Delays with lien sheets frustrate Baltimore’s real estate industry

When Michael Moiseyev left New York City a few months ago to run Baltimore’s finance department, he became intimately aware of a major pain point in the city’s real estate market — delays with lien sheets. Those documents, sometimes called lien certificates or lien certs, show whether a property owner owes money to the city. Moiseyev said he bought a condo in the Inner Harbor, with a nice view and in walking distance to City Hall, but it took a few weeks extra to settle all the paperwork. That was due to a backlog of lien sheet requests that has been frustrating the city’s real estate industry since last fall when a few key retirements turned a typically two-week turnaround time into a seven-to-eight-week ordeal, according to industry professionals.