Md. Code, TP § 14-819 Owner Unlocated

• Library: Maryland Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through November 23, 2023
• Year: 2023
• Citation: Md. Code, TP § 14-819

(a) If the person entitled to the balance over and above the amount required for the payment of taxes, interest, penalties, and costs of sale is unknown, or if the person's identity is known but the person's address is unknown, the sum to which the person is entitled shall be held by the collector in a special fund for at least 3 years. During that period the collector shall make every reasonable effort to learn the identity of the person, or to learn the person's address, as the case may be, by notice published at the courthouse door, certified mail, return receipt requested, bearing a postmark from the United States Postal Service, addressed to the person's last known address, personal inquiry, or by any other reasonably possible means for determining the name or the address of the person.

(b) If at the end of the 3-year period the person still is unknown or unlocated, the collector may apply to the circuit court for the county, for an order declaring that the money shall be forfeited and become the property of the county or municipal corporation. The court shall determine on inquiry that all proper and reasonable effort has been made by the collector to determine the name or address of the person, and if the court is satisfied, it shall pass an order directing that the money shall be forfeited and become the property of the county or municipal corporation.