You’ve got to read this story about a woman in Baltimore, MD, who is embroiled with the city over property taxes on the lot holding her swimming pool. When she bought the lot next door to her home to install a $25,000 swimming pool, she consolidated the two lots into one and paid taxes on both of them. But the city screwed up, didn’t record the consolidation or re-platting, took her check but continued to bill her for the two lots. She ignored the bill since she’d paid it and they sold her lot to a debt collector, who chained up the fence around the pool, threatened to cement it in, and offered to sell her lot back to her. Yikes! Pretty soon the city is practicing CYA by saying oh, you just paid taxes on one lot, not two. Naturally she’s going to court but now says just paying the lien collector $10,000 would have been far cheaper — in other words, buying back the property she had paid for.
This story reminds me of the story of Josh Terry, who I visited with recently down at his Kings’ Highway home. Remember, the city first said yes, your property is “grandfathered” for multi-family, then, after he spent more than $100,000 to make it nice multi-family, they said no can do. We made a mistake. Well, Josh is still frustrated and I need to tell you what he’s up to — coming up.
