BALTIMORE — A bill from before you owned your home. A balance from 21 years ago. And just weeks to sort it out before additional interest and penalties apply.
Baltimore residents continue to contact WMAR-2 News' Mallory Sofastaii about unexpected charges included in the city’s October outstanding bill notices. Some believe they already paid. Others are being billed for years before they bought their properties.
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Mariah Hay moved to Baltimore from out of state and bought her property last year. Then she received a notice seeking about $1,000 in overdue property taxes, including balances she says predate the previous owner.
“We don't owe this. That's why they do the title checks,” Hay said. “There was a fellow that bought the property back in 2016. And then there was somebody that owned it before that, so this is two owners' worth of bills. So it had gone through two title changes that the city is claiming there are back taxes due."
Hay and her title company contacted the city to have the charges removed. But with an October 31 payment date approaching, she couldn’t get the account resolved.
“They weren't responding to any of the emails that my title company was sending or emails from me, and then when I reached out to speak with somebody the best they could do was say, well, I'll send an email to my supervisor about this, and we'll hear back in a month or two,” Hay said.
She lives in the building and runs her business there.
“That really bothered me because there was a due date of October 31st on this bill, and I want to make sure I'm not putting my own property at risk,” she said.
Finance confirmed it is removing balances that weren’t listed on the lien sheet when a property transferred, along with other errors. It has not yet answered how many balances it has corrected or how much those corrections total.
Another homeowner told WMAR-2 News she has consistently paid her annual $70 minor privileges bill since 1989. But her October notice listed an unpaid balance from 2005 now totaling $250.
Councilwoman Odette Ramos is pressing Finance for answers about the accuracy of those balances, the short payment window and whether some charges are too old to collect.
“If she didn't get the notice she shouldn't have to pay the late fees,” said Ramos.
The District 14 councilwoman has heard from constituents trying to understand similar notices.
“Finance should have done a way better job of letting people know that this was happening,” she said.
Asked whether the council received advance notice, Ramos responded: “No, we absolutely got on them for not telling us ahead of time that this was going to happen.”
The Bureau of Revenue Collections mailed 50,123 notices totaling $504.6 million in October. That includes property taxes, water bills, citations and other charges.
Finance sends outstanding bill notices every October, but system updates expanded what this year’s letters included.
“Updates made to the system are showing bills/balances that were excluded in the past,” the department wrote.
Previously, the letters included past-year real property taxes and current and past-year special benefit bills. The updated notices capture more types of bills from multiple years.
But some residents had little time to investigate. Letters reviewed during the reporting were dated October 8, and some recipients reported receiving them around October 16. The payment date was October 31.
“It's usually a 30-day window to pay and the bills went out late so that is absolutely on Finance for not giving people enough time to work it out,” Ramos said.
Finance confirmed additional interest and penalties apply after October 31.
“We are working with customers who pay late due to needing additional information,” the department wrote.
We asked what that means: Will additional charges pause or be waived while someone obtains records or disputes a bill? That question remains unanswered.
Ramos is also questioning whether a seven-year collection limit under Maryland’s Tax-Property Article applies to some of these balances.
WMAR-2 News asked Finance whether the charges are subject to that provision and whether it is considering removing balances outside the applicable collection period. We’re still awaiting an answer. Whether a particular balance is collectible remains unresolved.
We also asked whether Finance is proactively checking accounts for errors or waiting for residents to flag them, and requested an on-camera interview.
Ramos wants the problems addressed before final bills and legal notices go out in February.
“We want to make sure that we smooth out all of those systems prior to the final bill and legal notice that comes out in February, and that's when tax sale season starts. So yes, there's a lot of things that we need to deal with,” she said.
Residents who question a balance can contact the Bureau of Revenue Collections at 410-396-3000 or their council member’s office.
Finance told WMAR-2 News that residents can request an itemized account history through its call center by phone or email. The department is continuing to abate incorrect balances.
In our previous report, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service recommended comparing the charges with receipts and payment histories and seeking help if records are missing or the bill is unclear.
The city also identified bills excluded from tax sale: residential water bills, nonresidential water bills under $350, alley bills and environmental citations under $1,000. That exclusion does not erase the balance.
Hay wants her account cleared up, but the experience hasn’t changed how she feels about moving to Baltimore.
“We love Baltimore and we're happy to be here and we just want to do our part in making sure that the city is taken care of,” she said.
Ramos wants residents to pay what they owe, and Finance to make sure it’s asking for the right amount.
“I get that the city needs money. I want people to pay. Okay, I really want people to pay, but we want to make sure that those bills are correct and that we're following the right procedures,” she said.