How Michigan Tax Sales Work

Michigan runs no certificate sale. For taxes levied after December 31, 1998 the county treasurer forfeits delinquent property, forecloses it in circuit court, and sells it. What reaches the block is a parcel whose redemption rights died months before bidding opened. That sets Michigan apart from most deed states.

The law sits at MCL 211.78 to 211.78o in the General Property Tax Act, with the sale in MCL 211.78m. The Michigan tax sales hub lists treasurers and dates, how to buy tax deeds in Michigan walks the sequence, and tax liens compared to tax deeds covers the difference.

Step 1: Taxes go delinquent on March 1

Michigan taxes become a lien on the property on December 1 under MCL 211.40 and stay one until paid. On March 1 the prior year's unpaid taxes return as delinquent to the county treasurer, adding a county property tax administration fee of 4 percent and interest of 1 percent a month, uncompounded, from the original delinquency. A $15 fee follows on October 1.

Step 2: Forfeiture arrives on the second March 1

Twelve months later the treasurer forfeits any parcel still carrying unpaid taxes, interest, penalties, and fees, adding a $175 fee. Forfeiture moves no title and grants no possession. It starts a second charge, another half a percent a month from the March 1 before the forfeiture. Stacked on the 1 percent already accruing, redemption now costs 1.5 percent a month, or 18 percent a year.

That 18 percent misleads newcomers. The redeemer owes it to the county. No investor collects it, because Michigan issues nothing that pays a bidder interest.

Step 3: The court forecloses, and redemption ends before bidding opens

The foreclosing governmental unit files one petition for all forfeited parcels by June 15. First it must run a title search by May 1, mail certified notice 30 days ahead of the show cause hearing, visit the property to check occupancy, and publish notice. Gaps in that due process record are the usual reason a Michigan foreclosure gets set aside.

The court hears the petition no more than 30 days before the following March 1. Redemption then runs Until the March 31 immediately succeeding entry of the judgment of foreclosure, or 21 days after entry in a contested case; no redemption after that, roughly 25 months after the first delinquency. A court may still withhold a parcel for a year, or extend redemption for a minor heir, an incompetent owner, an owner without means of support, or one in substantial financial hardship, so sale lists shrink late. Compare the clock in redemption periods explained.

Step 4: Governments buy before you do

A purchase ladder runs first. By the first Tuesday in July the state may take any foreclosed parcel at the greater of the minimum bid or fair market value. If it passes, the city, village, township, or city authority where the parcel sits may buy, then the county, then a county authority. Each pays the minimum bid unless a former owner has filed a claim to the remaining proceeds under section 78t, which raises the price to fair market value and pushes more parcels to the public auction. What you see is what four layers of government declined.

Step 5: The auction window runs July to November

Sales open on the third Tuesday in July after the judgment and must finish before the first Tuesday in November. Inside that window each county sets its own dates, may hold one sale or several, and may run it online, with notice published 30 days ahead.

Most counties sell through Tax-Sale.info, run by Title Check, which reports selling in more than 74 Michigan counties a year. Its calendar clusters sales in August and early September, adds a reduced minimum bid re-offer in late September, and closes with a no reserve sale in late October. Confirm dates in the Michigan county directory, and see how its bidder terms compare with the other tax sale auction platforms counties use.

Step 6: The minimum bid, the money on top, and the payment clock

The minimum bid must cover all delinquent taxes, interest, penalties, and fees. It may also carry the unit's forfeiture, foreclosure, maintenance, remediation, notice, legal, and auction expenses, so a parcel with a small tax bill and an expensive history can open far above the taxes alone. When a unit holds more than one sale, the last needs no minimum bid at all. That last-chance inventory already failed to sell twice.

Registration terms sit outside the statute. Michigan fixes no statutory deposit. The foreclosing governmental unit may adopt its own procedures governing the conduct of the sale and payment for conveyance, so registration deposits, refunds, and any bidding caps are set county by county and by the auction platform. On Tax-Sale.info, the platform most Michigan counties use, bidding requires a $1,000 pre-authorization hold on a major credit card rather than a cash deposit. Confirm the figure in the county's published auction terms before registering.

The bid is not the bill. Statute fixes no buyer's premium, so the platform supplies the rest. Tax-Sale.info charges the winning bid, a premium of 10 percent of it, the current year's summer taxes, and a $30 recording fee. Payment falls due within 21 days, and Tax-Sale.info allows 5 business days.

Two conditions cancel a sale outright: proof that any taxes owed at sale time were paid to the local tax collecting unit, and an affidavit swearing you hold no more than a minimal interest in any tax-delinquent property in that county. Investors stacking parcels in one county should read that clause first.

Step 7: What the judgment clears, and what it leaves

The judgment wipes out almost everything: other tax liens, special assessment liens, recorded interests, and unrecorded ones alike. The carve-outs are what you underwrite. Visible or recorded easements and rights of way survive, along with private deed restrictions, recorded oil and gas lease interests, oil and gas rights preserved under MCL 554.291, interests assessable as personal property, future special assessment installments, and liens recorded under the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act.

That last one matters: a contaminated parcel can arrive with an environmental lien and use restrictions attached. A defect in the foreclosure can also stop the deed from vesting title, and anyone whose interest the judgment extinguished has 2 years to sue. Read what survives a tax deed and quiet title after a tax deed before pricing a resale.

Parcels nobody buys

Michigan keeps no statewide over-the-counter list. By December 1 the unit sends the unsold list to each city, village, or township clerk, and by December 30 every parcel the clerk did not object to transfers to that local unit. What remains stays with the foreclosing unit, which may move it to a land bank, convey it under section 78r, or offer it at a later sale. See over-the-counter tax liens for how other states handle leftovers.

Putting it together

Michigan pays a buyer nothing for waiting, so the return sits in the dirt. Redemption is dead before bidding opens, and the refusal ladder takes the best parcels first. Underwrite the minimum bid against what the property is worth rather than the tax debt, fold the premium and summer taxes into your ceiling, and treat the payment window and the affidavit as hard deadlines. Do the parcel work first: due diligence before a tax sale covers the checks, and the tax deed max bid calculator turns them into a bid.