Baltimore Homeowners Face Foreclosure
Over twenty thousand Baltimore home owners have gotten behind on real estate taxes and utility bills and they have until the end of the month to pay these debts. If they cannot pay them, they will be faced with possible foreclosure.
Officials in the city are planning their yearly tax sale next month and will auction off about seventy million dollars in liens to investors. These private investors have the ability to collect the debt along with and fees and interest. They will be able to foreclose if they cannot collect.
Most of the liens being auctioned are mostly from property taxes that are delinquent but they also include overdue bills for utilities such as water and sewage. They include charges for the repair of alleys and sidewalks and fines for not cleaning up trash and other hazards. A percentage of the liens do not include back taxes. Officials of the city are expected to collect half of the bills that are overdue by the proposed deadline.
The Bureau of Treasury Management is encouraging property owners to pay their accounts so that their property will not go into the city’s tax sale.
Baltimore is pursuing a lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank as the city gets ready for the tax sale. The city accuses Wells Fargo of helping to cause the foreclosure problems of the city by pushing black homebuyers into expensive, subprime loans. An advocate for the poor has said that the tax sales increase the foreclosure problem by creating a state approved investment product for those investors that purchase the liens.
Those residents of Maryland of low-income that are caught up in this tax and foreclosure problem have it the worst. They have it the worst because they do not have a choice on how that will pay back the investors. An attorney in Baltimore would like to see utility bills and fees to pave alleys kept out of the tax sales.
Maryland senator, George W. Della Jr., does not see any parallels between the efforts of Baltimore to get repayment of debts such as utilities and subprime lending practices being challenged in the case against Wells Fargo.
Senator Wells has stated that it is his belief that those who offer subprime loans are knowingly luring people into their web by offering low interest rates on loans and financing those who probably should not have gotten financing. He believes entities such as Wells Fargo have taken advantage of people in Maryland and across the country.
There are about nine million dollars worth of water bills on over eleven thousand properties on the most recent tax sale list. There are property owners that owe for other services as well. Over half of the water bills are under five hundred dollars though that can add up.Officials in Baltimore justified the practice of including water bills in tax sales by stating that without the threat of being thrown out of their homes, many people wouldn’t pay their bills.
The General Assembly, concerned about property being taken over a small debt, has passed emergency legislation that states that the minimum amount of debt that can trigger a tax sale is two hundred and fifty dollars instead of the previous one hundred dollars.
- Foreclosure Worries
- The Judicial and Non-Judicial Foreclosure
- Foreclosures
- Extreme Makeover Foreclosure
- Foreclosure When Your Bank Fails
- Foreclosure Process
I agree with the attorney. I think utility bills and fees to pave alleys should be left out. With energy deregulation driving prices up who is the “bad guy” here. Wells Fargo with subprime loans, the city for including utilities in the tax sale or Maryland’s crappy legislation that caused energy prices to go up?
It’s a creepy synergy between all of them that created this mess.