The Daily Record reports that Baltimore property owners whose properties are sold for taxes may soon be paying less in fees in order to redeem them.

Baltimore Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon set $1,300 or $1,500 as a reasonable amount for attorneys’ fees in a normal tax-sale case following consideration of 14 of approximately 4000 cases filed by buyers of tax sale properties who want to limit former owners’ rights to get their properties back.

Fees sought by attorneys in the 14 actions considered ranged from $1,200 to more than $3,800. Redemption amounts include taxes, interest and penalties accumulated both before and after the tax sale plus additional fees the new buyers incur.

Referring in her ruling to the amount former owners pay after a tax-sale buyer files an action to finalize the sale, Judge Cannon wrote that, “A presumptive fixed fee will save effort and expense for the parties and will expedite resolution of the cases if there is a dispute about the amount of the redemption figure.”

“Plaintiffs will be able to tell defendants, with a reasonable degree of certainty, what the redemption figure will be and the basis for the figure,” she wrote.

The 14 cases before Judge Canon’s court were among those filed because of confusion about how much delinquent taxpayers would owe for attorneys’ fees. The amounts set would pay for eight to nine attorney-hours per case, with a senior attorney at $250 per hour working about half the case and a lower-paid paralegal working the remainder.

Her ruling will mandate paperwork that describes the nature of the attorney’s relationship to the plaintiff and to the property itself as well as the charges made for legal work, and set stricter guidelines for some reimbursable expenses while ruling out others completely.

Tags: property tax liens, real estate auctions, real estate tax liens, real estate tax sale, tax sale redemption fees

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