Maryland: some chimney work needs a state license. Here's what that means.

Maryland is the anti-Ohio: where Ohio licenses nothing statewide, Maryland runs the strongest regime in the launch set — a genuine exam, financial-solvency screening (or a bond), mandatory liability insurance, and a Guaranty Fund that actually pays homeowners up to $30,000 when a licensed contractor fails. The catch that makes the page: Maryland front-loads all its protection onto the contractor relationship and almost none onto the sale — because § 10-702 lets a seller hand over an "as-is" disclaimer and reveal nothing. So the two messages are sharp and opposite: hire only an MHIC-licensed contractor (it's the key to the $30k fund), and never trust the seller's disclosure — get your own inspection. And the eternal gap survives even here: the MHIC exam tests law, not whether the licensee can read your flue.

Maryland has the real thing: a state license with an exam and a funded backstop. The Maryland Home Improvement Commission (MHIC), in the Dept. of Labor, licenses anyone who solicits or performs home improvement under Md. Code, Business Regulation, Title 8 (§ 8-101 et seq.) — chimney repair/rebuild/reline for a homeowner is home improvement and needs an MHIC license. The license requires passing the PSI MHIC exam, meeting the Commission's financial-solvency guidelines (applicants who don't qualify may use an indemnitor or buy a surety bond of $30,000 or $100,000 — labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic/mhicapply.shtml), paying the $100 Guaranty Fund fee ($175 at renewal), and — since June 1, 2024 — carrying general liability insurance of at least $500,000 (labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic). (Experience requirement and exam pass mark not re-read on a primary page in Sep 2026 — do not publish specific figures.) Salespeople are separately licensed. Public lookup: labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic. Unlicensed home-improvement work is barred from recovery and is an offense.

Even Maryland's genuine exam tests Maryland home-improvement law, contracts, trade practices, and consumer-protection rules — not flue diagnosis or masonry skill. A licensed contractor may never have inspected a chimney. Individual certs (NCSG CCP/CCR; CSIA CCS, C-DET) remain the competence signal. The MD twist: because hiring a licensed contractor is what unlocks the Guaranty Fund, "check the license" carries more weight here than in any other launch state.

Md. Real Property § 10-702 gives sellers a choice: DISCLOSE or DISCLAIM. They may furnish either a Residential Property Disclosure Statement (disclosing known defects across the statutory categories — water/sewer, insulation, structural systems "including the roof, walls, floors, foundation, and any basement," plumbing/electrical/heating/AC, smoke alarms, a CO alarm where the home burns fossil fuel, and more, on an actual-knowledge basis) or a Residential Property Disclaimer Statement selling the home "as is," disclosing only latent defects posing a direct health/safety threat. Neither § 10-702 nor the current MREC form (footer "FORM: MREC/DLLR: Rev August 3, 2026" — labor.maryland.gov/forms/propertydanddform.pdf; also the form attached to COMAR 09.11.07.01 via Md. Register Vol. 53, Issue 15) has any chimney, fireplace, flue, or wood-stove line item — a chimney defect surfaces only through the general questions: item 6 ("Other Structural Systems, including walls and floors"), item 8 (is heat supplied to all finished rooms / is the system in operating condition), item 24 (has the property ever had flooding or a fire) or the catch-all item 25 ("any other material defects"). The form also asks (item 19) whether a CO alarm is installed if the property relies on fossil-fuel combustion. (The Aug 2026 revision replaced the Rev 07/31/2018 form; item numbers above are from the 2026 form.) Because the disclaimer route is fully lawful, Maryland's disclosure is functionally optional — a seller can hand over an "as-is" disclaimer and reveal almost nothing about the chimney. No inspection is mandated at transfer; NFPA 211 Level 2 stays a NATIONAL STANDARD. (2026 law, not chimney-related: Chapter 776 of 2026 (HB 200), approved May 26, 2026, effective Oct 1, 2026, has the Dept. of the Environment develop a flood-risk disclosure form that sellers must provide starting July 1, 2027 — mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0200?ys=2026RS.)

Two-track. (1) The MHIC Guaranty Fund compensates homeowners for actual losses up to $30,000 per claimant for one contractor's acts or omissions (or the amount paid to the contractor, if less), with a $250,000 cap on total payouts per contractor unless the contractor reimburses the Fund (Business Regulation § 8-405(e), mgaleg.maryland.gov; MHIC Guaranty Fund FAQ) from a licensed contractor's unworkmanlike, incomplete, or abandoned work — the strongest fund of the launch set (vs CT $25k, MA $25k under 201 CMR 14.00 — labeled comparison). (2) The Maryland Consumer Protection Act (Md. Code, Commercial Law, Title 13), enforced by the AG's Consumer Protection Division, gives private actions for damages plus attorney's fees (no automatic treble — weaker multiplier than NJ/MA). Home-improvement and door-to-door sales carry a 3-business-day right to cancel (Door-to-Door Sales Act, Commercial Law § 14-301 et seq.; MHIC contract rules). Complaints: MHIC + AG.

The MHIC's disciplinary docket and the AG's Consumer Protection Division both pursue home-improvement contractors, and the door-knock "we noticed your chimney" pitch is a textbook Door-to-Door / CPA violation. Specific MD chimney-sweep enforcement actions: NOT YET CONFIRMED — re-run search before publish.

Statewide Maryland Building Performance Standards (MBPS) adopt the 2021 IBC and IRC (COMAR 09.12.50 / 09.12.51), effective May 29, 2023, with local jurisdictions required to implement and enforce by May 29, 2024 (labor.maryland.gov/labor/build/buildadmin.shtml); counties and municipalities may still amend locally. Chimney relines, rebuilds, crowns, and solid-fuel appliance installs are generally permit work; routine sweeps and like-for-like caps generally are not. Local adoption means real county-to-county variation.

No statewide burn-ban or stove-emission regime. Not a material content section for MD.

Md. Code, Public Safety, Title 12, Subtitle 11 (§ 12-1101 et seq.) applies (§ 12-1102) to (1) a dwelling that relies on combustion of a fossil fuel for heat, ventilation, hot water, or clothes-dryer operation AND is newly constructed with a building permit issued on or after Jan 1, 2008, and (2) any hotel, lodging or rooming house, or rental dwelling unit. § 12-1104: alarm in a central location outside each sleeping area; rental dwelling units (since Apr 1, 2018) need an alarm outside each sleeping area AND on every level including the basement; hotels/rooming houses have room-by-room rules (since Apr 1, 2017). § 12-1106 lets localities go stricter. (mgaleg.maryland.gov, Public Safety §§ 12-1102, 12-1104.) From Oct 1, 2026, short-term rentals are covered too: a short-term rental host must provide working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms (installed and maintained under State, county and municipal fire codes, and replaced when they stop working or are more than 10 years old), a working fire extinguisher, a posted evacuation diagram and a posted list of emergency numbers (Ch. 9 and Ch. 10 of 2026 — HB 1221 / SB 624, Public Safety §§ 9-1101–9-1106; mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb1221?ys=2026RS — GOV). Unlike NJ/MA, MD has no statewide mandatory pre-sale CO certificate (some counties add their own). A permitted chimney job remains the natural moment to add alarms.