The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office receives approximately 10,000 writs of restitution from the Montgomery County District Court each year. Many of these writs are resolved by the parties prior to an eviction being carried out by the Sheriff's Office.

In order to provide you with efficient and prompt services, the Sheriff's Office has prepared the following guidelines related to the scheduling and execution of a writ. Emergency or unusual situations may require the modification of these services or cancellation of a scheduled eviction. Please feel free to provide any suggestions that you have to improve these services.

To facilitate the execution of a writ of restitution, please follow the guidelines listed below:

Once you have filed for a Writ of Restitution

A writ must be signed by a District Court Judge and sent from the District Court Clerks Office to the Sheriff's Office. Once a writ arrives in the Sheriff's Office, it is entered into our computer system and sent to the Eviction Section. In order for an eviction to proceed, the Plaintiff must call the Eviction Section and request that an eviction date be scheduled. Please have the District Court case number available when calling.

The best times to call and schedule an eviction are:
9:00 - 10:00 AM or 3:00 - 4:00 PM Monday through Friday
Call: 240-777-7130
(Tenants having questions may also call these numbers.)

An eviction date cannot be scheduled until the Eviction Section has received the writ.

If the landlord orders a writ of restitution for failure to pay rent, but takes no action on the writ of restitution , the writ expires 60 days from the later of the date the court issues the writ or the date as extended by the court .   In addition, the judgment for possession shall be stricken . Call and schedule an eviction as soon as possible . See Md. Code, Real Property Article, §8-401(d)(1)(iii).

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Md. Code, Real Property Article, §8-401(d)(1) (for failure to pay rent)

            "(ii)   If the landlord does not order a warrant of restitution within sixty days from the date of judgment or from the expiration date of any stay of execution, whichever shall be the later:

                        1.   The judgment for possession shall be stricken; and

                        2.   The judgment shall be applied to the number of judgments necessary to foreclose a tenant's right to redemption of the leased premises as established in subsection (e)(2) of this section unless the court in its discretion determines that the judgment may not apply for purposes of subsection (e)(2) of this section.

(iii)   If the landlord orders a warrant of restitution but takes no action on the warrant within 60 days from the later of the date the court issues the order for the warrant or the date as otherwise extended by the court:

                        1.   The warrant of restitution shall expire and the judgment for possession shall be stricken; "

Eviction dates are scheduled on a first come, first served basis and are usually set within two or three weeks of the request.

An eviction will be scheduled for either 10:30 AM or 1:00 PM Monday through Friday.

Evictions are scheduled geographically as follows:

On the date of an eviction the Plaintiff or authorized representative must be present at the property, at the scheduled time, with the appropriate keys to gain entry, and should provide:

If it is raining or snowing at the scheduled time of the eviction, the eviction will not proceed.  However, if precipitation starts after an eviction has started, the eviction will continue until completion.

It the predicted high temperature from the national weather broadcast on the scheduled eviction date is 32 degrees or lower, evictions for that day will be canceled.

The Plaintiff should promptly notify the Sheriff's Office if an eviction has been cancelled due to receipt of payment or other settlement with the tenant.

If an eviction is canceled as a result of the unavailability of a moving crew or any of the items listed above under Plaintiff's Responsibility, the Eviction Section will attempt to reschedule the eviction, if there is an opening on our schedule before the writ expires.

If an eviction is canceled as a result of bad weather it will be rescheduled as soon as possible.