Terms Used In Maryland Code, COMMERCIAL LAW 14-2003

  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Person: includes an individual, receiver, trustee, guardian, personal representative, fiduciary, representative of any kind, corporation, partnership, business trust, statutory trust, limited liability company, firm, association, or other nongovernmental entity. See
(a) A person who leases vehicles to lessees may not:

(1) Make any false, falsely disparaging, or misleading oral or written statement, visual description, or other representation of any kind that has the capacity, tendency, or effect of deceiving or misleading a consumer or lessee;

(2) By any means advertise or offer to the public any motor vehicle without intent to lease it as advertised or offered;

(3) Misrepresent a lease of a motor vehicle as a sale;

(4) Fail to include any dealer processing or freight charges in determining the adjusted capitalized cost used to calculate the base lease payment shown in an advertisement for a leased vehicle; or

(5) Advertise to the general public a capitalized cost reduction to the lessee unless the capitalized cost reduction is offered to all potential lessees.

(b) (1) Except as allowed by paragraph (2) of this subsection, in offering to allow a lessee to cure a default by entering into a new lease for the same motor vehicle, a lessor may not include in the new lease any material provision that is less favorable to the lessee than the provisions of the original lease.

(2) A lessor may include in a lease under paragraph (1) of this subsection an increase in one or more of the following:

(i) The security deposit;

(ii) The down payment paid to the lessor; or

(iii) The lease payments, so long as the total of scheduled lease payments over the term of the new lease does not exceed the total of scheduled lease payments under the original lease.