First Step Towards Banning New Ground Rents
The sun reports. No word yet on whether the state will also approve laws banning the unjust seizure of homes for unpaid property taxes, an archaic and unfair practice that goes back to the early days of Maryland.
There is absolutely no reason to ban the creation of new ground rents. In fact, doing so will reduce the options available to buyers who are short the funds needed to purchase a particular property.
Certainly, no one who touts himself as a real estate investor ought to favor a ban on new ground rents. Banning them removes one valuable tool from the investor’s hands.
What is needed is registration and recordation of ground rents, and law that makes it impossible to work the quick-take schemes that have recently been publicized, while still allowing the ground rent owner some leverage against a homeowner who refuses to pay.
Otherwise, banning the creation of ground rents is just as effective as imposing “gun control” laws on the law-abiding majority who own firearms.
Any measure that gives more power to governments, even as it removes power from individuals, cannot be a good thing.
You put words to something I was thinking. I went to a hearing to fight an assessment last year. Before me a fellow went complaining that the taxes he was now required to pay were too high for him and he wouldn’t have bought the property had he known. I wondered if the Sun would bother covering that too. I imagine not as there something wrong with individuals seeking to profit from others, but there’s nothing wrong with government confiscating from deadbeats.
Well if it weren’t for the high taxes, we wouldn’t have the outstanding schools and exceedinlgy low crime rate, right? But seriously, I think this ground rent issue is a lot of political huffing an puffing over a minor issue.
O’Malley didn’t seem to have a problem with ground rents when he was the mayor but now he’s “outraged.”