How to collect ground rent from the City of Baltimore
If your ground lease tenant is Baltimore City, that is if Baltimore City owns the house and you own the ground lease on the property, the city has a specific process for requesting payment.
Step 1
Prepare an invoice for each year ground rent is owed. Separate invoices should be prepared for year (e.g. 2023, 2024, 2025).
Step2
Make sure that the payee on the invoice, the person or company to be paid, matches the registration on file with State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT). On the state registration there is a line that states: “Name/Address of the Person or Entity to Whom Ground Rent Payment is Made Payable and Mailed”. Make sure the payee on your invoice to Baltimore City matches the information on the state registration. Here is the form if you need to “change the state registration”. Alternatively if the ground rent has never been registered with the state, here is the “form for first time registration.” Unfortunately new registration and change forms are taking the state about three months to upload to the website.
Step 3
Go to the Baltimore City website for uploading your ground rent invoice.
Baltimore City office that handles ground rent payments is:
Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD)
Development Division
417 E. Fayette St., Ste. 1001
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-396-3283
karen.gilmore@baltimorecity.gov