Eagle Title’s Builder Service’s Team received a contract to close on 46 paper lots with only the engineering in place. When we reviewed the title it appeared as though the tax bills for those lots were very excessive. It was discovered that when the county reviewed the subdivision, it consisted of completed homes, finished lots, and platted or engineered lots. The county had taxed the lots as if they were finished lots. Eagle Title reached out to the owner (seller) and received permission to appeal the assessment on their behalf.
We filed appeals on 59 lots in total – those owned by the seller in our transaction and 13 others owned by an investor – and our initial appeal was denied. Before appealing the decision Eagle Title sent an email to the head of Maryland’s real property assessment team explaining the situation. Shortly after, we received a call from the Prince George’s County Assessment Office acknowledging a mistake was made and letting us know that the assessments and corresponding tax bills were in the process of being corrected. During the conversation, Eagle Title was able to clarify that the prior 3 years with the incorrect assessments would also be adjusted. The net results of our efforts were that the owners received refunds of over $300,000 and our customers’ carrying costs on the property for property taxes were reduced by 75%.