Ground Rent Again
Looks like Maryland is going to tackle ground rent at the state level:
Proposals being discussed include:
• Prohibiting ground rent owners from taking someone’s house over unpaid rent. They would be allowed to collect only back rent and “reasonable fees.”
• Phasing out existing ground rents through a system by which they either are redeemed by homeowners or disappear if the ground rent owners don’t register their ownership within a certain time period. Tens of thousands of Baltimore City homeowners pay rent on the land under their houses, and ground rents also exist in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.
• Prohibiting property owners from creating new ground rents.
As for prohibiting ground rent owners from foreclosing on unpaid rents.. I don’t mind this as long as they have some way to legally collect what is owed to them, like something akin to a mechanic’s lien that has to be paid off when the house is sold.
As for phasing out ground rents… that would certainly make home ownership more simple for Baltimoreans, and I don’t really see any benefits that ground rents serve. On the other hand, you have to be careful not to do something that would effectively negate the value of ground rents already in existence.
Some people own thousands of ground rents, and to nullify them would be a horrible violation of property rights.