Change In Maryland Ground Rent Law Results In Flurry Of Lawsuits

(original post 7-2-07; revised 7-5-07)
A new Maryland law that changes the way ground rent lawsuits are handled and which went into effect on July 1 has resulted in a flurry of lawsuits being filed before the law became effective, reports The Baltimore Sun. According to the article:

• "The [Maryland state legislature] overhauled the ground-rent system after The Sun published an investigative series that showed how a small number of investors had used their extraordinary power under the law to seize hundreds of homes over back rent as meager as $24. In many other cases, ground-rent owners have extracted fees of 20 to 50 times the amount of rent owed to settle cases."

Owners of more than 80,000 Baltimore City homes must rent the ground under their houses; smaller numbers of ground rents exist in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. For more, see Ground-rent owners rush to file suits (Flurry of ejectment cases logged before law changes).

For links to the entire series of stories on the ground rent issue reported by The Baltimore Sun, see The Sun's ground rent series.

See also, In Baltimore, Sun Shines On "Ground Rent" Outrage (Columbia Journalism Review).