Jul 28, 2025
On July 28, 2025, Justly Prudent filed a lawsuit challenging a Maryland law that prevents courts from stopping the collection of property taxes, even when those taxes are based on discriminatory and unconstitutional assessments.
The case involves The Oxford, a luxury apartment complex in Oxon Hill that owners redeveloped from an abandoned office building. The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation recently increased the property's assessed value by 43%, from $49 million to $70 million. That increase is more than double the statewide average and will cost the owners more than $1 million in additional taxes over three years.
The complaint alleges that SDAT's assessment was based on flawed methods. SDAT treated a financing arrangement as if it were an actual property sale—the same arrangement the agency correctly ignored when it assessed the property just three years earlier. The property was also assessed at a higher rate than any comparable luxury apartment in the county, despite generating less rental income than many of its competitors.
Because both owners personally guaranteed the property's loans, the inflated assessment threatens to push them into personal bankruptcy.
Normally, property owners in this situation could ask a court for emergency relief. But Maryland's Tax Anti-Injunction Statute prohibits any court from issuing any order to stop tax collection—with no exception for unconstitutional assessments. The lawsuit argues this law violates the Maryland Constitution's separation of powers by stripping courts of their fundamental authority to remedy ongoing constitutional violations.
The administrative appeals process provides no adequate alternative. County officials have confirmed the system is backlogged, and owners must keep paying the disputed taxes while they wait.
For additional details, read Justly Prudent's press release.