The Maryland State Archives has abandoned a plan to put plats, deeds, mortgages and other critical public land records behind a paywall. The reversal comes after pushback from a broad coalition of real estate groups.
NAIOP first argued against the fee during the 2025 General Assembly session and joined with other real estate trade associations to work toward a legislative review and alternative solutions. Industry groups submitted a briefing and analysis to budget committees.
The Governor’s staff recommending a delay in implementation, analysis of current fund usage, and adoption of unlimited access fee models to reduce financial unpredictability.
The fee was contained in a provision in the 2026 Maryland budget that proposed funding the operations of the Maryland Archives by implementing a $0.20 per page fee to view or download public real estate documents, such as plats, deeds, mortgages, and liens on MDLANDREC.net.
Archives had set a launch date of May 30th for a subscription service priced between $500 and $1,500 per month, depending on volume. But most users were expected to face higher costs because the fee would have applied to all pages in a document, even if not viewed, and access to the document would expire after 30 days, requiring repurchase.
The proposed fee structure was significantly higher than surrounding jurisdictions and was anticipated to result in fees of $1,600 to $5,000 per month and even reaching $10,000 monthly, depending on a user’s needs.
Compounding the level of concern was that since 1991 real estate industry groups supported a surcharge on recorded instruments to create the Real Property Records Improvement Fund that provided a dedicated funding source to digitize and maintain the online property database. That surcharge, which started at $5, is currently $40. The Archives’ proposal would put the database of documents funded by those recordation surcharges behind a paywall.
The Real Property Records Improvement Fund surcharge already generates significant annual revenue and currently has a $73.9 million balance. Separate budget provisions transferred $20 million of that balance to the General Fund.
The Archives projected $12 million annual revenue from the new fee, far exceeding the $800,000 annual cost of maintaining the system and providing funding for other, unrelated operations, including fully funding its annual budget.
What will replace the fee is not yet clear. But the Governor’s office has committed to working with real estate industry groups for an alternative approach that may be implemented during the 2026 General Assembly Session.