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 (Experience requirement and exam pass mark not re-read on a primary page in Sep 2026 — do not publish specific figures.)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 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, and more, on an actual-knowledge basis). Neither § 10-702 nor the MREC form (Rev 07/31/2018, dsd.maryland.gov/regulations/artwork/09110701.pdf) has any chimney, fireplace, flue, or wood-stove line item — a chimney defect surfaces only through the general "Other Structural Systems" and heating-system questions (item 6: is heat supplied to all finished rooms / is the system operating) or the catch-all "other material defects." The form does ask (item 15) whether a CO alarm is installed if the home burns fossil fuel or a Residential Property Disclaimer Statement selling the home "as is," disclosing only latent defects posing a direct health/safety threat. 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.

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 $10k). (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.) 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.