Eliminate Ground Rent

But if you get behind on your bill, it can lead to steep fees that dwarf the original bill. The homeowner can end up paying more in fees than the ground rent itself is even worth.

If it remains unpaid, the homeowner will lose their home and all of its equity.

I have a plan to end ground rent. It won't cost the government that much, it's very equitable and very easy to administer. 

First, the government buys all the ground rent. Very roughly, about 100,000 ground rents valued around $1,000 would cost $100 million total. That's about 0.15% of the annual operating budget of the state and it's a one-time expense.

Second, everyone with ground rent just keeps paying the same amount, except now they pay it to the government as a line item on their property taxes. They pay for about 15 years until the government has recouped all the money it spent. And then all ground rent is abolished. 

This is not very expensive. It feels fair because the people that benefit still end up paying for it. The people paying ground rent don't pay anything extra for 15 years and then they don't pay ground rent ever again. 

Importantly, because ground rent is bought all at once, paid through the property tax system and abolished all at once, there is no need to record any deeds, which is a cumbersome process. Any process that requires 100,000 deeds to be recorded is simply not practical.