2146                                      Vetoes

House Bill No. 112—Redemption of Ground Rents

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Section 104
of Article 21 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1966 Replacement
Volume) title "Conveyancing," subtitle "Miscellaneous," providing
that leases made for more than fifteen years shall be redeemable at
any time after expiration of three years from the date of such leases.

May 26, 1970.

Honorable Thomas Hunter Lowe
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17, of the Maryland
Constitution, I have today vetoed House Bill 112.

The provisions of House Bill 112 change the time for redemp-
tion of ground rents from five years to three years from the date
of their creation. I think that the purpose of this bill is extremely
commendable. Unfortunately, certain legal technicalities have arisen
which make the signature of this bill impossible.

House Bill 112 amends Article 21, Section 104, which is the
general ground rent redemption statute. However, the long-standing
exemption to the ground rent redemption statute involves commer-
cial leases in excess of 15 years. This exception is found in Article
21, Section 108, of the Maryland Code which is as follows:

108.

The provisions of Chapter 485 of the Acts of 1884 of the Gen-
eral Assembly of Maryland, and the provisions of Chapter 395
of the Acts of 1888 of the General Assembly of Maryland, and
the provisions of Chapter 207 of the Acts of 1900 of the General
Assembly of Maryland, were not intended to apply and do not
apply to leases or subleases of property leased exclusively for
business, commercial manufacturing, mercantile or industrial
purposes, as distinguished from residence purposes, where the
term of such lease or subleases, including all renewals provided
for therein, shall not exceed ninety-nine years, provided that a
lease of property improved or to be improved by apartments or
other buildings for multiple-family use of one lot or parcel con-
stitutes a business and not a residential purpose. The term
"multiple-family use," for purposes of this section, shall not
apply to duplexes or single-family structures converted to mul-
tiple-dwelling units.

The Acts of 1884, 1888 and 1900, which are referred to in Section
108 of Article 21, are presently codified as Section 104 of Article 21.
Therefore, by repealing and re-enacting Section 104 of Article 21,
without placing an appropriate provision in Section 108 of Article
21 which would exempt commercial leases from the provisions of
House Bill 112, a situation may be created which could possibly make
commercial leases executed after July 1, 1970, subject to redemption
after three years at a 6% capitalization. This situation could have
serious effects and work great hardships on both landlords and ten-
ants in the commercial community.