Problems with Maryland counties' annual tax sales continued to crop up yesterday with Charles County suspending its sale because of hyper-inflated bids, Baltimore County establishing new rules to prevent that in its sale tomorrow, and Howard County coming under attack in a criminal complaint over alleged improprieties at its recent sale.
All of the problems stemmed from the growing trend at local jurisdictions' tax sales: bidders offering fantastic sums -- with at least one bid going as high as "infinity" -- to claim the right to collect high interest on modest properties' tax liens.
In Charles County yesterday, officials said they sold 125 properties before stopping their annual auction -- after bidders refused to put their cards down at $300 million on a property worth $40,000.
The county's remaining 225 properties with unpaid tax liens will be sold in June after the county receives guidance from the attorney general's office. Frederick County postponed its auction Monday until June after bids reached exorbitant amounts.
"It was so out of the ordinary for us to have these crazy bids," said Joseph Norris, Charles County's treasurer. "It makes me very uncomfortable because it just doesn't make sense. These bidders are putting their own necks on the line."
In Baltimore County, where an annual tax sale is set to begin tomorrow, officials drafted a new four-page contract for bidders -- one that requires that anyone bidding more than 150 percent of a property's market value must show within 30 days the financial ability to pay the bid price.
"If we don't do this, we'll have loads of people not redeeming on $100 million bids, and the county will be sitting here with taxes that are going to be unpaid again next year," said Virginia W. Barnhart, a Baltimore County attorney.
According to state law, each county is allowed to control bids to keep its auction orderly -- so long as the properties go to the highest bidder.
But some bidders who attended the Howard County tax sale April 23 claim the properties were given out arbitrarily and improperly.
Another prospective investor, Eric Bers of Ellicott City, filed a complaint late Monday with the Howard County District Court alleging that Dale Neubert, the county's director of finance, violated state law by not awarding the properties to the highest bidder. "There was so much abuse and it was so flagrant."
Pub Date: 5/14/97
