Baltimore residents begin 'extinguishing' ground rents on their land
Colleague Meredith Cohn, reporter and Picture of Health blogger, had a personal interest in the outcome of the mass registration required of Maryland ground rents -- one of them, specifically.
I'll let her tell her story:
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Like so many people in Baltimore, when I bought a rowhouse I learned it came with a ground rent. It was a $60-a-year payment that I always feared wouldn’t get paid by my mortgage company. And even though the holder, a local real estate agent, could no longer take my house because of changes made by the General Assembly (following a Sun investigation), I still fretted about red tape and legal fees.
My husband and I contemplated buying it, but decided it wasn’t a good financial deal. So when a Sun entry on this blog reminded me that there was a ground rent registry and the deadline for holders to list their properties passed, I checked the tax assessor’s site for my address. To my utter surprise, there was nothing.
I figured my ground rent was created about a decade ago when the Realtor, then the rowhouse owner, renovated my house. I don’t know why he’d let it lapse. But I didn’t officially need a reason. I wrote to the state asking that the ground rent be extinguished -- based on instructions I found on this blog. A certificate came in the mail about two weeks later. Wednesday, I took it to the land records office in the courthouse and asked that it be attached to my deed. The clerk said he’d return the certificate by mail.
He said a number of people had been to the courthouse before me with their letters and their $40 (cash, FYI). All were happy to pay this one last time. And while I still am nowhere close to paying off my house, I feel a little more like I own my property.
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Comments
That's great that you were able to do that. I've heard there is still some litigation surrounding this issue and the registry.
Posted by: Alicyn DelZoppo | February 3, 2011 1:43 PM
Aw, do some lazy folks cry that they didn't do the one simple thing they had three whole years to do, and thus their anachronistic feudal privilege has gone away?
Poor little landlords, your tears are so sweet to me.
Posted by: Sollowit Buglers | February 5, 2011 8:45 AM
Thanks for the good news! It warmed the cockles of my heart.
Posted by: JuanitaBeasley | February 8, 2011 4:06 PM
I wouldn't celebrate so soon. There's a class action suit in court concerning ground rents and the State's actions. Quite frankly, the plaintiff(s) have a good case and the State might have to come up with million's to pay for the rent owner's lost value. Realize that, in order to curry favor with certain voter blocks, the General Assembly has habitually passed legislation that failed legal muster in the MD Court of Appeals. Will this one fail? I believe it has too or the State can condemn your house and property with impunity.
Posted by: MDR | February 9, 2011 10:32 AM
Many people will be interested to see the outcome of that suit, that's for sure. This is the short story written when that case got the go-ahead to go to trial: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-01-06/business/bs-md-ground-rent-ruling-20110106_1_ground-rent-law-creation-of-new-ground-separate-legal-challenge
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | February 9, 2011 11:31 AM
Read Jamie's article she just linked to. Ground rent are now WORTHLESS! There is no point in paying them anymore. Only suckers will continue to pay them or buy and sell them. Lets say your ground rent is $120 a year. You don't pay for 3 years. You owe $360. In order for the ground rent holder to try and collect that $360 he will have to spend over $500. Thus the ground rent is worthless and no one will ever come after you. The state basically got rid of ground rents with the new law after the Sun expose a few years ago. Ground rent holders can no longer take your house or ask for more than 3 years of back ground rent. Too bad more people do not know about this.
Posted by: Fred | February 10, 2011 1:08 PM