2016 Maryland Code
Real Property
Title 4 - Requisites of Valid Instruments
Subtitle 1 - General Rules
§ 4-109. Defective grants

(a) Defective grants recorded before January 1, 1973. -- If an instrument was recorded before January 1, 1973, any failure of the instrument to comply with the formal requisites listed in this section has no effect, unless the defect was challenged in a judicial proceeding commenced by July 1, 1973.

(b) Defective grants recorded on or after January 1, 1973. -- If an instrument is recorded on or after January 1, 1973, whether or not the instrument is executed on or after that date, any failure to comply with the formal requisites listed in this section has no effect unless it is challenged in a judicial proceeding commenced within six months after it is recorded.

(c) Failures in formal requisites of an instrument. -- For the purposes of this section, the failures in the formal requisites of an instrument are:

(1) A defective acknowledgment;

(2) A failure to attach any clerk's certificate;

(3) An omission of a notary seal or other seal;

(4) A lack of or improper acknowledgment or affidavit of consideration, agency, or disbursement;

(5) An omission of an attestation; or

(6) A failure to name any trustee in a deed of trust.