Ground rent owners aren?t unscrupulous villains swooping in to steal homes ? they just want to get paid.
At least that?s what they told members of a House of Delegates committee working Thursday on a legislative package that attempts to modernize the state?s ground-rent system. In ground rent, the property beneath a house is owned by someone other than the homeowner. The ground owner can collect rent on the land, or seize the property if payments are not made.
Ground rent owners challenged a proposed online registry of all ground rent properties and said a call to eliminate home seizures as a remedy for delinquencies also eliminates tenants? incentives to pay up.
“You can call it what you want, but you?re taking away my ground rent,” said R. Marc Goldberg. “There is no reason why anyone would pay ground rent unless they have to.”
Under one proposal, ground rent owners would pay $20 to add each property to a state database, then $5 for each update. Robert Young, an associate director of the state?s Department of Assessment and Taxation, said the registry will help homeowners identify if they have to pay a ground rent and who to pay. He estimated startup costs at $130,000.
But opponents said those fees are more than many annual ground rents. Byron Warnken, an attorney and law professor, estimated the fees could net as much as $3 million for the state.
Maryland?s Attorney General Doug Gansler testified in support of the bills, which succeed an emergency law banning the creation of new ground rents adopted earlier this month.
“This strikes a balance,” said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gansler. “Its ultimate goal is to protect Maryland homeowners and provide due process.”
The initiative stems from a Baltimore Sun series published in December that estimated at least 521 homes were turned over to ground rent owners between 2000 and the end of March 2006 for nonpayment. The series highlighted Canton resident Vernon Onheiser, who had to pay $18,000 to keep his home over a $24 ground rent debt.
But Amy Macht, who said she manages thousands of ground rents and personally owns 150, said ground tenants facing eviction are already facing other financial hardships.
She was the second person to allege that the majority of Onheiser?s debt was in unpaid property taxes and water bills.
“These are honorable investments,” Macht told lawmakers. “I think you need some study time.”
