BALTIMORE — Baltimore City's annual tax sale is underway.
What does this mean?
It's when a property owner fails to pay their yearly taxes causing interest to accrue, which then forces the City to place a lien on the property.
When the overdue amount reaches a certain point, the City by law publicly auctions off the property.
The indebted owners must be notified by mail 30 days prior to their property being put up for auction.
They can still reclaim the property by paying off the debt all the way up until a court approves the new buyer's foreclosure request, which they have two years to complete upon purchasing.
A list of properties in this year's sale have been posted online since mid-March with bids starting May 12 through 15.
Over the past few years COVID-19 prompted some change to the City's tax sale process.
Last year's sale was postponed giving property owners more time to payoff their liens.
Now on Wednesday Mayor Brandon Scott ordered all owner-occupied homes valued at $250,000 or less to be removed from this year's tax sale.
Back in 2021 Scott also removed all first-time, owner-occupied tax sale liens.
Later that same year Baltimore City also bought out the liens of 454 owner-occupied homes, which eliminated them from the tax sale process as well.
