways. Section 8-207(a) puts it on "The aggrieved party in a breach of a lease" when damages result from the landlord's or tenant's failure to supply possession of the unit, failure or refusal to take possession at the beginning of the term, or "Termination of occupancy before the end of the term." The third item is the early move-out a lease acceleration clause is written for.
- The landlord does not have to favour your unit. Section 8-207(b) says the duty does "not impose an obligation to show or lease the vacated dwelling unit in preference to other available units." The section does not require a landlord with other vacant units to rent yours first.
- Re-letting does not end the departing tenant's exposure. Under § 8-207(c), if a tenant wrongly fails to take possession or vacates before the end of the term, the landlord "may sublet the dwelling unit without prior notice to the tenant in default." The tenant in default is "secondarily liable for rent for the term of the tenant's original agreement" plus consequential damages from the breach, if the landlord gives the tenant prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
- A lease cannot contract out of it, and the section is residential. Section 8-207(d) bars waiver in any lease, and § 8-208(d)(2) separately bars a lease provision that has the tenant "agree to waive or to forego any right or remedy provided by applicable law", which § 8-208(g)(1) makes unenforceable by the landlord. Section 8-207 sits in Subtitle 2 of Title 8, which § 8-201(a) says is "applicable only to residential leases unless otherwise provided." A text search of the Title 8 sections in our record, § 8-101 through § 8-1006, finds no section that mentions acceleration of rent.
Sources include Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-207; Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-201(a); Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208(d)(2), (g)(1); Baltimore City Pub. Local Laws § 9-21; Baltimore City Pub. Local Laws § 9-4 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Maryland answers this question in a statute on mitigation rather than one on acceleration. Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-207(a) says the aggrieved party in a breach of a lease "has a duty to mitigate damages" where the damages come from one of three things:
- Failure to supply possession of the dwelling unit.
- Failure or refusal to take possession at the beginning of the term.
- "Termination of occupancy before the end of the term."
The duty runs both ways: the section names the aggrieved party, not the landlord. The third item is the early move-out an acceleration clause is written for. § 8-201(a) limits the subtitle holding § 8-207 to residential leases unless otherwise provided.
The duty has a stated limit. § 8-207(b) says it does "not impose an obligation to show or lease the vacated dwelling unit in preference to other available units." A landlord with other vacant units is not required to rent yours first.
Re-letting does not end a departing tenant's exposure. Under § 8-207(c), if a tenant wrongly fails to take possession or vacates before the end of the term, the landlord "may sublet the dwelling unit without prior notice to the tenant in default." The tenant in default is then "secondarily liable for rent for the term of the tenant's original agreement", plus consequential damages, if the landlord gives prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
Set beside an acceleration clause, that is a different shape of debt. The clause names the whole remaining term as due now.
The section, where the landlord sublets, describes the departing tenant's liability for that term as secondary and ties it to prompt notice of the sublessee's default.
A lease cannot contract out of any of this. § 8-207(d) says "No provision in this section may be waived in any lease." § 8-208(d)(2) separately bars a provision that has the tenant "agree to waive or to forego any right or remedy provided by applicable law", which § 8-208(g)(1) makes unenforceable by the landlord.
A text search of the Title 8 sections in our record, § 8-101 through § 8-1006, finds no section that mentions acceleration of rent. Our record of § 8-207 describes the duty and its limits and does not reach how a court weighs an acceleration clause against it, so read the section's current text yourself.
Maryland Tenant Protections
A Baltimore tenant who leaves early is protected first by the duty in § 8-207(a): the aggrieved party in a breach of a residential lease has a duty to mitigate damages that result from a termination of occupancy before the end of the term.
The protection is built to survive the lease. § 8-207(d) says no provision in the section may be waived in any lease, and § 8-208(d)(2) bars a provision that has the tenant agree to waive or forego any right or remedy provided by applicable law, which § 8-208(g)(1) makes unenforceable by the landlord. If the landlord sublets the unit, § 8-207(c) lets it do so without prior notice, and the departing tenant's liability for rent for the original term becomes secondary.
That liability, with consequential damages, is tied to the landlord giving the tenant prompt notice of any default by the sublessee. Two limits sit beside those protections. § 8-207(b) says the duty does not impose an obligation to show or lease the vacated unit in preference to other available units.
And in Baltimore, Public Local Laws § 9-21 says neither handing in the keys nor the landlord's accepting them relieves the tenant of liability for rent due or to become due under the lease.
Read the current text of § 8-207 before relying on it.
What's Specific to Baltimore
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
For this question Baltimore's own law is not where the answer sits, as far as our record reaches. Our record covers sections of Subtitle 9 (Landlord and Tenant) of the Code of Public Local Laws of Baltimore City, from § 9-4 to § 9-33, and a text search of Article 13 of the Baltimore City Code.
It finds no Baltimore law on re-renting a unit after a tenant leaves early or on rent acceleration clauses.
The closest Baltimore rule is Public Local Laws § 9-21, a moving-out section. It says neither handing in the keys nor the landlord's accepting them "shall relieve the tenant of any liability for rent due or to become due" under the lease. Returning the keys does not close the account by itself.
That sentence and § 8-207 answer different questions. Section 9-21 keeps the lease's rent liability in place after the keys go back, while § 8-207 gives the landlord a duty to mitigate the damages from an early move-out and bars any lease waiver of it.
Our record states both and does not say how a court combines them.
Public Local Laws § 9-4 bears on the court side. A summary ejectment case and judgment of restitution do not stop the landlord from "filing and maintaining an independent suit for rent due and unpaid".
A judgment for the unit and a claim for the money can travel separately.
For a Baltimore renter facing an acceleration clause, the useful record is about the empty unit. Write down the day you gave notice, the day you returned the keys and the day the term ends.
Save any listing or sign you see for the unit, with the date you saw it.
If the landlord tells you it has sublet the unit, keep that message. Under § 8-207(c) your secondary liability for the original term is tied to prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
Keep any such notice with its date, beside any later bill for that default. § 8-207(b) is worth knowing too: the duty does not oblige a landlord to rent your unit ahead of its other available units.
The Baltimore City Code index on codes.baltimorecity.gov reads Current through July 17, 2026, and the Public Local Laws pages print no currency date of their own. Check both, and take the lease and your dates to a Baltimore tenant lawyer or legal aid office before you agree to any figure.
That lines up with § 8-207(a), which gives the aggrieved party a duty to mitigate damages from a termination of occupancy before the end of the term.
§ 8-207(d) says no provision in the section may be waived in any lease, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes a waiver of a right under applicable law unenforceable by the landlord.
Under § 8-207(c) a departing tenant's secondary liability for the original term depends on the landlord giving prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
A text search of the Title 8 sections in our record finds no section on acceleration of rent. Read such a line against the duty to mitigate in § 8-207.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-207; Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-201(a); Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-208(d)(2), (g)(1); Baltimore City Pub. Local Laws § 9-21; Baltimore City Pub. Local Laws § 9-4, read on mgaleg.maryland.gov. The Maryland General Assembly's site files this section in its 2027 Regular Session statute text, in a PDF generated September 24, 2026.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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A no-duty-to-re-rent line
§ 8-207(d) says no provision in the section may be waived in any lease, and § 8-208(d)(2) bars a provision waiving any right or remedy provided by applicable law.
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A total with no account of the unit
A bill for the whole remaining term that says nothing about the empty unit leaves out § 8-207(a). Ask in writing what was done to mitigate, and when.
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A sublessee's default billed without notice
The landlord may sublet without prior notice under § 8-207(c), but your secondary liability is tied to prompt notice of any default by the sublessee. A bill that arrives with no such notice deserves a close read.
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A general waiver of legal rights
A lease line in which you give up rights or remedies provided by applicable law runs into § 8-208(d)(2), and § 8-208(g)(1) makes such a provision unenforceable by the landlord.
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Keys handed back, rent assumed to stop
In Baltimore, Public Local Laws § 9-21 says neither handing in the keys nor the landlord's accepting them relieves the tenant of liability for rent due or to become due. Settle the money in writing.
Your Rights as a Baltimore Tenant
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A duty to mitigate after you leave
Under § 8-207(a) the aggrieved party in a breach of a residential lease has a duty to mitigate damages from a termination of occupancy before the end of the term.
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A duty no lease can waive
§ 8-207(d) says "No provision in this section may be waived in any lease."
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Notice before a sublessee's default reaches you
If the landlord sublets, § 8-207(c) makes you secondarily liable for the original term, plus consequential damages, if the landlord gives prompt notice of any default by the sublessee.
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Waivers of legal rights unenforceable
§ 8-208(d)(2) bars a lease provision waiving any right or remedy provided by applicable law, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes it unenforceable by the landlord.
What To Do - Step by Step
Write down every date
The day you gave notice, the day you returned the keys and the last day of the term. Every later argument about empty months is measured from them.
Ask in writing what was done with the unit
§ 8-207(a) gives the landlord a duty to mitigate. Expect the answer to be weighed against § 8-207(b), which does not require your unit to be shown ahead of other available units.
Keep any notice about a sublet
Under § 8-207(c) your secondary liability for the original term is tied to prompt notice of any default by the sublessee. File every such message with its date.
Read the lease for a waiver line
§ 8-207(d) bars waiving the section in any lease, and § 8-208(g)(1) makes a waiver of a legal right unenforceable by the landlord. Note the page and paragraph of any line that reads that way.
Check the Baltimore law and the statute text today
The City Code index reads Current through July 17, 2026, and the Public Local Laws pages print no date. Read the current text of § 8-207 yourself.
Get local advice before you agree to a figure
Take the lease, the dates and any sublet notice to a Baltimore tenant lawyer or legal aid office. Under Public Local Laws § 9-4, a suit for unpaid rent can follow a possession case separately.