The Circuit Court for Baltimore County recently held that the portion of a sale of three senior living facilities relating to the business’ goodwill was subject to recordation and transfer taxes. In the Matter of Shelter Senior Living IV, L.L.C. ...

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The Court of Appeals recently held that a letter of intent signed as part of settlement discussions between two parties who were litigating over the ownership and use of parking spaces was unambiguous and constituted an enforceable contract between them even though the lease that was to guide the relationship of the parties for 99 years had not been agreed upon.

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The District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently held that a first deed of trust on a condominium unit may be extinguished by a foreclosure sale that is held to satisfy six months of unpaid condominium assessments.

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The Court of Special Appeals recently held that the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia, west of the District of Columbia, although fixed in a theoretical manner, actually shifts over time along with erosion and accretion of the south bank of the Potomac River.

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We are often asked: What happens if a tree falls in Maryland? Or, what can you do when branches or roots of a tree growing on your neighbor’s property encroach onto your property and cause you damage?

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On July 12, Howard County reimbursed five taxpayers for $587,151.56 in connection with recordation taxes that they had paid under protest. This amount includes $499,112.50 for the amount of the taxes that the County forced the taxpayers to pay plus $88,039.06 in interest as required by Maryland law.

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Affirming the holding of the Maryland Tax Court, the Circuit Court for Howard County ruled this month that when the recordation tax becomes due on an indemnity mortgage or an indemnity deed of trust (an “IDOT”), the party responsible to pay the tax is the guarantor who executed the IDOT.

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Recent Maryland legislation will change the law affecting indemnity mortgages and indemnity deeds of trust (“IDOTs”) as well as refinancings in this state generally. Effective July 1, the new law raises the size of loan transactions involving IDOTs which are taxable when they are recorded from $1 million to $3 million, and it changes the way refinancings in Maryland are taxed.

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Baltimore City Special Chief Solicitor Jack Machen wrote a column, “A word (but surely not the last) on IDOTs,” that appeared in The Daily Record on Feb. 4, regarding the effect of Senate Bill 1302 of the first General Assembly session of 2012 on the imposition of recordation taxes on indemnity mortgages and indemnity deeds of trust (either is called an IDOT). Senate Bill 1302 added subsubsection (7) to subsection 12 105(f) of the Tax-Property Article of the Maryland Code (TP).

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Maryland jurisdictions cannot require that lenders and purchasers of foreclosed properties pay the recordation taxes on guarantor-backed deeds of trust, the state’s administrative Tax Court has ruled.

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