Difficult Tenant in Elkton, Maryland

[Shannon Woodward]

I have a tenant moving out of my rental in Elkton, MD on Friday (I'm in South Carolina).  Tensions are high because the tenant ("Lily") is elderly and senile.  She's been in the house for a few years but I want to sell it so I had to end the lease.  More history/backstory at the end for anyone that wants to read it.  I had a property manager ("Hope") until October but am now (unwisely), managing the house myself.

Two questions:  

1) I'm flying up there on Friday to do a move out inspection.  Does the police department or sheriff's office provide an escort for situations that could get ugly?  I'm willing to pay of course.

2) My property manager is now claiming that, by law, she has to hold onto the tenant's $1400 security deposit and issue it back to the tenant within 45 days.  Does that make sense?  The deposit is for damage against my house.  I don't currently have a copy of the lease. I've been asking the property manager and she can't seem to produce it.

Thank you for reading!

Here's more backstory:

There's a daughter ("Dena") and a brother ("Kyle") of Lily both involved who both say they take care of her and the other is cheating her. MD has a law that if you are going to sell a rental property you have to first offer it to the tenant and they have 30 days to accept.  Kyle, & Linda have both told me she cannot afford to buy, thus I am ending the lease.  Rather than sell outright, the new tenant, Travis, will have a 6 month lease and a purchase agreement with an agreed upon price.  Per Hope's advice I sent Lily a certified letter on 11/12/25 saying I was ending the lease in 60 days.  The letter was refused but we had discussed it on the phone.  Per Hope, Lily also has to provide 30 days days notice of moving out, which she didn't do so I now have to consider 1/9 the move out date (Dena verbally told be this week Lily's possessions would be out by then).  Dena is claiming Lily does not owe January rent since she is moving out. Travis told me that Lily & Dena had moved the stove and fridge out of the house this week claiming Lily bought them.  She claims the Travis stole them to sell them.  Lily/Dena also took light fixtures out of the property saying she purchased them.

[Michael Smythe]

Quote from @Shannon Woodward:

I have a tenant moving out of my rental in Elkton, MD on Friday (I'm in South Carolina).  Tensions are high because the tenant ("Lily") is elderly and senile.  She's been in the house for a few years but I want to sell it so I had to end the lease.  More history/backstory at the end for anyone that wants to read it.  I had a property manager ("Hope") until October but am now (unwisely), managing the house myself.

Two questions:  

1) I'm flying up there on Friday to do a move out inspection.  Does the police department or sheriff's office provide an escort for situations that could get ugly?  I'm willing to pay of course.

2) My property manager is now claiming that, by law, she has to hold onto the tenant's $1400 security deposit and issue it back to the tenant within 45 days.  Does that make sense?  The deposit is for damage against my house.  I don't currently have a copy of the lease. I've been asking the property manager and she can't seem to produce it.

Thank you for reading!

Here's more backstory:

There's a daughter ("Dena") and a brother ("Kyle") of Lily both involved who both say they take care of her and the other is cheating her. MD has a law that if you are going to sell a rental property you have to first offer it to the tenant and they have 30 days to accept.  Kyle, & Linda have both told me she cannot afford to buy, thus I am ending the lease.  Rather than sell outright, the new tenant, Travis, will have a 6 month lease and a purchase agreement with an agreed upon price.  Per Hope's advice I sent Lily a certified letter on 11/12/25 saying I was ending the lease in 60 days.  The letter was refused but we had discussed it on the phone.  Per Hope, Lily also has to provide 30 days days notice of moving out, which she didn't do so I now have to consider 1/9 the move out date (Dena verbally told be this week Lily's possessions would be out by then).  Dena is claiming Lily does not owe January rent since she is moving out. Travis told me that Lily & Dena had moved the stove and fridge out of the house this week claiming Lily bought them.  She claims the Travis stole them to sell them.  Lily/Dena also took light fixtures out of the property saying she purchased them.

What happens if you fly there and the tenants have NOT moved out?

You really need to hire an eviction attorney at this point and let the experts do their thing.

Getting personally involved is highly unlikely to end well:(