Details about this story

• Source: Baltimore Sun
• Date: December 10, 2006
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: June Arney , Fred Schulte
• Topics: Courts , Real Estate
• Data Types: Local Data
• Description/Excerpt: Baltimore's arcane system of ground rents, widely viewed as a harmless vestige of colonial law, is increasingly being used by some investors to seize homes or extract large fees from people who often are ignorant of the loosely regulated process, an investigation by The Sun has found. Tens of thousands of Baltimore homeowners must pay rent twice a year on the land under their houses. If they fall behind on the payments, the ground rent holders can sue to seize the houses-- and have done so nearly 4,000 times in the past six years, sometimes over back rent as little as $24, The Sun found. Most ground rent holders insist that home ownership is rarely put in peril. But Baltimore judges awarded houses to ground rent holders at least 521 times between 2000 and the end of March 2006, The Sun found, analyzing court computer data and studying hundreds of case files to document the trend for the first time.
• Database or Graphic: Go to site (graphic?coll=bal-home-headlines)