Tax Sale

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.

Members of the Baltimore City Council, seeking to prevent property owners from losing their homes over relatively small unpaid water bills and other municipal debts, are urging state legislators to set new limits on sales of tax liens to investors. A resolution, endorsed by 12 of 15 council members, seeks to restrict the sale of liens for less than $750 — triple the limit amount set by state law. Evicting people over small debts "is simply not in Baltimore's long-term interests," the resolution says.

MAYOR MARTIN O'Malley's 10-month-old campaign to parcel out 5,000 vacant properties for redevelopment is attracting nationwide attention. It is moving ahead, while Philadelphia has stalled in its far more ambitious attempt to demolish 14,000 vacant buildings, rehabilitate 4,500 distressed homes and construct 2,000 housing units. These are early days, though. Baltimore, too, could still stall. That's why Mayor O'Malley must move aggressively to simplify the process used to acquire vacant and abandoned properties.

Six Baltimore community groups filed an $8 million lawsuit Tuesday against a Texas man whose companies own dozens of properties in the city, alleging that he failed to improve rundown homes after purchasing them at tax sales and allowed them to become a danger. "The lawsuit challenges the practice of purchasing vacant properties at tax sale and leaving them for dead with unaddressed city code violations," said Kristine Dunkerton, executive director of the Community Law Center Inc., a nonprofit based in Baltimore that represents the community associations.

The General Assembly has approved a bill imposing steep penalties on homeowners who are caught getting homestead property tax credits they're not entitled to receive. Fines would equal 25 percent of any undeserved break - a considerable punishment given that the credit currently cuts the tax bills of many Baltimore homeowners by thousands of dollars per year. "Hopefully this significant penalty will deter people from abusing this tax credit in the future," the bill's sponsor, Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg, said Saturday evening after final passage by the House of Delegates.

Dear Mr. Azrael:I own two ground rents in the city. One of the houses is boarded up and the other is burned out. Before this came about, I spent considerable money to try and collect the moneys due. However, it was to no avail. What becomes of the rents if the city condemns the houses or they are sold for taxes?Lourdes Strum TowsonDear Mr. Strum:Unfortunately, your ground rents probably are worthless.The owner of a burned out or boarded up property has no incentive to pay the ground rent.

THE PROBLEM : Baltimore property owners paid their tax bills, but the payments weren't properly processed. THE BACKSTORY : Carol Foster of Phoenix couldn't understand it. She paid the property tax on her husband's dental office on Harford Road in July when the bill was due. But, in December, the couple received another letter. Foster thought it was another invoice. "I said, 'What, I've got to pay this twice a year now?' " she said. It was actually a notice to pay the taxes owed or the property would be sold at tax sale.

More than 20,000 Baltimore property owners who have fallen behind on real estate taxes or services such as water bills must pay up by the end of the month or face possible foreclosure. City officials plan at their annual tax sale next month to auction up to $70 million in liens to private investors, who can then collect the debts - plus thousands of dollars in fees and interest - or foreclose if they can't collect. The liens are mostly for delinquent property taxes but also include municipal levies such as water and sewer billings, charges for sidewalk and alley repair, and fines for failing to clean up trash or other environmental hazards.

Baltimore residents who are frustrated over high or unusual water bills will have a chance to vent to city officials Wednesday afternoon. A City Council committee will hold a hearing on a contentious resolution asking MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake to prevent homes from going to tax sale due to unpaid water bills after a scathing audit showed widespread billing errors. The Sun has detailed numerous billing problems , chronicling one woman's seven-year struggle to convince the city she was being billed neighbors' water usage and a family's efforts to resolve a whopping $16,000 bill.