* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Welch
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
Request for State Legislation - Abolish Ground Rent in Baltimore City
FOR the purpose of requesting the Honorable Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2006 Session of the Maryland General Assembly to introduce legislation to abolish the archaic system of residential ground rents in Baltimore City and urging the Governor to sign the subject legislation into law to protect homeowners from unscrupulous persons seeking to cash in on the City's fast growing real estate market.
Body
Recitals
Ground rent is a specialized form of real estate ownership where the land is owned by one party, and the real property located on the land is owned by someone else. Ground rent leases are typically leases for 99 years, renewable forever at the option of the tenant who, in the practical sense, is the owner of the property. The tenant of a ground rent property pays the real property taxes and other real property assessments, has control of the property, and the tenant's interest in the property is usually much more valuable than that of the owner of the ground rent.
The concept of residential ground rents originated hundreds of years ago in England when people paid rent to live on land they could not otherwise afford. Ground rents were popular in Colonial times, first in Philadelphia and later in Baltimore, because homeowners or developers had to finance only the cost of ...
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