TitleBytes News & Happenings

Affidavits of Affixture

By: Lavinia S. Biasell, Esq.
Chief Legal Officer, Transnation Title Agency
MLTA Steering Committee

Over the last couple months, MLTA was invited to participate in two meetings with the Michigan Department of State (the “Department”) regarding changes to the Affidavit of Affixture Process for manufactured homes.

The Department announced that the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (“LARA”) will no longer be responsible for the issuance of Affidavits of Affixture. Beginning October 1st, applications for Affidavits of Affixture were forwarded for processing by the Department of State. The Department does not expect any delay in services during this department change. The employee at LARA who processed applications, Matt Zarb, has moved departments and will continue to process the applications.

At this time, the Department is in the process of moving the online services from LARA to the Department of State. Once that process is complete, the new application will also become available. Until the new application is released, you can continue to submit the old application form to LARA, who is forwarding them to the Department of State. However, if you would like to send the applications to the Department of State directly, you may begin doing so immediately.

In addition to a new application, the Department will institute a new process for return of approved applications. You will no longer receive the original stamped application back for recording. Instead, you will receive a different form that approves the application and can be recorded to effectuate the affixture. This will start once the new application is released. We expect it will be released in the coming weeks.

With regard to the matter of lost manufactured home titles, the Department noted on the calls that they do not intend to return to the bonding procedure for those lost titles. They will continue to require a court order to establish ownership of the manufactured home. However, they will likely streamline the process by allowing owners to use the court order to obtain the Affidavit of Affixture, instead of using the order to obtain a new title and then using the new title to obtain an Affidavit of Affixture.

Applications can be sent to:
Michigan Department of State
Office of Customer Records
Vehicle Records Activity Unit
PO Box 30045
Lansing, MI 48909?9798

Central Phone (517) 636?7476
EMAIL – MDOS?MobileHomeAffidavits@Michigan.gov

Department of State contacts:

Keitha Cameron
Vehicle Record Programs Section
(517) 231-0152
cameronk1@michigan.gov

Matt Zarb
mzarb@michigan.gov
(517) 636-6001

MLTA will continue to keep you apprised of new information.