How to Fill Out DC-CV-082: A Field-by-Field Maryland Filing Guide for 2026

DC-CV-082 is the form that starts a Maryland Failure to Pay Rent (FTPR) case. It's a single sheet, but it's the single sheet that gets your case dismissed faster than anything else if you fill it out wrong. Roughly 35% of self-filed FTPR cases get dismissed at the bench — and almost all of those dismissals trace back to a defective notice or a wrong number on this form.

This is the field-by-field walkthrough — what every section means, what number goes where, and the specific errors that wreck cases before the judge ever hears the merits.

The form isn't hard. The form is unforgiving. Every field has a right answer and a wrong answer, and the wrong answer dismisses you.

DC-CV-082's official title is Complaint for Summary Ejectment. It's authorized by Md. Code, Real Property § 8-401 and administered by Maryland District Court. The current PDF lives at mdcourts.gov/.../dccv082.pdf. Always download a fresh copy — the form is revised periodically.

Before You Open the Form

DC-CV-082 is the second step, not the first. Don't fill it out until you have:

• A served, compliant 10-day Notice of Intent — see Maryland's 10-Day Notice Requirement. The notice clock must have fully run before you file.
• Your rental registration current (Baltimore City) — expired registration is an automatic dismissal at the bench, regardless of how clean the form is.
• Your lead paint certificate current (pre-1978 properties) — same automatic dismissal rule.
• A signed lease — bring the original to the filing window and the hearing.
• An updated rent ledger — payments received, dates, balance outstanding through the filing date.

If any of those are missing, fix them before you walk into the clerk's office. Filing without prerequisites is a guaranteed dismissal that costs you the filing fee and 2-4 weeks of refile delay.

DC-CV-082 — Field by Field

Section 1 — Court Selection

Pick the District Court that serves the property's municipality. This is jurisdictional — filing in the wrong court is dismissal, not transfer.

• Baltimore City properties → District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City, Rent Court Division, 501 E. Fayette Street.
• Baltimore County properties → District Court of Maryland for Baltimore County (Towson, Catonsville, Essex, or Dundalk depending on property location).
• Other counties → District Court for the county where the property is located.

The form lists every county and city by checkbox. Match the property address, not your business address.

Section 2 — Plaintiff (Landlord) Information

Use your legal name as it appears on the deed or your registered business name. If the property is held by an LLC, the LLC is the plaintiff — not you personally.

• Name: full legal name or business name
• Address: the address where you receive legal mail (often your business address, not the property)
• Phone: a working number the court can reach during business hours

If you're using an agent (property manager, attorney, or platform- based filing service), the agent is listed in the agent designation field — not the plaintiff field. The plaintiff is always the legal owner of the rent claim.

Section 3 — Defendant (Tenant) Information

List every tenant on the lease as a named defendant. If you have two tenants on the lease and only file against one, the judgment against that one is unenforceable as to the other — and the non-named tenant has a defense.

• Full legal name — exactly as on the lease, including middle initial if used
• Service address — typically the rental property unit
• Unit number — required if the property is multi-unit; missing unit numbers are a common dismissal cause

If tenants are identified on the lease only as "John Smith and all other adult occupants," list John Smith plus each adult occupant you can identify by name. "All other occupants" alone is not sufficient under Maryland practice.

Section 4 — Property Address

Match the lease exactly, including:

• Street address with unit/apartment number
• City (Baltimore City, not "Baltimore" if it's the city; the county is different)
• ZIP code

If the lease lists the address one way and you write it differently on DC-CV-082, the judge will sometimes treat that as a defective identification of the premises and dismiss.

Section 5 — Lease and Tenancy Information

The form asks for:

• Type of lease — written, oral, expired, or month-to-month
• Lease start date (and end date if applicable)
• Monthly rent amount — the contractual rent under the lease
• Rent due date — the day of the month rent is due (typically the 1st)

If the lease is expired and the tenant is holding over month-to-month, note that — the FTPR rules apply differently in holdover situations.

Section 6 — The Unpaid Period

This is the section landlords get wrong most often. The form asks you to specify:

• Start date of the unpaid rent period (typically the rent due date of the first unpaid month)
• End date of the unpaid rent period (the filing date or the rent due date for the last claimed month)
• Total rent claimed

The total claimed must equal only what's actually outstanding on the filing date — not the amount on your 10-day notice. If the tenant paid a partial amount during the notice period, subtract it from the claim. Over-claiming is the third most common dismissal cause statewide.

Late fees can be included up to 5% of monthly rent per the 2025 Tenants' Bill of Rights — see Maryland's Tenants' Bill of Rights: Landlord Compliance Guide. Late fees over 5% will be reduced from the bench, and judges increasingly bias toward dismissal when the over-claimed amount is material.

Section 7 — Notice Information

The form requires you to certify the 10-day Notice of Intent was properly served, including:

• Date the notice was served
• Method of service — personal delivery, posting, or certified mail
• Address served — must match the property address

This is the section where the judge cross-checks against your proof-of-service exhibit. Bring photos of posted notices, signed return receipts, or witness statements to the hearing — the form field alone isn't sufficient if the tenant contests service.

The notice period must have fully run before filing. Day 10 is the earliest valid filing day. Day 9 is dismissal.

Section 8 — Prayer for Relief

This is what you're asking the court to do:

• Judgment for possession of the rental property
• Money judgment for the rent amount specified in Section 6
• Court costs — added to the money judgment if you prevail

In Maryland FTPR practice, possession is the primary relief and the money judgment is essentially automatic on a judgment for possession. Don't skip it — landlords who only check "possession" forfeit the money judgment and lose the right to pursue collection later.

Section 9 — Verification and Signature

Sign and date. The form is sworn under penalty of perjury, so the factual statements in Sections 2-8 must be true to your knowledge.

If your business is the plaintiff (LLC, partnership, corporation), the signer must have authority to act for the entity — typically a member, officer, or designated agent. The court won't validate authority on the spot, but a tenant's attorney can challenge it later if you signed without authority.

What to Bring on Filing Day

Walk into the clerk's office with everything in one folder:

• Completed DC-CV-082 (original signed)
• Filing fee in cash, check, or money order ($46-$56 depending on county; $51 in Baltimore City with surcharge)
• Original signed lease
• Rent ledger through filing date
• Proof of 10-day notice service (photo, return receipt, witness statement)
• Current rental registration (Baltimore City)
• Current lead paint certificate (pre-1978 properties)
• Photo ID

Some clerks ask for the supporting documents at the filing window; others only want them at the hearing. Bring everything regardless — showing up prepared at filing prevents the trip back home for a missing document.

The Top Five DC-CV-082 Errors That Get Cases Dismissed

1. Defective 10-day notice. Missing tenant name, wrong address, no cure deadline, improper service, or filing on day 9. The form is fine; the underlying notice isn't.
2. Expired rental registration or lead paint certificate at filing (Baltimore City). The form is fine; the prerequisites aren't.
3. Amount on DC-CV-082 doesn't match filing-date balance. Landlord wrote the notice-period total instead of subtracting partial payments received during the notice window.
4. Tenant name mismatch between lease and form. Lease says "Jonathan Smith"; form says "John Smith." Defective identification.
5. Late fee over 5% of monthly rent. Either reduces the judgment from the bench or — increasingly — dismisses outright when the over-claim is material.

Every one of these is a compliance-layer failure, not a legal-merit failure. The landlord had a real claim. The form or the prerequisites killed it.

How EvictPro Handles DC-CV-082

EvictPro's Filing with Court stage is $199 — court fee included, no separate billing for the $46-$56 the clerk collects. What that $199 actually buys:

• Form prep with field-level validation. Every field on DC-CV-082 is populated from your case file, then validated against the lease, the notice, the rent ledger, and the prerequisites before submission.
• Prerequisite checks. Rental registration and lead paint certificate status verified before filing — not after a dismissed hearing.
• Amount reconciliation. The total claimed is computed from the rent ledger as of the filing date, with partial payments automatically subtracted and late fees capped at 5%.
• Notice cross-check. The 10-day notice service log is verified against the form — if the day count is off or a notice element is missing, the system flags before filing.
• County-specific filing. Baltimore City rent court, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince George's — each county's filing process is mapped, and the case routes to the right District Court automatically.
• End-to-end audit trail. Every filed form, payment receipt, and proof of service lives in the case file. When a tenant contests service or amount at the hearing, the proof is one click away.

Court fees are paid either way — they're inside the $199 stage price, not on top of it. The value is the compliance layer that catches the defective notice, the expired registration, the wrong amount, the name mismatch, the over-claimed late fee — all five top dismissal causes — before submission. One prevented dismissal typically covers the entire stage cost on that case, and the math gets stronger across a portfolio: at one property or fifty, every dismissal you avoid is $46-$56 in filing fee saved and 2-4 weeks of lost rent recovered.

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Related reading:

• The Maryland FTPR Process, Step by Step
• How to Evict a Tenant in Maryland — The Complete 2026 Guide
• Maryland's 10-Day Notice Requirement: What Landlords Need to Know in 2026
• What Does a Baltimore Eviction Actually Cost in 2026?
• Maryland's Tenants' Bill of Rights: Landlord Compliance Guide

Ready to file a clean DC-CV-082? Start with the Notice of Intent — free, ten minutes, every required element covered: