HOUSE BILL NO. 6332
November 12, 2020, Introduced by Rep. Iden and
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
A bill to amend 1945 PA 200, entitled
"An act to define a marketable record title to an interest in land; to require the filing of notices of claim of interest in such land in certain cases within a definite period of time and to require the recording thereof; to make invalid and of no force or effect all claims with respect to the land affected thereby where no such notices of claim of interest are filed within the required period; to provide for certain penalties for filing slanderous notices of claim of interest, and to provide certain exceptions to the applicability and operation thereof,"
by amending the title and sections 1, 1a, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 (MCL 565.101, 565.101a, 565.102, 565.103, 565.104, 565.105, and 565.108), sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 as amended by 2018 PA 572 and section 1a as added by 1997 PA 154, and by adding section 5a.
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An act
to define a marketable record title to an interest in land; to require the filing recording of notices of claim of
interest in such land in certain cases within a definite period
of time; and to require the recording thereof; to
make invalid and of no force or to provide the effect of
all claims with respect to the land affected thereby where no such the
notices of claim of interest are not filed
within the required period; to provide for certain penalties for filing recording slanderous notices of
claim of interest, and to provide certain exceptions to the applicability and
operation thereof.of this act.
Sec. 1. Any
person, that has the legal capacity to own land in this state, that has an
unbroken chain of title of record to any interest in land for 20 years for
mineral interests and 40 years for other interests, is at the end of the
applicable period considered to have a marketable record title to that
interest, subject only to claims to that interest and defects of title as that
are not extinguished or barred by the
application of this act and subject also to any interests and
defects as that
are inherent in the provisions and limitations contained in the
muniments of which the chain of record title is formed and that are recorded
within 2 years after the effective date of the amendatory act that added section 2(2)
section 5a or during the 20-year period for mineral interests and
the 40-year period for other interests. However, a person is not considered to
have a marketable record title by reason of under this act if the land in which the interest
exists is in the hostile possession of another.
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Sec. 1a. As used
in this act: ,
"mineral interest"
(a) "Claimant" means a
person that holds an interest, claim, or charge on land and has recorded a
notice of claim under section 3 with the office of the register of deeds of the
county in which that land is located.
(b) "Mineral interest" means an
interest in minerals in any land if the interest in minerals is owned by a
person other than the owner of the surface of the land. Mineral interest does
not include an interest in oil or gas or an interest in sand, gravel,
limestone, clay, or marl.
(c) "Person" means an
individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, firm,
organization, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity.
(d) "Property owners'
association" means any of the following:
(i) A person or an unincorporated
association with a voting membership that is made up of owners of the land or
their agents, or a combination of the owners of the land and their agents, that
is any of the following:
(A) Responsible for the operation or
management of the land.
(B) Authorized to enforce a document
recorded with the office of the register of deeds of the county in which the
land is located that subjects the land to any land-use restriction or
obligation.
(ii) An association of co-owners as that
term is defined in section 3 of the condominium act, 1978 PA 59, MCL 559.103.
(e) "Subdivision
restrictions" means a declaration or other instrument or agreement
executed and recorded on or after January 1, 1950 that provides for the
establishment of a property owners' association with respect to which an owner
of a lot or other parcel of land that is the subject of the declaration or
other instrument
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or agreement is a member.
Sec. 2. (1) A
person is considered to have has an unbroken chain of title to an interest in land
as provided in section 1 if the official
public records disclose office
of the register of deeds of the county in which the land is located discloses either
of the following:
(a) A conveyance
or other title transaction not less than 20 years in the past for mineral
interests and 40 years for other interests, which conveyance or other title
transaction purports to create the interest in that person, with nothing
appearing of record purporting to divest that person of the purported interest.
(b) A conveyance
or other title transaction not less than 20 years in the past for mineral
interests and 40 years for other interests, which conveyance or other title
transaction purports to create the interest in some other person and other
conveyances or title transactions of record by which the purported interest has
become vested in the person first referred to in this section, with nothing
appearing of record purporting to divest the person first referred to in this
section of the purported interest.
(2) For purposes
of this section, except as to mineral interests, a conveyance or other title
transaction in the chain of title purports to divest an interest in the property land
only if it creates does either of the following:
(a) Creates the divestment. or if it
(b) Except as otherwise provided in
section 5a(1), specifically refers by liber and page or other
county-assigned unique identifying number to a previously recorded conveyance
or other title transaction that created the divestment.
Sec. 3. (1)
Marketable record title is held by a person
and is
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taken by his or her the
person's successors in interest free and clear of any and all
interests, claims, and charges the existence of which depends in whole or in
part on any act, transaction, event, or omission that occurred before the
20-year period for mineral interests, and the 40-year period for other
interests, and all such interests, claims, and charges are void and of no
effect at law or in equity. However, an interest, claim, or charge may be
preserved and kept effective by filing
for record recording within
2 years after the effective date of the amendatory act that added section 2(2) section 5a or during the 20-year period for mineral
interests and or
the 40-year period for other interests, a notice in writing, verified by oath, setting forth the
nature of the claim in the manner required by section 5.of claim that satisfies the requirements of section 5. However, an
interest, claim, or charge that is void under this subsection before the
effective date of the amendatory act that added section 5a or that expires or
terminates based on its own terms is not effective and must not be preserved by
recording a notice of claim under this subsection.
(2) A disability
or lack of knowledge of any kind on the part of anyone does not suspend the
running of the 20-year period for mineral interests or the 40-year period for
other interests.
(3) For the
purpose of recording notices of claim for homestead interests, the date from
which the 20-year period for mineral interests and the 40-year period for other
interests run is the date of recording of the instrument that contains the
basis for the claim.
(4) A notice of claim under this section may be filed for record recorded by the
any of the following:
(a) The claimant. or by any
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(b) The claimant's agent.
(c) A property owners' association.
(d) Any other person
acting on behalf of any claimant if 1 or more of the following conditions
exist:
(i) (a) The claimant is
under a disability.
(ii) (b) The claimant is
unable to assert a claim on his or her own behalf.
(iii) (c) The claimant is 1
of a class but whose identity cannot be established or is uncertain at the time
of filing recording
the notice of claim. for record.
(5) The recording of a notice of claim
under this section by a claimant that meets all the requirements of this act to
preserve the claimant's rights in the land is an effective notice under this
section for any other person whose rights originate from the same document as the
claimant's.
Sec. 4. (1) This
act must not be applied to do any of the following:
(a) Bar a lessor
or his or her successor as reversioner of his or her right to possession on the
expiration of a lease or a lessee or his or her successor of his or her rights
in and to a lease.
(b) Bar any
interest of a mortgagor or a mortgagee or interest in the nature of that of a
mortgagor or mortgagee until after the instrument under which the interest is
claimed has become due and payable, except if the instrument has no due date
expressed, or if the instrument has been
executed by a railroad, railroad bridge, tunnel, or
union depot company, or a public utility or public service
company.
(c) Bar or
extinguish an easement or interest in the nature of an easement, the existence
of which is clearly observable. by
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physical evidences
of its use.
(d) Bar or
extinguish an easement or interest in the nature of an easement, or any rights
appurtenant to the easement or interest granted, excepted, or reserved by a
recorded instrument creating the easement or interest, including any rights for
future use, if the existence of the easement or interest is evidenced by the
location beneath, on, or above any part of the land described in the instrument
of a pipe, valve, road, wire, cable, conduit, duct, sewer, track, pole, tower,
or other physical facility and whether or not the existence of the facility is
observable, by reason because
of the failure to file record
the notice required by this act.
(e) Bar or extinguish a conservation
easement. As used in this subdivision, "conservation easement" means
that term as defined in section 2140 of the natural resources and environmental
protection act, 1994 PA 451, MCL 324.2140.
(f) Bar or extinguish the rights of
any remainderman on the expiration of a life estate or trust.
(g) Bar or extinguish any subdivision
restrictions.
(h) Bar or extinguish any recorded
master deed for a condominium or any recorded amendment to that condominium
master deed.
(2) This act does
not affect any right, title, or interest in land owned by the United States, or any right, title, or interest in any land
owned by this state, or by
any department, commission, or political subdivision thereof.of
this state.
(3) This act does
not affect any oil and gas lease, or other interest in oil or gas, owned by a
person other than the owner of the surface, or any storage agreement or other
interest in
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subsurface
storage formations owned by a person other than the owner of the surface.
Sec. 5. (1) To be
effective and to be entitled to record, a notice of claim under section 3 must
contain an accurate and full description of all the land affected by the notice , which and the description must be set forth in particular
terms and not by general inclusions. However,
except as to mineral interests, if the claim is founded on a recorded
instrument, the notice must also state the liber and page or other
county-assigned unique identifying number of the recorded instrument the claim
is founded on. The failure to include the liber and page or other
county-assigned unique identifying number renders the recording ineffective and
the claim unpreserved. The notice of
claim must contain all of the following:
(a) The
claimant's name.
(b) The
claimant's mailing address.
(c) The interest
claimed to be preserved.
(d) Except as to
mineral interests, the liber and page or other unique identification number of the assigned
by the office of the register of deeds for the recorded instrument
creating the interest to be preserved.
(e) The legal
description of the real property land affected by the claimed interest.
(f) The
claimant's signature.
(g) An
acknowledgment in the form required by the
uniform recognition of acknowledgments act, 1969 PA 57, MCL 565.261 to 565.270,
and section 27 of the Michigan notary
public act, law on notarial acts, 2003
PA 238, MCL 55.287.
(h) The drafter's
name and address.
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(i) An address to
which the document can be returned.
(j) The name and mailing address of
all the owners of the land that are affected by the notice of claim. For
purposes of this subdivision, the names and mailing addresses of persons in
whose names the land is assessed on the last completed tax assessment roll of
the county in which the land is located at the time of recording are the owners
of the land.
(2) The following form may be used to
record a notice of claim under section 3, although this subsection does not
preclude the use of a form that is substantially similar and meets the
requirements of this section:
NOTICE |
|
Claimant: _________________________________________________________ |
|
Whose address is
__________________________________________________ |
|
hereby claims the
following described interest: ___________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
which was
originally created by _____________________, recorded in liber _________, on
page _________, _________ county records, and affects land located in the _________________
of _________________, County of _________________, state of Michigan, and
more fully described as: |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
Commonly known as:___________________________ |
|
Tax item No.
________________________________ |
|
The owner(s) of
land affected by this notice, for purposes of MCL 565.105(1)(j) is/are: |
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___________________________________________________________________ |
|
whose address(es) is/are:__________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________<<Claimant>> |
|
STATE OF
_________________) |
|
__________________________)
SS. |
|
COUNTY OF
________________) |
|
This instrument
was acknowledged before me on ___20__, by <<Claimant>> |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
____________________________________________________,
Notary Public |
|
___________________________________________________County,
Michigan |
|
|
My Commission
expires:____________ |
|
Acting in ________
County, Michigan |
Drafted by:
____________________________________________ Return to: |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
|
___________________________________________________________________ |
(3) (2) A notice of claim
under section 3 must be filed for record recorded in the register of deeds office of the
county or counties where the land described in the notice is located. The
register of deeds of each county shall accept all notices of claim under
section 3 that are presented to the register of deeds that describe land
located in the county in which the register of deeds serves and shall enter and
record full copies of the notices in the same way that deeds and other
instruments are recorded.
(4) (3) A register of
deeds is entitled to charge the same fees for the recording of a notice under
section 3 as are charged for recording deeds. In indexing notices under section
3, a
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register of deeds
shall enter the notices under the grantee indexes of deeds under the names of
the claimants appearing in the notices, and the grantor
indexes under the names of the owners of the land appearing in
the notices.
Sec. 5a. (1) A deed that conveys land
or warrants title to land subject to an interest, claim, or charge or a
mortgage that encumbers land or warrants title to land subject to an interest,
claim, or charge is not an effective notice of claim of an interest, claim, or
charge in the land for purposes of section 2 or 3 if the deed or mortgage
states that the reference to the interest, claim, or charge is for the sole
purpose of limiting the warranty in the instrument and does not create,
preserve, or continue the interest, claim, or charge under this act. The
inclusion of the following statement in the deed or mortgage is sufficient to
preclude the creation, preservation, or continuation of an interest, claim, or
charge in the land, although this subsection does not preclude the use of a
statement that is substantially similar to the statement under this section:
"The
references to the exceptions to title by liber and page in this instrument are
for the sole purpose of limiting the warranty or covenant of title, as
applicable, in this instrument and do not create, preserve, or continue the
interest, claim, or charge under 1945 PA 200, MCL 565.101 to 565.108".
(2) A statement in a deed recorded with the office of the register of deeds of the county in which the land is located that includes a statement that an interest is conveyed "subject to easements and restrictions of record" or a substantially similar language, without reference to any liber and page, is not effective to create, preserve, or continue any recorded easements or
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restrictions of record for purposes of section 2 or 3.
Sec. 8. No A
person shall not use the
privilege of filing recording
notices hereunder under this act for the purpose of slandering the
title to land, and in any action brought for the purpose of quieting title to
land. ,
if If the court shall find finds
that any person has filed a claim for
that reason only, he solely
for the purpose of slandering the title to land, the court shall
award the plaintiff all the costs of
such incurred as a result of the action,
including such attorney fees as the court
may allow, to
the plaintiff, and in addition, the
court shall decree that order the defendant asserting such the
claim shall to pay to the
plaintiff all damages that the
plaintiff may have sustained as the result of such the
recording of the notice of claim.
having been so filed for record.