Tax Sale Toolkit
In March and April 2021, The Stop Oppressive Seizures Fund (SOS Fund) collaborated with Better Waverly Mutual Aid and Infusion Partnerships to keep homeowners in Better Waverly out of tax sale. This project involved determining which houses were in Tax Sale, outreach to neighbors, raising money, and making payments on behalf of homeowners. Seventeen owner-occupied homes in Better Waverly were originally in Tax Sale. Nearly twenty owner-occupied homes in Better Waverly were originally in Tax Sale. And, By April 30, that number was down to one.
In total, we helped 65 homeowners get their property tax debts paid down. This toolkit can help you do the same work in your neighborhood.
What is a Tax Sale?
The annual tax sale auction is how Baltimore City collects delinquent debts like property taxes and environmental citations. Each spring, the city lists the delinquent debt “for sale.” The investor who buys the debt pays the city immediately and then collects the original debt from the homeowner, plus 12% interest. If the escalating debt is not paid to the investor within a few months, the investor can foreclose and seize the property two years later. A family’s equity is then gone because of an original debt as low as $750.
Tax Sale primarily hits people who do not have a mortgage – generally older adults, and those who inherited homes. In practice, it is a form of displacement that primarily hits Black families.
Activists are working to change or eliminate the Tax Sale system. In the meantime, we can work to stabilize our neighborhoods by helping neighbors with the information and resources required to avoid going to the tax sale.. If you’d also like to get involved in Tax Sale advocacy, contact Fight Blight Bmore.
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Who are your partners? The SOS (Stop Oppressive Seizures) Fund, a project of Fight Blight Baltimore and Parity Homes; the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service; Pro Bono Resource Center and more. You need partners, both for the knowledge they have and to keep the wind in your sails.
What’s your goal? We wanted to stabilize the neighborhood, preserve the wealth of homeowners, and most importantly keep people housed. So we decided to provide information to both renters and owners, and to offer financial help to owners. If your goal is different, you can adjust the actions here.
What’s the scope of the problem in your neighborhood? In the middle of March, the Baltimore Sun publishes a list of all properties in Tax Sale. You can use that to look up houses on each street in your neighborhood. There’s an easier way, though. The
SOS Fund has access to a spreadsheet with the same information and additional details. Click here to view the list. (The file is very large. Sort on your neighborhood’s name, and save the results into a new file.) The spreadsheet will show which houses are owner-occupied (with an H) and non-owner occupied (N). If you work from the newspaper, you can find this same information on Baltimore’s CoDeMap. Another source of info on houses in tax sale is Maryland Tax Sale - Baltimore City. We don’t have experience with it.
Are there any government programs available to help? Yes, the city and state have programs to help. The SOS Fund can help your neighbors in need apply for the program. Here are links directly to the programs for more information:
Tax Sale Deferral Program
Emergency Mortgage and Housing Assistance Program
Homeowner Protection Program
WATER 4 ALL
The SOS Fund can assist homeowners with determining eligibility and applying for funds via housing counseling partners.
All of the homeowners in your community may not be eligible for these programs. Betta Waverly ran its tax sale outreach in 2021 before the availability of HAF funds. They collected funds and made payments on behalf of their neighbors in need.
Do you have a way to collect and spend money? It’s best to have a 501(c)(3) that can hold and spend money for the effort. Betta Waverly used a tool called Fundrazr to collect donations from neighbors. Then Betta Waverly transferred excess funds to the SOS Fund. The fund facilitated payments to the city’s Bureau of Revenue Collections on behalf of residents outside of Betta Waverly. The SOS Fund also can collect donations and facilitate all payments.
What’s your capacity? You will need a group of volunteers to be able to reach out to homeowners, and also to renters. You might focus on just homeowners. The SOS Fund is offering training on how to use this tool kit. For more information on scheduling a training, contact: john@thesosfund.com.
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We created two letters – one for owner-occupied homes and one for rentals. We personalized the flyers with the address, amount owed, and the name of the occupant-owner. Volunteers took these to homes, visiting up to 3 times because they wanted to have a conversation. Whenever a volunteer knew the owners or renters, they volunteered to visit those houses.
In some cases, residents simply needed information. One canvasser helped an owner pay her taxes on-line – right then and there. Sometimes notices are lost in the mail. Some residents may not realize that they can pay the balance below $750, and then finish paying after April 29th.
Keep records! We used a google sheet to hold information about how outreach was going. The canvassers could add their own updates, and a core organizer did a lot of that, too.
Pro Tips on Outreach from City Councilwoman Odette Ramos
You can leave information on people’s doors, but since it is a sensitive matter, consider leaving the information folded into the screen. It is illegal to place something in the mailbox without a stamp.
Create a “spiel” so that volunteers know what they need to say. For instance, “Hi, I’m --- I am one of your neighbors working with (name of community organization) and the SOS Fund, and we noticed your home was on the tax sale list. We would like to help,” and that usually starts the conversation.
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Betta Waverly created a Fundrazr, and made sure that two donors who could give substantial gifts did so immediately. They also published some informative memes, which increased donations.
Betta Waverly funneled neighbors who were asking how they could help the Fundrazr. That meant they collected more than needed, and were able to help with payments for houses outside our neighborhood. Betta Waverly was super happy about that.
As the deadline for funding requests approached, we visited the owner-occupied houses again, and had a long-time neighborhood activist make visits.
Pro Tip from Odette Ramos
For residents who receive financial assistance, make it clear that you can’t guarantee it will be there for them next year, so they’ll need a plan to be sure to avoid tax sale next year.
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Payments are due April 30th. There can be many steps in moving money, and the City doesn’t make it easy. By about April 1st, you should have a plan about how you will make payments (cashier’s checks and money orders only). Aim to deliver the payments well before April 30th, so you still have time if something comes up. The instructions for 2021 did not allow for on-line payments; that’s because the Tax Sale office doesn’t necessarily know what has come in on-line. Be warned, you can now attempt to make payments online, but it feels like the safe move is to pay in person at the Abel Wolman Building (100 Holiday St.) Because Betta Waverly was working with a City Council member, they were able to make some on-line payments and then our City Council member worked within the system to ensure that the homes were removed from Tax Sale. A new Tax Sale Ombudsman position will be created in July 2021, and that person can also help.
The SOS Fund has a payment letter you can edit. Include some kind of letter with your payments unless you pay on-line.
Keep copies (or screenshots) of all payments. Give them to the homeowners, along with a note. Here’s what we used; you can edit it.
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There are a few tax credits that can make a huge difference in helping homeowners avoid Tax Sale. We decided to work on tax credits as a follow-up project. You might choose to include the tax credits in Tax Sale outreach. Here is some information to get started.
The Homestead Credit limits the increase in taxable assessments each year to 4% for homeowners in Baltimore. Every homeowner should apply for this. It is a one-time application.
The Homeowner’s Property Tax Credit limits the amount of property taxes any homeowner must pay based upon his or her income. Owners must apply for it each year by October 1.
Pro Tips from Odette Ramos
For elders in particular, ask if they applied for the Homeowner’s Property Tax Credit. If not, provide the application, and follow up later. If they have applied, check with the City to make sure the tax sale balance includes the HTC.
Provide the Homeowners who qualify for the Homeowner’s Tax Credit with the application, and follow up.
For people who already paid their property tax, check if the HTC was applied. For help with this or other accounting issues, contact your Councilperson to check with the City’s Finance Department. Or starting in July 2021, contact the new Tax Sale Ombudsman.
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Some properties are not listed as owner occupied in state and city records, but should be. This is important, because homeowners get preferential treatment in Tax Sale (believe it or not…).
If the resident owns the property and is on the deed but not listed as the owner occupant or homeowner, they should change the principal residence status in state real property records by contacting the SDAT Assessment Office for Baltimore City: sdat.balcity@maryland.gov; (410) 767-8250. They should state in the email that it is their principal residence; request that SDAT change the status in the record; and include their name, the property address and account number, and a daytime phone number. SDAT offices say these requests are usually processed in two weeks, so you may need to follow up with them by phone or email.
The owner can also call the Office of the State Tax Sale Ombudsman Bob Yeager at (410) 767-4994 or email sdat.taxsale@maryland.gov for help.
If the resident is the owner but is not listed on the deed (for example, they are the heir to the property owner who has passed away):
The owner should reach out to Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS)'s My Home, My Deed, My Legacy Program for help to make sure that ownership of their home is preserved for their family.