District of Columbia Court of Appeals Finds Ground Lease on Property Interest Constitutes a Separate Transaction from the Property Sale, Subject to Taxation

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the Superior Court’s decision that property taxes were owed on a ground lease and that the statute of limitations had not run on collecting those taxes. The case involved a complex 2013 real estate transaction where property was sold to a buyer, but the seller purported to retain a leasehold interest, which was then detailed in a separate ground lease document. The property later went into default and was purchased by the petitioner at foreclosure. When the petitioner went to record the foreclosure deed, they were denied by the Recorder of Deeds ...