Maryland requires an updated reserve study at least every five years. It revises costs and remaining lives, reviews work done and money spent since the last study, and notes maintenance contracts. For Prince George's communities that met the 2021 deadline, the first updates fell due in 2026.
Most Maryland boards remember their first reserve study as a scramble: a deadline set by the 2022 law, a firm found in a hurry, a thick report that landed weeks before a budget meeting. The good news is that the second one should be easier. The less good news is that it is due sooner than many boards think, and it now feeds into funding rules that changed in October 2025.
When the update is due
The statute asks for an updated reserve study within five years of the last one, and at least every five years after that. The clock runs from the date of your actual study, not from the county deadline. So the useful question is simply: when was our last study finished?
If your community did its first study right at the deadline, the latest dates look like this:
- Prince George’s County: first study by October 1, 2021, so an update by October 1, 2026. That date has passed.
- Montgomery County: first study by October 1, 2022, so an update by October 1, 2027.
- Every other county and Baltimore City: first study by October 1, 2023, so an update by October 1, 2028.
Communities that relied on an older study to meet the law (one done on or after October 1, 2016 in Prince George’s, 2017 in Montgomery or 2018 elsewhere) may already be past their second cycle. Check the date on the cover of the report you have.
What an update must contain
Maryland’s definition is short. An updated reserve study, for common areas where a study was done in the previous five years:
- revises the estimates of cost and remaining life from the last study;
- reviews the repair and replacement work done, and the money spent on it, since then; and
- identifies any maintenance contracts in place.
It must be prepared by someone who meets the same tests as a first study: 30 studies in the prior three calendar years, 30 taken part in at a reserve study firm, a Maryland architect or engineer license, or a CAI or APRA designation.
What the statute does not say is whether the preparer must visit. Industry standards distinguish an update with a site visit from one done from the desk. For a five-year update, a visit is usually worth the extra fee: five Maryland winters change roofs, paving and brick far more than a spreadsheet can guess.
How it differs from the first study
A first study builds the component list from scratch. An update starts from that list and asks what has changed. In practice that means three kinds of work.
Correcting the list. First studies done under deadline pressure often miss things or count them wrongly. Retaining walls, storm drain inlets, entry monuments, playground surfaces and irrigation systems are common gaps. If the board has found items that were left out, the update is the time to add them.
Repricing. Construction costs in the mid-Atlantic moved sharply between 2021 and 2025. An update that only adds a few percent a year to old figures will understate what roofing or asphalt now costs. Ask the firm what pricing source it uses and when it was last refreshed.
Recording what was done. Work completed since the last study resets a component’s remaining life. A roof replaced in 2023 should not still show four years left. That only happens if the firm sees the invoices.
What it means for the budget
Since October 1, 2025, House Bill 292 has set the funding side. The board must adopt a funding plan with the preparer, choose one of the methods the statute lists, and budget the contribution the study recommends, deposited by the last day of the fiscal year.
The five-fiscal-year runway applies after an initial study. Once you are on an update, the expectation is that the budget funds the recommended amount each year. If the update recommends a big jump, the board has two honest options: fund it, or vote by a two-thirds majority that the community is in financial hardship, which allows a one-year shortfall (renewable once) while still funding health, safety, structural and essential-systems items.
That makes the update more than a formality. It is the document that sets next year’s assessment.
Getting ready
A board that does a little homework gets a better update for less money. Before you ask for quotes, gather:
- the last study, including any spreadsheet or software file the firm supplied;
- invoices for every reserve expenditure since then, with dates;
- current maintenance contracts (elevators, fire systems, landscaping, pond maintenance);
- the current reserve balance and the last two budgets;
- a list of anything owners or the manager have flagged as worn out or failing; and
- the date of your next budget meeting, so the firm can plan backwards from it.
Send the same pack to each firm you ask. It makes quotes comparable and shows the firm you are organized, which tends to shorten the job.
A note on timing
Firms that work in Maryland are busiest in late summer and autumn, when boards with calendar-year budgets want figures. If your fiscal year starts in January, aim to commission the update in the first half of the year before. If you are already late, as some Prince George’s communities now are, commission it now. There is no separate penalty written into the statute, but owners can ask to see the study at any time, and an out-of-date one is hard to defend.