Wayne County Property Records in Michigan

A Wayne County title search examines the recorded chain of deeds at the Wayne County Register of Deeds to confirm who owns the property, identifies every open mortgage, land contract, and lien, checks for a recorded sheriff’s deed and whether its redemption period has run, confirms that paid mortgages have been discharged of record, searches for judgments and federal and state tax liens, and confirms the Wayne County Treasurer’s delinquent-tax and tax-foreclosure status. Because Michigan is a lien-theory state that forecloses by advertisement with a redemption period, and because land contracts can separate legal and equitable title, a reliable title search confirms the vesting, the redemption status of any sheriff’s deed, and any land-contract interest, combining the Register of Deeds documents with the assessor and Treasurer data. You can search the assessor, the Register of Deeds, and the Treasurer yourself for basic information, but a complete examination that reconciles the recorded chain with redemption status and the tax-foreclosure timeline is what catches a defeasible sheriff’s deed or a pending tax foreclosure. U.S. Title Records performs the full search and delivers it by email, with the Expanded Title Search ($375) as the most comprehensive option.

Foreclosure by advertisement is Michigan’s common non-judicial method of foreclosing a mortgage. Rather than filing a court case, the lender exercises a power of sale in the mortgage by publishing a notice of foreclosure in a newspaper for several weeks, posting the property, and having the county sheriff conduct a public sale, after which a sheriff’s deed is recorded with the Register of Deeds. What makes Michigan distinctive is what happens next: a statutory redemption period runs before the sale becomes final. For most owner-occupied residential property the redemption period is six months from the date the sheriff’s deed is recorded, but it can be as short as one month if the property is found to be abandoned and longer in certain cases, such as larger or agricultural parcels. During that period, the borrower, the borrower’s heirs, or another party with a recorded interest can redeem the property by paying the sale price plus interest, the sheriff’s fee, and a small fee to the register of deeds, which voids the sheriff’s deed and restores ownership. Filing a lawsuit about the foreclosure does not extend the redemption period. For anyone buying or researching a foreclosed Wayne County property, the key point is that a recorded sheriff’s deed is a defeasible interest, not final title, until redemption expires. U.S. Title Records identifies any recorded sheriff’s deed and confirms its redemption status in the Full Owner Lien Report ($195).

A land contract, sometimes called a contract for deed or installment sale, is a way of buying real estate in which the buyer pays the seller in installments over time and the seller keeps legal title until the price is paid in full, at which point the seller delivers a deed. The buyer, called the vendee, takes possession and holds what is called equitable title, while the seller, called the vendor, holds legal title as security. Land contracts are very common in Detroit and Wayne County, particularly for lower-priced and investor-owned property. They matter for a title search for two reasons. First, a land contract or a memorandum of it can be recorded with the Register of Deeds, but it is not always recorded, so the person named on the most recent recorded deed may still hold legal title while someone else is actually buying and occupying the property under a contract, and an unrecorded land contract can sit behind a clean-looking record. Second, land contracts are enforced differently from mortgages: a seller cannot use foreclosure by advertisement to enforce a defaulted land contract and must instead pursue a court forfeiture or judicial foreclosure. A complete Wayne County search therefore looks for recorded land contracts and reconciles the record with the conveyance history rather than relying only on the last recorded deed. U.S. Title Records traces the deeds and any recorded land contracts in the Chain of Title ($275).

Wayne County tax foreclosure is handled by the Wayne County Treasurer, not the sheriff and not the Register of Deeds. Under Michigan’s General Property Tax Act, property taxes that go unpaid become delinquent and are turned over to the county Treasurer, and if they remain unpaid the parcel moves to forfeiture and then, after roughly three years of delinquency, to a foreclosure judgment, after which the Treasurer offers the property at a tax-foreclosure auction. Detroit and Wayne County have experienced very high tax-foreclosure volume, so this process affects a large number of parcels. For title research the important point is that delinquent taxes and the tax-foreclosure timeline are held by the Treasurer and do not necessarily appear as a recorded lien in the Register of Deeds index, which means a parcel can look ordinary in the deed records while it is actually on a tax-foreclosure track. Because tax foreclosure can extinguish prior interests, confirming the Treasurer’s status is essential before buying or lending. A complete Wayne County search checks the Treasurer’s delinquent-tax and tax-foreclosure position alongside the recorded chain. U.S. Title Records reports the tax-foreclosure status and the recorded liens together in the Full Owner Lien Report ($195).

A complete Wayne County lien search covers several sources: the Wayne County Register of Deeds for mortgages, land contracts, construction liens filed under the Michigan construction lien act, and recorded sheriff’s deeds; the Wayne County Treasurer for delinquent property taxes and the tax-foreclosure timeline; and the court and tax databases for money judgments and state and federal tax liens, plus UCC filings for business debts. Because delinquent property taxes and the tax-foreclosure process sit with the Treasurer rather than appearing as a recorded lien at the Register of Deeds, and because a recorded sheriff’s deed can be subject to a redemption period, reading the record correctly means covering all of these, not just the recorded documents. Our Lien Report ($95) covers recorded property liens, and the Full Owner Lien Report ($195) adds the judgment, tax, UCC, and bankruptcy searches against the owner together with the Treasurer’s tax-foreclosure status.

Pricing is the same in Wayne County and across all 83 Michigan counties: Property Detail Report $29, Deed Copy $45, Title Search by Name $75, Lien Report $95, Full Owner Lien Report $195, Chain of Title $275, and Expanded Title Search $375. The $29 report is the quick ownership, parcel, and value check, the $195 report is the recommended due-diligence search that includes the sheriff’s deed redemption status and the Treasurer’s tax-foreclosure position, and the $375 Expanded is the full title examination with chain, land contracts, and discharge review. There is no account, subscription, or commitment, one fee per property, delivered as a PDF by email. See the full schedule of fees. BBB A+ since 2009.