Within 45 days after a Michigan property changes hands, the new owner files a Property Transfer Affidavit, Treasury Form 2766, with the assessor for the city or township where the property is located. It is not filed with the register of deeds, and recording the deed does not file it for you. The assessor uses it to decide whether the property's taxable value resets the next year, and filing late costs $5 a day, up to $200 for a home the new owner lives in and up to $4,000 for any other property.
A transfer to a spouse does not reset the taxable value. Neither does a transfer of residential property to a parent, child, brother, sister, or grandchild, as long as the property is not used for any commercial purpose afterward, such as renting it out. A deed into a trust keeps the cap as well when the trust's only present beneficiary is the owner or the owner's spouse, or, for such a home, one of those relatives. The affidavit is still filed, because it is where the exemption is claimed. This page explains what the form does, who files it and where, what it asks, the penalty, and each transfer that keeps the cap. The Michigan quitclaim deed page has the deed itself, and our transfer tax exemptions page covers the separate tax paid at recording.
What the Affidavit Does
Michigan taxes property on its taxable value, and taxable value is capped. Each year it can rise by no more than 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, plus the value of any additions. The cap holds for as long as the same owner keeps the property. When the property has a transfer of ownership, the cap comes off: in the calendar year after the transfer, the taxable value is set to the property's state equalized value, which is half of its true cash value, and the cap starts over from there. Assessors call that uncapping.
For a house owned a long time, uncapping can be the biggest cost of the transfer. A home bought in 1998 may carry a taxable value far below half its market value today; the year after a deed to a new owner, the tax bill is figured on the higher number. The affidavit is how the assessor learns a transfer happened, when, between whom, and for what, and whether one of the statute's exceptions applies. The State Tax Commission's guidelines say the form was designed to be filed even when no uncapping should follow, so the assessor does not uncap by mistake.
Who Files It, Where, and When
The statute puts the duty on the buyer, grantee, or other transferee: the person who received the property. After a quitclaim deed from a parent to a child, the child files. After a deed into a trust, the trustee files for the trust. Where an interest in a company that owns property changes hands, the company or the buyer files. The filing goes to the assessing office of the city or township where the property is located, and the form itself says so in its first lines. A village lies inside a township, so the township assessor is usually the one, and the form asks you to name the city, township, or village.
The deadline is 45 days from the transfer, which for a deed is the date it was signed and delivered, not the date it was recorded. The register of deeds also reports recorded deeds to assessors at least once a month, but that report does not satisfy the owner's duty and does not stop the penalty. The affidavit is a public record; the form states that the information on it is not confidential. There is no filing fee.
What Form 2766 Asks For
The form is one page, with instructions and the statute's own words on the second. It asks for the property's street address and county; the date of the transfer, or the date a land contract was signed; whether the property is in a city, township, or village, and which one; the purchase price; the seller's name; the parcel identification number, which is on the tax bill and the assessment notice, or the legal description if you do not have the number; and the buyer's name, mailing address, and phone number. Items 10 through 15 are optional and cover the type of transfer, whether the parties are related, and how the purchase was financed. Filling them in can save a letter from the assessor.
Below that is the exemptions section, a checklist of the transfers that do not uncap. If yours is one of them, check the box and, for the family exemption, name the seller and buyer and their relationship. The new owner signs and certifies that the information is true. If someone other than the owner signs, the form asks for their name and title. A separate affidavit is filed for each parcel.
The Penalty for Filing Late or Not at All
If the new owner does not notify the assessor within 45 days, the statute directs the assessor to uncap the property and to levy three things: the additional taxes that would have been billed from the date of the transfer, interest and penalty on them from the date they would have been due, and a daily penalty for the late affidavit itself. For residential and other property that is not commercial or industrial, the daily penalty is $5 for each day after the 45th, up to $200 for property the new owner owns and occupies as a principal residence and up to $4,000 for any other property. The $4,000 ceiling came in with a 2024 act, effective April 2, 2025; before that every parcel stopped at $200. Commercial and industrial property carries $20 a day up to $1,000, or a flat $20,000 on a sale over $100 million.
The local city or township board may waive the daily penalty by resolution. The back taxes and interest are not waived. If the property has since been deeded on to someone who did file, the amounts are not a lien on the property; they become the personal liability of the owner who failed to file. An owner who receives a notice of uncapping may appeal to the Michigan Tax Tribunal within 35 days, but only on whether a transfer of ownership happened or on an arithmetic error, not on the property's value.
The Transfers That Do Not Uncap
The statute defines a transfer of ownership as a conveyance of title or of a present interest in property, by deed, land contract, trust, will, or long lease, and then lists the transfers that do not count. The ones a quitclaim deed runs into are these.
- A deed from one spouse to the other, and property passing to a surviving spouse on death. A deed from a husband, a wife, or both that creates or ends a tenancy by the entirety does not count either, which is what covers the deed a divorcing couple signs to put the house in one name. A deed between former spouses after the divorce, for any other purpose, does count.
- A deed of residential property to close relatives. Since December 31, 2014, a transfer of residential real property does not count if the new owner is the old owner's, or the old owner's spouse's, mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, adopted son, adopted daughter, grandson, or granddaughter, and the property is not used for any commercial purpose afterward. The property must be classified residential; a rental for fewer than 15 days a year is not a commercial purpose, but renting the house out is. The State Tax Commission's 2025 guidance adds that a deed to a child and the child's spouse together qualifies, because a married couple takes as tenants by the entirety. The assessor or the Department of Treasury may ask the new owner for proof of the relationship, due within 30 days, and a $200 fine applies for not answering.
- A deed into a trust by the owner or the owner's spouse, if the trust's only present beneficiary is the owner, the spouse, or both, or, for residential property since December 31, 2014, one of the relatives listed above. A distribution out of a trust to those same people does not count either, and neither does a change of the trust's beneficiary that adds or substitutes the beneficiary's spouse or one of those relatives.
- A deed that creates or ends a joint tenancy, if at least one of the joint tenants was an original owner before the joint tenancy was first created, and, when an existing joint tenancy is changed, at least one person has been a joint tenant since it began. A parent who deeds the house to "myself and my daughter as joint tenants" does not uncap it. The Michigan Supreme Court's 2011 Klooster decision governs the harder cases, and the State Tax Commission's guidelines walk through them.
- A transfer under a court order that names no monetary consideration, such as a divorce judgment or a probate order.
- A deed that keeps a life estate for the grantor, for the part of the property the life estate covers, until the life estate ends. Michigan's "Lady Bird" deed, which reserves a life estate with power to sell, works this way. When the life estate ends and the property passes, that is a transfer of ownership, unless the person it passes to is one of the close relatives listed above and the property is residential and not used commercially.
- Property passing under a will or by intestacy to the decedent's spouse, or, for residential property, to one of the listed relatives of the decedent or the decedent's spouse.
- A transfer for security, a foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure until the lender sells the property on, a redemption from a tax sale, transfers among commonly controlled companies, and transfers of qualified agricultural or forest property that stays in that use, with the affidavit those require.
Two Things the Affidavit Does Not Cover
The affidavit is about property taxes going forward. It has nothing to do with the transfer tax the register of deeds collects when the deed is recorded, which has its own two statutes and its own exemption lists; a deed can be exempt from transfer tax and still be a transfer of ownership, and the other way around. Our Michigan transfer tax exemptions page covers that tax.
It also does not carry the principal residence exemption to the new owner. That exemption removes most of the school operating tax from a home its owner lives in, and it belongs to the person who claimed it. A new owner who will live in the home files Treasury Form 2368 with the same assessor, by June 1 for the summer tax bill or by November 1 for the winter bill. The seller who moved out rescinds their claim within 90 days on Form 2602. Skipping the first form means paying the full school tax until it is filed.
Three Examples
- A mother deeds her house to her son by quitclaim deed on March 1, and he moves in. He files the affidavit with the township assessor by April 15, checks the family-transfer box, and names his mother and their relationship. The taxable value stays capped. He also files Form 2368 for the principal residence exemption.
- The same deed, but the son keeps the house as a rental. The relative exemption requires that the property not be used for a commercial purpose afterward, so the transfer counts. He files the affidavit within 45 days; the taxable value uncaps the next year.
- A father deeds his cottage to himself and his daughter as joint tenants, and files nothing. The transfer would not have uncapped the cottage, because the father was an original owner. But the affidavit was never filed, and when the assessor learns of the deed from the register's monthly report, the penalty is $5 a day from the 46th day, up to $4,000 for a cottage that is not the daughter's principal residence, unless the township board waives it.
Michigan Property Transfer Affidavit — Common Questions
Is the Property Transfer Affidavit the same thing as recording the deed?
No. The deed is recorded with the county register of deeds, which puts the transfer in the land records. The Property Transfer Affidavit is filed by the new owner with the assessor for the city or township, within 45 days, and it tells the assessor whether the property's taxable value should reset. The register reports recorded deeds to assessors monthly, but that report does not take the place of the affidavit and does not stop the penalty.
Who files Form 2766 after a quitclaim deed from a parent to a child?
The child, as the new owner, files it with the assessor for the city or township where the house is located, within 45 days of the deed. The child checks the exemption box for a transfer between certain family members and names the parent and the relationship. If the house is residential and the child does not use it for a commercial purpose, the taxable value does not reset.
What happens if I file the Property Transfer Affidavit late?
The assessor uncaps the property if the transfer was one that uncaps, bills the additional tax from the date of the transfer with interest, and adds $5 for each day after the 45th, up to $200 for a home you own and occupy as your principal residence and up to $4,000 for any other property. The city or township board may waive the daily penalty by resolution. If you sold the property on before the assessor caught up, the amounts are your personal liability rather than a lien on the property.
Does a deed to my child uncap the property taxes in Michigan?
Not if the property is classified residential and your child does not use it for a commercial purpose afterward. The exemption covers a transfer to your or your spouse's mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, adopted son, adopted daughter, grandson, or granddaughter, and a deed to your child and the child's spouse together qualifies as well. Renting the house out after the transfer is a commercial purpose, and the assessor may ask your child for proof of the relationship within 30 days.
Do I still file the affidavit if my transfer is exempt from uncapping?
Yes. The State Tax Commission's guidelines say the affidavit must be filed only when a transfer is a transfer of ownership, and the exempt transfers are ones the statute says are not. But the assessor will see the recorded deed and has no other way to know the exemption applies. The Commission says the form was designed to be filed in exactly that case, and encourages owners to file it, because a filed affidavit with the exemption box checked is what keeps the assessor from uncapping by mistake.
Official Sources
Michigan's laws are collected in the Michigan Compiled Laws, and a citation such as MCL 211.27a is an address: the chapter number, then the section within it. Each links to the section on the Legislature's website, or to the agency's own document, and opens in a new tab.
- MCL 211.27a — taxable value and its cap, the reset in the year after a transfer of ownership, the definition of a transfer of ownership, the transfers that do not count, and the 45-day notice the new owner gives the assessor on the State Tax Commission’s form.
- MCL 211.27b — what follows when the notice is not given: the uncapping, the back taxes and interest, the $5-a-day penalty and its $200 and $4,000 ceilings, the local board’s power to waive it, personal liability after a later sale, and the 35-day appeal to the Tax Tribunal.
- MCL 211.7cc — the principal residence exemption: the affidavit to claim it by June 1 or November 1, and the rescission within 90 days of moving out.
- Treasury Form 2766, Property Transfer Affidavit (revised March 2025) — the form itself, with its exemption checklist, the statutory excerpts, and the penalty text.
- State Tax Commission — Transfer of Ownership Guidelines (revised February 25, 2025) — the Commission’s question-and-answer guide: spouses, children and other relatives, tenancies by the entirety, trusts, life estates, joint tenancies after the Klooster decision, and the affidavit and its penalties.
Deadlines and penalty amounts checked against the Michigan Compiled Laws and Treasury Form 2766 on September 4, 2026.