How to negotiate Baltimore city lien release with title company?

[Brian Silvia]

This is a bit of a bizarre scenario, and I think we have a way forward; however there is some risk that I’m hoping to mitigate.


We are under contract on a townhouse in Baltimore City, and the owner is an estate with no next of kin, and nothing else in the estate other than the house. The property is overgrown with ivy and a complete gut-job, and the estate owes ~65k in back taxes to the city; however it’s only worth tax assessed value (17k), so its never going to be sold conventionally since the estate can’t bring any money to the table (and neither will anyone else).


We were able to get approval to go through the city tax lien release process, which requires paying the city the tax assessed value, then they  will waive the lien. Once they have the money, they issue a blue sheet ~2 weeks later saying there are no liens on the property. The challenge is that our title company won’t settle before having that sheet (showing 0 liens), but the city won’t give us that until we pay them the 17k.


We figure we can cut a check to the city for the money, but nothing protects us if the seller just walks away from settlement. 

Any ideas? Am I overthinking and should just cut a check and move forward?