Maryland enforces the 2021 IECC commercial

Record of adoption

In force since

May 29, 2023

Legal citation

COMAR 09.12.51.02, .04; Public Safety Article 12-503

Adopted by

Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry, Building Codes Administration

Second reading

Agreed Oct 19, 2026

Applies

Statewide

Also called

MBPS, COMAR 09.12.51.04D

Same 2021 IECC adoption as residential. DOE lists ASHRAE 90.1-2019 alongside.

Coming next

• 2024 IECCPartial
  No date yetProposedCOMAR 09.12.50, 09.12.51 (proposed)

  Same proposal as residential; no final adoption found.

How Maryland adopts the IECC commercial

• Agency rule
• The legislature sets the update schedule

Same as residential energy: Labor adopts by regulation within 18 months of a new IECC and locals implement within 12 months.

Cycle. statutory 18-month target after each ICC edition

Laws, rulings, and other actions

1. May 12, 2026Legislation
   HB 870, Large Buildings for Tomorrow Act, Chapter 4122026 regular session

   Enacted title requires counties and municipalities to notify the Department of the Environment of new-building permit applications of 35,000 sq ft or more; the first-reader text also had Labor adopt energy requirements by Oct 1, 2028.

   Enacted May 12, 2026, effective Oct 1, 2026

   mgaleg.maryland.gov (opens in a new tab)
2. UndatedLegislation
   HB 212, Fossil Fuel Use and Electric-Ready Standards2025 regular session

   Would have required Labor to adopt, as part of the MBPS, a no-fossil-fuel and electric-ready requirement for new buildings.

   Not enacted (last recorded action: House committee hearing)

   mgaleg.maryland.gov (opens in a new tab)
3. UndatedLegislation
   HB 210, Fossil Fuel Use and Electric-Ready Standards2024 regular session

   Earlier version of the same proposal, with a January 1, 2025 deadline for Labor.

   Not enacted (last recorded action: House committee hearing)

   mgaleg.maryland.gov (opens in a new tab)
4. UndatedLegislation
   Public Safety Article 12-50318-month adoption rule, HB 57, 2016 regular session first-reader text moved 12 to 18 months

   Requires Labor to adopt the MBPS by regulation and each later version within 18 months after issue, and bars energy requirements less stringent than the IECC.

   In force (current statute text)

   mgaleg.maryland.gov (opens in a new tab)

How it was checked

Verified

Two separate readings of the state’s own record agree, and the passage is on file word for word.

Read twice: a second, blind reading of the state’s record agreed with the first on Oct 19, 2026.

The state’s record was last read on Oct 19, 2026, from four source pages.

Evidence 3 sources

Sources for the record itself come first, the state’s own records ahead of others. A label marks a source about something else, such as an exception. A source marked secondary is not the state’s own record.

• “as may be modified by the Department”

• “2021 IECC (MBPS)”

• About how the state adopts codes

  “to adopt the most recent version of the IECC within 18 months of the ICC’s release of a new code”

Tracker cross-checks

Code adoption trackers are a cross-check. They are not Maryland’s own record.

• About a tracker cross-check

• DOE’s energycodes.govCross-checkAgrees with the record

  Current State Code: 2021 IECC and ASHRAE 90.1-2019; Effective Date 05/29/2023; no pending code listed

  energycodes.gov (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

• BCAP’s code status pageCross-checkDoes not agree with the record

  Maryland Building Performance Standards based on the 2018 IECC, effective 3/1/2022

  bcapcodes.org (opens in a new tab)Read Oct 17, 2026

Related pages

• See Maryland’s IECC commercial on the map
• IECC commercial adoption in every state
• All six codes in Maryland

Other codes in Maryland

• NEC2017 NECPartial
• IBC2021 IBCVerified
• IRC2021 IRCVerified
• IFCAnother model codeVerified
• IECC residential2021 IECCVerified