Maryland · LienGuardAI

General information, not legal advice. Confirm current fees, forms, and deadlines on official government sites, and talk to an attorney about your situation. LienGuardAI does not file anything for you. See Legal Disclaimer & Terms of Use.

Verification note: This state's UCC search portal could not be confirmed during automated verification (see the note below) — its live status is unconfirmed, not assumed to be either working or broken. Please verify directly before relying on it, and let us know what you find.

Relevant case law: In the same case, the taxpayer recorded a financing statement in Maryland naming the IRS collection agent (under her work pseudonym) as the debtor after she pursued his tax debt and wage levy in West Virginia. That Maryland filing, together with a Mercer County, West Virginia lien package claiming roughly $5 million, was part of the scheme a jury found violated the federal false-lien statute. The Fourth Circuit affirmed his conviction and sentence, rejecting the argument that filing against a pseudonym meant he had not targeted an “individual.” Verified. (United States v. Reed, 75 F.4th 396 (4th Cir. 2023).)

This is a plain-language summary of a published judicial opinion, not a complete report of the case. Confirm names, holdings, and procedural posture against the opinion itself.

UCC financing statements

Check if one exists

A search portal may exist, but we couldn't confirm it works. SDAT/Tyler public Name Search path exists without login, but Cloudflare Turnstile blocked completing results when last checked — fee behavior for certified retrieval also unresolved.

Refusal / removal authority

Maryland has no non-uniform pre-filing UCC fraud refusal — filings that meet mechanical requirements are accepted. The distinctive tool is Comm. Law §9-501.1: after acceptance, SDAT/the filing office may send notice, take debtor affidavits, and terminate false/unauthorized/non-transaction filings on a 45-day schedule, with a circuit-court petition path if disputed. §9-501(c) requires written notice to individual debtors describing remedies for erroneous or fraudulent filings.

Citations MD §9-501.1 MD §9-501

Full citations

Md. Comm. Law §9-501.1
Md. Comm. Law §9-501(c)

Accept first → notice/affidavit → possible termination after 45 days → circuit-court petition under §9-501.1(i) if contested.

If it's already filed: §9-501.1 termination; information statement / §9-625.

Real-property liens

Real Prop. §3-104.2 (2024 Ch. 369) makes it a misdemeanor (fine ≤ $500) to record a deed or other instrument the person knows contains false information, including ownership-related information — not a title-theft felony and not a clerk delete tool. In quiet-title actions under subtitle 6, §14-617(c) lets a court award costs and reasonable attorney's fees when a claim or defense relates to an alleged §3-104.2 violation (subject to §14-607(b)). Criminal prohibition on filing false/fictitious/fraudulent liens is Crim. Law §3-808 (not §3-807). General quiet-title/cloud removal remains Real Prop. §14-108. Real Prop. §3-401 et seq. is about where notices of federal liens are filed, not fraudulent liens.

Citations MD §3-104.2 MD §14-617 MD §3-808 MD §14-108

Full citations

Md. Real Prop. §3-104.2
Md. Real Prop. §14-617(c)
Md. Crim. Law §3-808
Md. Real Prop. §14-108

Criminal referral under §3-104.2 / §3-808 where facts fit; quiet-title under §14-108 with possible fee-shift under §14-617(c) when tied to §3-104.2. No TX-style owner affidavit and no general recorder refuse/remove statute confirmed.

If it's already recorded: Misdemeanor fine under §3-104.2; lien crime under §3-808; quiet-title + possible fee-shift.

Real-property records are held by the circuit-court clerk / land records office where the property sits.

Official form: Affidavit Regarding Financing Statement (SDAT)

Maryland's SDAT publishes the affidavit form that §9-501.1(f) requires, sworn under penalty of perjury. It is used by whoever is disputing or defending a financing statement's validity — debtor, secured party, their agents, or the submitter — to state whether the filing is a prohibited filing under §9-501.1(c). When a debtor files it, the secured party has 45 days to file a competing affidavit; if none is filed, the financing statement can be terminated.

Open the SDAT affidavit form →

LienGuardAI does not publish templates or fill-in documents; the official version is the one on the government source, and it can change.

Citation MD §9-501.1

How this usually works in Maryland

A summary of the tools Maryland law and filing offices provide — general information, not instructions for your facts. Confirm current practice with the filing office and talk to an attorney about your situation.

1Maryland's UCC name search runs through the SDAT/Tyler portal; fee and login behavior for full results could not be fully reconfirmed.
2Maryland has no pre-filing UCC fraud refusal; the §9-501.1 post-acceptance affidavit and termination process applies after filing (described in the form section above).
3Real Prop. §3-401 is not a fraudulent-lien remedy.
4Maryland's land-records tools are §3-104.2 (recording false information, a misdemeanor), quiet title (§14-108, with fee-shifting under §14-617(c)), and §3-808 for false liens; §3-807 is a different provision.

What to expect

Maryland's UCC strength is post-acceptance termination under §9-501.1; real-property now has a dedicated false-info recording misdemeanor (§3-104.2) plus quiet-title fee-shift, but clearing title still runs through court rather than a clerk delete. Confirm the current fee on the state's official site — filing and search fees change and are not published here.

Sources: the LienGuardAI fifty-state survey and UCC search portal review (How we verify). No dollar fee amounts are published here — always confirm the current fee on the state's own site.