How to File an Affidavit of Affixture in Michigan

To file an Affidavit of Affixture in Michigan, you submit the notarized affidavit and your Certificate of Title to the Michigan Department of State with a $90 fee, wait for the approval letter, and then record the original affidavit and that letter with the Register of Deeds in the county where the land sits. The process is governed by MCL 125.2330i and permanently converts a manufactured home from personal property into real property, merging it legally with the land beneath it.¹ The order matters. Going to the Register of Deeds first is a common mistake, and it doesn’t work.

Who Can File

You need an ownership interest in the land. Under the statute, that means either fee simple ownership or a ground lease with at least 20 years remaining after the affidavit is recorded.¹ A short-term lease or an ordinary lot rental in a manufactured housing community won’t qualify. If you rent your lot on standard terms, this conversion isn’t available to you.

The home also has to be physically affixed. The statute requires two things: the wheels, towing hitches, and running gear must be removed, and the home must be attached to a foundation or other support system.¹ The statute doesn’t dictate the foundation type, so a slab, basement, or crawl space with piers can all work. The point is that the structure is permanently anchored and can’t be towed.

What the Affidavit Must Contain

The Michigan Department of State publishes the official form, titled “Affidavit of Affixture of Mobile Home Application.” The statute is specific about what the completed form must include:¹

Your name and address as owner.
The home’s manufacturer, year, model, and serial number, plus any number previously assigned by the Department of State.
A statement that the home is affixed to the real property.
The legal description of the land, taken from your deed. This is not the street address. Copy it exactly.
The physical street address where the home sits.
Every lender or lienholder with a security interest in the home, together with each one’s written consent to terminate that interest.

Every owner on the home title and the land deed has to sign, and every signature must be notarized. The document is sworn testimony, so mistakes here can delay or kill the approval.

Step One: Send It to the Michigan Department of State

Mail a copy of the notarized affidavit (keep the original for recording), the original Certificate of Title or Certificate of Origin, and a $90 filing fee payable to the State of Michigan to:²

Michigan Department of State
Office of Customer Records
Vehicle Records Activity Unit
PO Box 30045
Lansing, MI 48909-9798

The Department can verify that the eligibility conditions are met before granting approval. If the application clears, the Department cancels the Certificate of Title (the home is no longer tracked as a vehicle) and mails an approval letter.¹ The letter goes to whoever you designate on the form, or if that section is blank, to the owner of record. Hold onto it. You cannot record the affidavit without it.

Step Two: Record With the Register of Deeds

Once the approval letter arrives, take the original notarized affidavit and the approval letter to the Register of Deeds in the county where the land is located. Both documents have to be presented together.² Recording puts the public on notice that the home is now part of the real property.

Michigan sets the recording fee at $30 regardless of page count, though charter counties may set different amounts by ordinance.³ The clerk assigns a liber and page number or an instrument ID after recording. Ask for a certified copy while you’re at the counter. Lenders, insurers, and any future buyer will want to see it.

Dealing With Existing Liens Before You File

If a lender holds a security interest in the home, you can’t convert around them. The statute requires the affidavit to list every security interest holder and to include each one’s written consent to terminate that interest.¹ Without those consents, the Department of State won’t approve the application.

When the affidavit is processed, existing security interests in the home as personal property are terminated automatically. A lender that wants to keep a lien has to perfect a new one under real property law, usually by recording a mortgage against the combined parcel.¹ In practice, this often means paying off or refinancing the chattel loan into a conventional mortgage at the same time you file. Talk to your lender before you send anything to Lansing.

What Changes After Recording

The home moves from personal property to real property, and several things follow.

Taxes. Manufactured homes on rented lots in housing communities are typically subject to a specific monthly tax rather than the ad valorem property tax that applies to site-built homes. After the title is canceled and the affidavit is recorded, the home shifts onto the real property tax rolls, and future assessments reflect the combined value of the land and structure. Whether your total bill goes up or down depends on your situation. Real property classification also makes you eligible for the homestead exemption on the 18-mill school operating tax, which is unavailable to homes taxed as personal property.

Financing. Real property status is what makes conventional and FHA mortgage financing possible. FHA Title II requires the home to be classified as real estate, built after June 15, 1976, placed on a permanent foundation meeting FHA criteria, and at least 400 square feet, with the mortgage covering both the home and the land.⁴ Fannie Mae likewise requires the home to be titled as real estate and permanently affixed, with the mortgage’s legal description including the home’s make, model, and VIN plus language confirming it is “permanently affixed and attached to the land and is part of the real property.”⁵ Completing the affixture is the baseline step; homes built before June 1976 stay ineligible for FHA financing regardless.

Insurance. Homes classified as personal property are often written on specialized manufactured home policies, while real property homes may qualify for standard homeowner’s coverage. Call your carrier after recording and bring a copy of the recorded affidavit to the conversation.

If You Later Want to Reverse the Conversion

The affixture isn’t necessarily permanent, but reversing it isn’t casual either. MCL 125.2330i contemplates limited circumstances in which the home can be severed from the real property and returned to personal property status, with the Department of State issuing a new Certificate of Title. That severance requires its own filing. If you’re thinking about moving or selling the home separately from the land, contact the Department of State’s Vehicle Records Activity Unit before doing anything. Moving a home that has been converted to real property without going through the proper severance creates title and lien problems that are expensive to sort out later.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 125.2330i – Affixation of Mobile Home to Real Property
2
Michigan Department of State. Affidavit of Affixture of Mobile Home Application
3
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 600.2567 – Register of Deeds Fees
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Manufactured Homes Eligibility and General Requirements – Title II
5
Fannie Mae. Titling Manufactured Homes as Real Property