Is a 10 month lease ok?

[Matt Lazas]

I have a tenant in Baltimore city whose lease ends on June 30. He has lived In this unit for 15 years but is finally in the process of obtaining a loan to purchase a house. it sounds like he's just starting the process though and is not likely to close until August at least. This unit needs a bit of work so I'm also budgeting a month for that. I want to avoid having an empty unit in late fall or winter, so I am not comfortable going month to month on his lease. He is a paraplegic so finding temporary housing for a couple months is unlikely. I want to be accommodating but I am also too concerned about renting this unit past September I told him the best I could do was sign a 10 month lease that ends April 2017. I am drafting it now. Is there anything I need to watch out for going about this? I'm a new landlord so I'm not familiar with local laws. I'm mostly concerned about any Baltimore specific renter laws that could protect him.