Baltimore Sun's award winning series on Ground Rent

If you are considering buying a home here, you should read about how the Ground Rent system works. It used to be widely viewed as a harmless vestige of colonial law, but 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.

I know I just get a bill for $60 every 6 months from a company I've never heard of. If you fall behind on paying, it can cost you a lot more than the $60 though. Over a recent 6 year period, city judges awarded houses to ground rent holders over 500 times! If you don't want to risk it, you usually can request to buy out your ground rent.

All three parts of our Ground Rent series plus continuing coverage, pictures, a sample deed, etc can be read here.