Guest column
by Michelle Wilsey, Clinton County Register of Deeds
As a new Register of Deeds (ROD), I quickly realized my office was a bit of a mystery to most of the public. One of my goals as Register is to clarify what we do and how citizens can work with the ROD office. Our primary responsibility is to record legal documents affecting real estate in Clinton County. If you own or have an interest in property, you need to be familiar with the Register of Deeds (ROD) office.
The ROD office does not actually draft any documents. Property related documents are created by attorneys, individuals, title companies, etc. Common examples include deeds, land contracts, trust documents, mortgages, death certificates, tax liens, etc. ROD places documents created in the private sector in the public record.
Recording is not required by law but it creates evidence of your legal rights to the rest of the world and protects your interests. If a dispute ever arises over title to a property, for example, it is typically settled through the courts. The courts of Michigan will look to the public record found at the ROD office of the county in which the land is located and will rely on Michigan recording acts for its resolution. Michigan is a race-notice state. Recording a document such as a deed gives notice that you have claim to the property. Race means that the first to record an interest in a property has the first claim to the property.
The following examples help to explain the importance of recording:
Bill bought a piece of property from his neighbor Tom. Bill doesn’t know (or forgets) to record the deed with the Register of Deeds office. The next day Tom gets a better offer on the property and decides to sell it again to Sally (who has no idea that Bill already owns the property). Sally goes to the Courthouse immediately after the sale and records the deed. A week later both Sally and Bill show up to mow their new lot. Both claim to own the property. They end up in court and guess who wins – Sally. Why? Because she won the race to the Courthouse!
Another example came up in our office a few weeks ago:
A woman purchased a home on land contract. She didn’t check with the County Register of Deeds to see if there were any claims (like mortgages) on the property. She signed the contract and paid $40,000. The land contract was never recorded. She has since made about $15,000 of improvements. Meanwhile the owner had a recorded mortgage on the property and goes into default. The bank forecloses on the home. The woman who purchased the house on land contract loses everything.
Most of us are not aware of the registry because we use professionals such as realtors, title companies, banks and attorneys to help us with these transactions and they take care of it for us. But deals and agreements between individuals such as land contracts are becoming more prevalent. This shifts the burden to individuals to make sure documents are recorded and their rights are protected. Examples of other documents that affect property are death certificates, quit claim deeds, and trust documents. These often go unrecorded because people think someone is going to take care of it but, often, it is left undone. This can eventually create problems for you and/or your heirs.
It is easy to find out what you have on file with the Register of Deeds, to record documents, to get copies of any documents that have been recorded, and to search for information on a property.
Our web site allows you to search for many documents on-line. The cost to look them up is free. Printing is $1.25 per page with most deeds less than 5 pages. For on-line access go to www.clinton-county.org , click “Deeds Index search”.
You can also call the office at (989)224-5140, email rod@clinton-county.org or come in to our office in the Clinton County Courthouse, 100 E. State Street, Suite 2500, St. Johns, MI 48879. Our window is open.