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Md. Code, Land Use § 5-301

This is the official text of Md. Code, Land Use § 5-301, part of Maryland’s Code, Land Use — governs zoning and land use planning.

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§5–301.

Official statutory text

(a) (1) Except as otherwise provided in §§ 9–603, 9–806, 9–1004, 9–1605, and 9–1606 of this article, an owner or agent of an owner of land located within a subdivision may not transfer, sell, or agree to sell land by reference to, exhibition of, or other use of a plat of a subdivision before the plat has been:

(i) approved by the planning commission; and

(ii) recorded or filed in the office of the appropriate county clerk.

(2) A person who violates this subsection is subject to a civil penalty of not less than $200 and not exceeding $1,000 for each violation.

(3) Each lot or parcel transferred or sold or agreed to be sold in violation of this subsection is a separate violation.

(b) The description of a lot or parcel by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring does not exempt the transaction from the penalties or remedies provided in this section.

(c) A local jurisdiction may seek to:

(1) enjoin the transfer, sale, or agreement in any circuit court; or

(2) recover the penalty by civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction.

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.