NEWS
By June Arney and June Arney,Sun reporter | February 12, 2008
In an effort to spare some homeowners the loss of their properties in municipal tax sales, lawmakers are proposing several reform measures. State Sen. George W. Della Jr. has introduced legislation to cap legal fees at the end of the court process and to improve notification. The Baltimore Democrat says he hopes to cut expenses and save homes. Legal costs in these lawsuits have soared in recent years, making it harder for homeowners to regain the rights to their properties by paying back taxes and accumulated fees.
NEWS
By Jay A. Dackman | January 30, 2008
In 2003, the Maryland General Assembly changed the laws regarding attorney's fees charged in tax-sale foreclosure cases. The previous standard, a maximum of $400 under any circumstances, was changed to a "reasonable attorney fee" standard as long as a lawsuit has been filed. This was an attempt to compensate attorneys for their time and expertise in matters that were both tedious and technical, and whose time was worth more than the $400 cap that had been in place since 1985. Before the change, there were about 500 tax-sale lawsuits in Baltimore annually.
BUSINESS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | May 21, 2012
Kristina Suson's home wasn't part of the city's tax sale Monday, but it was a close call. Baltimore places liens on properties for unpaid property taxes, water bills and other municipal debts, then puts the liens up for auction every spring — allowing investors to buy them and either collect or move to foreclose. The city auctioned liens on about 10,600 properties on Monday, finding buyers for 6,545 of them and raising $20 million. Suson ended up on this year's list, to her surprise, after the state retroactively reduced a property tax credit she'd received in 2009.
BUSINESS
Jamie Smith Hopkins | May 22, 2012
Nearly 27,000 city properties in March were in danger of going to tax sale, but ultimately about 10,600 had liens included in the auction Monday. Investors bought 6,545 of the lien certificates , which raised $20 million for the city, according to the Finance Department. It's not unusual for property owners to pay up in April, just before the annual spring tax sale. But one of the narrowest misses this year was a case in which the homeowner paid last month -- after she learned that the state had retroactively reduced a tax credit on her property -- and the city lost the check.
NEWS
By Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun | March 21, 2012
Rhonda Wimbish says she has been battling Baltimore officials over a $300 water bill — more than six times her normal rate — for more than a year. Now Wimbish, a single mother of a disabled child, says her West Baltimore home is scheduled to go to tax sale over the bill, which she maintains is inaccurate. "What do I do? Do I pay my inflated water bill or do I feed my child?" Wimbish said to a City Council committee Wednesday evening. "I've gone through your process. I've done everything I could to fight this bill.
NEWS
March 25, 2012
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young came to an important accomodation Friday in their standoff about tax sales over unpaid water bills. The mayor was probably right that the two-year moratorium on tax sales Mr. Young had proposed endangered the city's bond rating, but Mr. Young was right to stand firm on the principle that no one should risk losing a home based on an estimated water bill. Now the mayor has agreed to send to tax sale only properties for which the unpaid bills are based on acutal meter readings, and that is progress.