Spaghetti-Bender t1_j8eyjs6 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 8:35 PM

Reply to comment by throwthepearlaway in Baltimore residents who lose homes after tax sales rarely see extra funds from auctions by aresef

The city sold the back half of my former brother-in-law's lot (1/2 of his back yard and his entire garage) in a tax sale, since his property somehow had 2 addresses, or was two properties sold as one... I can't remember that exact detail. However, it was a rowhome, with a nice long back yard w/ a garage at the end, and the city had been sending the tax bills to 0000 Whatever St, because there was some data entry error when he bought the house. A scummy lawyer couple (were in the news and served jail time for some tax sale purchase shenanigans) from Timonium bought it up, and wanted to charge something like a $5000 fee, on top of whatever was owed to get it back.

throwthepearlaway t1_j8f23om wrote on February 13, 2023 at 8:57 PM

Oh yeah, those attorneys are ruthless and there's about 4-5 firms in the City that buy almost all of the tax sales. They don't even want the properties, they're just trying to gain that temporary lien ownership so that they can charge the attorney fees on top of the liens+interest.

The attorney fees are legal, but there is a maximum amount they're allowed to charge which increases over time to a set limit. It's supposed to cover the cost of the attorney who helps the bidder, but these vultures have set themselves up as both 'the buyer' and 'the attorney', and they always charge residents exactly the maximum.