DC-CV-080: Maryland's Tenant Holding Over Complaint, Field by Field (2026)

DC-CV-080 is the form for the tenant who was supposed to leave and did not. The lease expired, or you properly terminated a month-to-month tenancy, the notice period ran out, and the tenant is still there. Maryland calls that a tenant holding over, and the District Court complaint that starts the case is DC-CV-080.

It is a short form, six numbered items plus a sworn military-service block, but each item maps to an element you must prove. Miss the notice math or fumble the SCRA section and the case stalls or dismisses before the merits. This is the field-by-field walkthrough of the current revision (Rev. 10/2025).

A holdover case is won or lost before the form is filed. DC-CV-080 mostly asks you to prove that the tenancy really ended and that you really told the tenant, in writing, with enough runway.

DC-CV-080's official title is Complaint and Summons Against Tenant Holding Over, filed under Md. Code, Real Property § 8-402. The current PDF lives at mdcourts.gov/.../dccv080.pdf. Download a fresh copy each time; the October 2025 revision changed the form, and clerks reject stale versions often enough that reprinting is cheap insurance.

If you are not yet sure holdover is the right case type, read Maryland Holdover Tenant Eviction: The 2026 Landlord Guide to § 8-402 first. The short test: holdover is for a tenancy that has ended. Nonpayment during a live tenancy is FTPR on DC-CV-082. A lease-violation case is Breach of Lease on DC-CV-085. Filing the wrong case type restarts you at the notice stage, weeks later.

Before You Open the Form

DC-CV-080 assumes the groundwork is done. Confirm all of it:

• The tenancy actually ended. Either the fixed-term lease expired with no renewal, or you served a proper termination of a periodic tenancy. If you accepted the tenant staying on after expiry, Maryland treats the arrangement as a periodic tenancy that must itself be terminated with fresh notice.
• A written notice to vacate, fully expired. 60 days for month-to-month and stated-term leases (§ 8-402(c)(2)), 7 or 21 days for week-to-week tenancies, and longer if your lease promises longer. The Maryland People's Law Library maintains a plain-language overview of the holdover process at peoples-law.org.
• A copy of that notice for the court, plus one per defendant. The form says the written notice is attached. Arriving without copies is a same-day turnaround at the clerk's window.
• Your rental license status. The form asks directly, and in licensing jurisdictions an expired license is the fastest way to lose a possession case.
• The lease and a rent history. You will state the rent amount on the form and may need it to support damages.

DC-CV-080, Field by Field

The Header: Court, Location, Case Number

Enter the District Court for the city or county where the property is located, with the court address. This is jurisdictional. The case number stays blank; the clerk assigns it.

The Caption: Landlord vs. Tenants

The caption blocks identify the parties:

• Landlord (Plaintiff). The legal owner of the claim, matching the deed and lease. An LLC-owned property means the LLC is the plaintiff. Include address, city, state, ZIP, and telephone.
• Tenant (Defendant). The form provides multiple defendant lines. Name every tenant, assignee, or subtenant in possession, exactly as the lease spells them. The summons the court issues runs against the people you name; leave someone off and the judgment does not reach them.

Item 1: The Premises

"The plaintiff is the landlord of the premises located at" followed by the full property address, including the unit number. Copy the lease exactly. Address drift between lease, notice, and complaint is a defense argument you do not need to gift anyone.

Item 2: The Rental License Question

The form asks whether the property is required to be licensed to operate as a rental, with three paths:

• No. The jurisdiction does not require a rental license for this property.
• Yes, with the license number and expiration date. The expiration date matters: it needs to be current at filing.
• Yes, but unlicensed because: exempt, one of the reasons under RP § 8-406(c)(1)(iii), (iv), or (v), or Other.

Answer honestly and check the real status first. In licensing jurisdictions such as Baltimore City, filing a possession action on an unlicensed rental invites dismissal at the bench.

Item 3: The Tenancy and the Rent

Item 3 states that the defendants occupied the premises as periodic tenants or unlawfully hold the premises after the expiration of the lease, and asks for the rent: $ amount per period (month, week). Use the lease rate. This number becomes the yardstick for damages, because § 8-402 sets the damages floor at the apportioned rent for the holdover period at that rate.

Item 4: The Notice You Served

The proof-of-notice item. Two dates:

• the date you served the written notice to vacate, and
• the date the notice demanded possession be delivered.

The gap between them must satisfy the notice period for your tenancy type under § 8-402(c)(2): 60 days for month-to-month, 90 days year-to-year, 7 or 21 days for Baltimore City, one week for week-to-week. The form says the written notice is attached, so it must be. Judges check this arithmetic first, and a demanded vacate date that lands even one day short of the required period sinks the complaint.

Item 5: What You Are Asking For

"The plaintiff claims restitution of the possession of the premises" plus a checkbox for damages of $ ___. Possession is the core relief. The damages box is optional but valuable: under § 8-402 the recovery may not be less than the apportioned rent at the lease rate for the time the tenant held over, and actual damages caused by the holdover can run higher. Claim a figure you can reconstruct in front of a judge: lease rate, day count, and any concrete losses.

Item 6: The Landlord Military Checkbox

A newer element of the form: checkboxes stating that the plaintiff or plaintiff's spouse is active-duty military, relocated to Maryland as a direct result of active-duty military service, and intends to occupy the property, with supporting documentation attached. Most landlords skip it. If it applies to you, attach the documentation; it affects how the case is handled.

The SCRA Block

Federal law requires specific facts about each tenant's military status before a default judgment can enter, and the form builds this in with three options:

• At least one tenant is in the military service, with names.
• No tenant is in the military service, with the facts supporting that statement. The form warns that specific facts must be given for each tenant who is a natural person; "I don't think so" is not a fact.
• Unable to determine.

There is also a checkbox for verification through the Department of Defense database at scra.dmdc.osd.mil, which is free and produces a certificate worth attaching. A vague SCRA block is one of the most common reasons holdover filings bounce or default judgments get refused.

The Affirmation and Signature

"I solemnly affirm under the penalties of perjury that the contents of this document are true..." Signature of plaintiff or attorney, printed name, date, telephone, fax, email, and an attorney number field for counsel. Everything above the signature is sworn, so the dates, amounts, and SCRA facts need to be right, not approximately right.

The Summons and the Sheriff's Return

The rest of the form belongs to the court: the summons ordering the tenants to appear, the return date, and page two's sheriff/constable return of service. You do not fill these in. Know what they are for: the sheriff will mail and attempt to serve the summons, and if no one can be served, affix it to the property.

Filing Day: Fees and Logistics

Per the District Court's DCA-109 cost schedule (Rev. 03/2026):

• Tenant Holding Over filing fee: $56 in all counties except Baltimore City; $66 in Baltimore City (includes the city sheriff surcharge).
• Service by sheriff or constable adds a per-defendant fee under the schedule's service-fee rules.

Fees are revised periodically; confirm the current schedule at mdcourts.gov/courts/feeschedules before you go. Bring the completed and signed DC-CV-080, the attached notice to vacate plus a copy per defendant, your lease, your license documentation, and payment.

After Filing: What the Timeline Looks Like

The court issues the summons with a hearing date. At trial you prove the tenancy ended, the notice was properly served and fully ran, and the tenant remains. Judgment for possession can include the damages you claimed. Two timing points that differ from FTPR:

• The appeal window is 10 days, not the 4 days that applies to FTPR judgments.
• The FTPR 60-day warrant clocks do not apply. Warrant timing in holdover follows standard post-judgment procedure.

For a realistic sense of how holdover and FTPR timelines compare end to end, see How Long Does an Eviction Take in Maryland?.

The Five DC-CV-080 Errors That Stall Cases

1. Notice math that comes up short. The demanded vacate date lands inside the 60-day § 8-402(c)(2) window, or the complaint is filed before the notice period fully ran.
2. The notice is not attached. The form says attached; clerks and judges take that literally, and each defendant needs a copy.
3. A hollow SCRA block. "No tenant is in the military" with no supporting facts and no DOD verification.
4. License problems surfaced by Item 2. An expired license or a wrong exemption claim in a licensing jurisdiction.
5. Wrong case type. The tenant is behind on rent under a live lease, which is an FTPR case on DC-CV-082, not a holdover. And if rent is owed alongside a real holdover, note the form's own warning to tenants: the landlord may separately file a summary ejectment case for the unpaid rent. That FTPR path starts with the free 10-day notice at /notice-of-intent.

Related reading:

• Maryland Holdover Tenant Eviction: The 2026 Landlord Guide to § 8-402
• How to Fill Out DC-CV-082: A Field-by-Field Maryland Filing Guide
• How Long Does an Eviction Take in Maryland?
• How to Evict a Tenant in Maryland: The Complete 2026 Guide

Whether your case is a holdover, a nonpayment, or both, the work is the same: right form, right notice, right day counts, proof in hand.