Deeds and title defects for Michigan homeowners
I am Mitchell Bisson, a Grand Rapids real estate lawyer. I have litigated for over 15 years. A title problem usually surfaces at an awkward moment: a title company finds a gap in the deeds before a closing, a lender will not refinance, or a family member finds a deed nobody recorded. This page covers deeds and title defects for Michigan homeowners, including what makes a deed valid, what recording does, what happens when a signature is forged, what title insurance covers, and how the Marketable Record Title Act treats old claims. I handle these matters on the homeowner side. The short answers below come from my Michigan legal library.
In Kent County, these problems usually arrive as a document. A title commitment lists an exception you have never heard of. A deed was signed but never recorded. The owner says a signature on a recorded deed is not theirs. The legal description does not match the lot you thought you were buying, or the person who gave the deed did not own what the deed describes. Each one comes down to what the paper says, how it was made and what the county records show. The starting point is the statute that governs transfers of land: no estate or interest in land, other than a lease of one year or less, may be created, granted, assigned or surrendered except by an act or operation of law or by a deed or conveyance in writing signed by the party making it, or by someone the party authorized in writing. MCL 566.106.
Recording decides who wins when two people claim the same land. An unrecorded conveyance is void as against a later purchaser who bought in good faith and for valuable consideration and whose conveyance was recorded first. MCL 565.29. That rule is why I ask early whether a deed to or from you was ever recorded, and why a recorded document that should not be there deserves attention as soon as it is found.
The sharpest rule in this area concerns forgery. The Court of Appeals has held that there can be no bona fide holder under a forged deed, so a later buyer or lender who relied on it takes no rights against the person whose name was forged, even if the buyer recorded first. Special Property VI LLC v. Woodruff, 273 Mich. App. 586, 590-591 (2007). I do not promise outcomes. I do promise to tell you where you stand.
Michigan deed and title defect rules, time limits and key points
These are the rules in the statutes and the case law. How they apply to your property depends on the deeds, the county records and the proof of how each document was made.
| Claim or issue | What must be shown | Time limit or key rule | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| A valid deed | A writing signed and sealed by the grantor, who must be of lawful age or act through a lawful agent, and acknowledged or proved and recorded as the chapter directs | A register of deeds may not record a deed that must be acknowledged unless it is acknowledged or proved as the chapter provides | MCL 566.106; MCL 565.1; MCL 565.8; MCL 565.47 |
| Form of a recordable instrument | Printed name under each signature that matches the acknowledgment, the notary’s printed name, each grantee’s address, and the page and margin requirements | A register of deeds may not receive for recording an instrument that does not comply | MCL 565.201(1) |
| Competing deeds to the same land | A later purchaser who bought in good faith and for valuable consideration, with a conveyance first duly recorded | An unrecorded conveyance is void as against that purchaser | MCL 565.29 |
| Forged deed | Proof that the signature was forged | No bona fide holder under a forged deed, and recording first does not change the result | Special Property VI, 273 Mich. App. 586, 590-591 (2007) |
| Suit to undo a fraudulent deed | Where the gravamen of the complaint is to determine interests in land, the claim is a quiet title action and fraud is incidental | 15 years for the quiet title claim; 6 years for most fraud claims for money | Adams v. Adams, 276 Mich. App. 704, 710 (2007); MCL 600.5801(4); MCL 600.5813 |
| Grantor who did not own the land | The grantor held no title when the quitclaim deed was signed | A quitclaim deed cannot operate to convey after-acquired title | Richards v. Tibaldi, 272 Mich. App. 522, 541-542 (2007) |
| Old claims against marketable record title | An unbroken chain of record title for 40 years (20 for mineral interests), with the land not in the hostile possession of another | Older interests are void unless preserved by a recorded notice of claim, which may be recorded during the 40-year period or not later than 2 years after Sept. 29, 2025 | MCL 565.101; MCL 565.103(1) |
| Title insurance | Loss because title is vested otherwise than stated, is unmarketable, or is subject to liens or encumbrances not excepted in the policy | The terms of the policy control. A condominium developer must furnish a policy in the amount of the purchase price | MCL 500.7301(a); MCL 559.194 |
What makes a deed valid and recordable
A conveyance of land may be made by a deed signed and sealed by the person from whom the estate or interest passes, who must be of lawful age or act through a lawful agent, and acknowledged or proved and recorded as the chapter directs. MCL 565.1. A deed signed in Michigan is acknowledged before a judge, a clerk of a court of record or a notary public, and the officer endorses a certificate of acknowledgment with the true date. MCL 565.8. The same section protects an old recorded deed that lacks one or more witnesses: if it has been of record for 10 years or more and is otherwise eligible to record, the record is effectual for all purposes of a legal record. A register of deeds may not record a deed that is required to be acknowledged unless it is acknowledged or proved as the chapter provides. MCL 565.47.
Separate formalities decide whether the register of deeds will take the document at all. The name printed under each signature must match the name in the acknowledgment, the notary’s name must be printed on the page, each grantee’s address must appear, and the margins, print size and paper must meet the statute. MCL 565.201(1). I check the signature block against the acknowledgment first.
A contract to sell land is a different document from a deed. A contract for the sale of any interest in land is void unless the contract or a note or memorandum of it is in writing and signed by the party making the sale or someone lawfully authorized in writing. MCL 566.108.
Recording, priority and notice
Recording does not make a bad deed good, but it controls priority between valid ones. Under MCL 565.29, a good faith purchaser for value who records first prevails over an earlier deed that was never recorded. A first-recorded conveyance in quitclaim form does not by itself affect that purchaser’s good faith. So the question in a priority dispute is usually what each side knew, what each paid, and which document reached the register of deeds first.
Liens and similar instruments have an additional rule. Recording a lien, lis pendens or other instrument of encumbrance does not perfect it unless a court finds that it was accompanied by a full and fair accounting of the facts supporting it and proof of service that actual notice was given to the recorded landowner. MCL 565.25(1). The statute lists exceptions, including consensual agreements such as a mortgage and encumbrances authorized by statute or by a final court order, and filings by commercial lending institutions. MCL 565.25(2). When a stranger records something against your land, I read this section first.
A lawsuit over land is not constructive notice to a buyer by itself. To make the filing of a complaint constructive notice to a purchaser, the plaintiff files a notice of the pendency of the action with the register of deeds for the county where the land is located. MCL 600.2701(1).
Forged and fraudulent deeds
A forged deed passes no title. In Special Property VI, the plaintiff’s chain of title ran through a deed that the other side presented evidence was forged, and the plaintiff offered nothing to dispute the forged nature of the deed. The Court of Appeals quoted the settled rule that there can be no such thing as a bona fide holder under a forged deed whose good faith confers rights against the party whose name was forged or those claiming under that party, and that the plaintiff’s earlier recording did not change the result. 273 Mich. App. 586, 590-591 (2007). The case also states the burden: a plaintiff in a quiet title action has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of title, and summary disposition for the defendant is proper if the plaintiff cannot carry it. For an owner whose signature was forged, that means the proof of forgery, such as a handwriting comparison, the notary’s journal and the circumstances of the signing, is the case.
A deed obtained by fraud raises a time question. In Adams, the plaintiff sought to cancel an allegedly fraudulent deed. The defendants argued that the claim sounded in fraud and carried the six-year period. The Court of Appeals held instead that the gravamen of the claim was to quiet title under MCL 600.2932, and applied the 15-year period of MCL 600.5801(4), treating the fraud allegations as incidental. 276 Mich. App. 704, 710 (2007). A claim for money damages based on fraud is a different claim, and the general six-year period for other personal actions in MCL 600.5813 may govern it. I read the complaint as a whole before choosing the claim, because the label changes the clock.
The claim to recover land accrues at disseisin. A person’s claim to recover land accrues when the person is disseised. MCL 600.5829(1). The period is 15 years in most cases, but it is 5 years when the other side claims through a deed from a fiduciary sale, a court-ordered sale or a sheriff’s mortgage foreclosure sale, and 10 years when it claims through a tax deed. MCL 600.5801(1)-(4). If a deed in your chain came out of one of those sales, I check that first.
Warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds and the seller who did not own the land
The kind of deed you received decides what you can claim from the person who gave it. The statutory short form of a warranty deed is deemed a conveyance in fee simple with the grantor’s covenants that the grantor is lawfully seized of the premises, has good right to convey, and assures quiet possession, that the premises are free from encumbrances, and that the grantor will warrant and defend the title against lawful claims. MCL 565.151. The short form of a quit claim deed is a good and sufficient conveyance in quit claim to the grantee. MCL 565.152. The statute that governs implied covenants says that no covenant is implied in any conveyance of real estate, except oil and gas leases, whether or not the conveyance contains special covenants. MCL 565.5. A buyer who took a quitclaim deed has therefore taken whatever the grantor actually had and little more.
That point mattered in Richards v. Tibaldi. A corporation signed a quitclaim deed to the plaintiff in October 2002, but the corporation did not hold title then. The owners did not deed the property to the corporation until March 2004, and the corporation deeded it to the defendants in April 2004. The Court of Appeals held that quitclaim deeds can never operate to convey an after-acquired title, and it affirmed the order quieting title in the defendants. 272 Mich. App. 522, 541-542 (2007). The practical lesson for a homeowner is to find out whether the person who signed owned the land on the day they signed.
Questions I ask when a title company flags a defect
Who signed, and who owned? I pull every deed in the chain and compare the grantor on each deed with the grantee on the one before it. A gap or a mismatch in names shows up quickly.
Was it acknowledged and recorded? I check the certificate of acknowledgment, the date, the notary’s printed name and the recording information against the statutes above, and I check whether the register of deeds accepted the deed in a form that can be relied on.
Is there a competing deed? If someone else holds a deed from the same grantor, I look at the dates of signing and recording, the consideration paid and what each side knew, because those facts drive the priority question under MCL 565.29.
Is the document I am worried about forged? A forgery claim needs evidence. I gather the original deed or the clearest copy, the notary’s records, any exemplars of the signature and the timeline of who benefited.
Is the exception real or only old? Some exceptions on a commitment are old mortgages, easements or restrictions that may or may not still bind the land. The Marketable Record Title Act, discussed next, sometimes answers that question, and sometimes it does not.
The Marketable Record Title Act and the 2025 amendments
A person with an unbroken chain of record title for 40 years (20 years for mineral interests) is considered to have a marketable record title at the end of that period, subject to claims and defects that the act does not extinguish. A person is not considered to have marketable record title under the act if the land is in the hostile possession of another. MCL 565.101. Marketable record title is taken free of interests, claims and charges that depend on an act, transaction, event or omission before the 40-year period, and those are void, unless a notice of claim was recorded. A disability or lack of knowledge does not suspend the running of the period. MCL 565.103(1)-(2).
The Legislature amended the act in 2025 (2025 PA 13, effective Sept. 29, 2025), so I read the current text and not an older summary. The statute now allows a notice of claim to be recorded not later than 2 years after the effective date of the amendment that added section 5a. MCL 565.103(1). A reference to exceptions in a deed does not preserve an interest if the instrument states that the reference is only for the purpose of limiting the warranty. For an instrument recorded after March 28, 2019, a statement that land is conveyed "subject to easements and restrictions of record," with no reference to a liber and page or other county-assigned number, does not create, preserve or continue recorded easements or restrictions for purposes of the act. MCL 565.105a(1)-(2).
The act has limits that matter to a homeowner. It must not be applied to bar an easement whose existence is clearly observable, and certain easements for utility and similar physical facilities whether or not observable, recorded declarations that restrict land use from 1950 on, and interests created by a recorded condominium master deed. MCL 565.104(1)(c), (d), (g), (h). So a clean 40-year search does not by itself mean the title is free of every old restriction.
Title insurance: what it covers and what it does not
Title insurance indemnifies designated owners against loss or damage that arises because title is vested in a way other than the policy states, because the title is unmarketable, or because it is subject to liens, encumbrances or other matters that adversely affect use, enjoyment or disposition and are not excepted in the policy, all according to the terms of an approved policy. MCL 500.7301(a). The words "not excepted in the policy" matter: the exceptions list in your commitment and policy is where a coverage fight starts. A condominium developer must furnish a purchaser buying a unit from the developer a title insurance policy in the amount of the purchase price, issued by a title insurance company licensed in Michigan. MCL 559.194.
When a defect surfaces, I read the policy and the commitment together: who the insured is and which defects are excepted. Whether a forged deed in the chain is covered depends on the terms and exceptions, and I answer that from the policy and not from the general rules.
Fixing a defect: documents first, court if needed
Recordable affidavits. Some gaps can be closed with a sworn statement. An affidavit by a person with knowledge who is competent to testify may be recorded with the register of deeds on matters that affect title, including heirship, marital status, death, name and identity of parties named in deeds and other instruments, knowledge of events that may terminate an estate or interest, and facts about possession. MCL 565.451a. A recorded affidavit can explain a mismatch in a name or an unrecorded death. It does not undo a forgery.
New or corrected documents. When the grantor is available and cooperative, a properly signed, acknowledged and recorded replacement document often resolves a problem faster than a lawsuit. I draft it to meet the statutes above and to match the legal description on the survey.
A quiet title action. When the paper cannot fix the problem, a person who claims any right in, title to or interest in land may bring an action in the circuit courts against anyone who claims or might claim an inconsistent interest. If the plaintiff establishes title, the defendant is ordered to release all claims to the land, and the court may issue a writ of possession or restitution. Actions under the section are equitable in nature. MCL 600.2932(1), (3), (5). A notice of pendency recorded under MCL 600.2701 gives later purchasers constructive notice of the case, though it does not itself forbid a sale.
How I handle a deed or title defect matter
- Collect the chain. I pull your deed, the title commitment and policy, the prior deeds, and the recorded mortgages, liens and affidavits, and I build a timeline from them.
- Test each link. For each deed I check the signature, the acknowledgment, the grantor’s ownership, the legal description and the recording information.
- Find out who else claims. I identify every person with a possible competing interest: prior owners, heirs, lenders, lien claimants and neighbors.
- Read the title policy. I compare the defect with the policy’s coverage and exceptions, and we decide whether to put the insurer on notice.
- Choose the fix. Depending on the facts and the closing or refinance date, we weigh a new deed, a recorded affidavit, a negotiated release or a quiet title action.
- File and record. If we sue, I draft the complaint, name every interested party and record the notice of pendency. If we do not, I make sure every corrective document is recorded.
- Motions, mediation and trial. Some title cases can be decided on motion once the documents are in. If a case does not resolve, I am prepared to try it.
Ways a title problem may end without a trial
Many title problems end with paper. A grantor or heir signs and records a corrective deed or release, a lien claimant records a discharge, or the parties ask the court to enter a consent judgment that puts the result in a form the next title search can read. Whether any of these is available depends on the facts, the documents and the other side. None is automatic.
What I need from you
Bring your deed and the closing documents from when you bought, your title insurance commitment and policy, and any survey. Bring the document that worries you, whether that is a deed you did not sign, a lien you did not expect or a letter from a title company or lender. Bring the names and contact details of everyone who has owned the property or may claim it, and any wills, probate papers or family agreements about it. Write down what you remember about when each document was signed and who was present. Do not sign or record anything about the property, do not sign a new deed for anyone, and do not confront the person who may have signed your name before we have talked. Do not post about the dispute online.
Where your Kent County title case will be heard
I represent clients in Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Grandville, Wyoming and across Kent County. A quiet title action under MCL 600.2932(1) is brought in the circuit court, which in Kent County is the 17th Judicial Circuit. Under MCL 600.8301(1), the district court has exclusive jurisdiction in civil actions when the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000. Kent County district courts include the 61st District Court in Grand Rapids, the 59th in Walker and Grandville, the 62A in Wyoming, the 62B in Kentwood and the 63rd for Rockford, Lowell, Cedar Springs, East Grand Rapids and the surrounding townships. I look at where your land is and what is being claimed before I tell you where a case belongs.
Why people hire me for a Michigan deed and title matter
You work directly with me, the lawyer handling your case. I give you the strengths and weaknesses of the case straight, including what it could cost you and what it could protect. I build the case the facts support, and then we decide together how to proceed.
Fees depend on the type of case, its complexity and whether it is likely to go to trial. I explain my fee arrangement at the consultation, before you decide whether to hire me.
Questions I hear from people with a deed or title defect in Michigan
If someone forged my signature on a deed, do I still own my house?
In Michigan, a forged deed does not pass title. The Court of Appeals held in Special Property VI v Woodruff that there can be no bona fide holder under a forged deed, so a later buyer or lender who relied on it takes no rights against the person whose name was forged, even if the buyer recorded first.
How long do I have to challenge a forged or fraudulent deed?
It depends on the claim. In Adams v Adams, the Court of Appeals applied the 15-year period of MCL 600.5801(4) to a claim to quiet title that sought to cancel an allegedly fraudulent deed, treating the fraud as incidental. Claims for money damages based on fraud are generally governed by the 6-year period in MCL 600.5813.
What does an owner’s title insurance policy cover in Michigan?
Under MCL 500.7301, title insurance indemnifies designated owners against loss or damage if the title is vested in a manner other than stated in the policy, is unmarketable, or is subject to liens, encumbrances, or other matters that adversely affect use, enjoyment, or disposition, and that are not excepted in the policy. The terms of the policy control.
If I buy a new condominium unit from the developer, does the developer have to give me title insurance?
Yes. MCL 559.194 says the developer shall furnish a purchaser buying a condominium unit from the developer a title insurance policy, in the amount of the purchase price, issued by a title insurance company licensed to do business in Michigan. The statute applies to purchases from the developer, not to resales between owners.
My title search shows 40 years of unbroken record title. Does that protect me against someone who has been using part of my land?
Not necessarily. MCL 565.101 gives marketable record title after an unbroken chain of record title for 40 years (20 for mineral interests), but it says a person is not considered to have marketable record title under the act if the land is in the hostile possession of another. MCL 565.104(1)(c) also says the act must not be applied to bar a clearly observable easement.
In a quiet title case, who has to prove ownership?
The plaintiff does. The Court of Appeals stated in Special Property VI v Woodruff that a plaintiff in a quiet title action has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of title, and that summary disposition for the defendant is proper if the plaintiff cannot carry it. Admissible evidence of the chain of title is the starting point.
How long do I have to sue to recover land in Michigan?
The general period is 15 years under MCL 600.5801(4). It is shorter when the other side claims through certain deeds: 5 years if they claim under a deed from a foreclosure sale by a sheriff or a court-ordered or fiduciary sale, and 10 years if they claim under a tax deed. A devise under a will carries 15 years after probate.
Can I stop the owner from selling the land while my quiet title case is pending?
A lawsuit alone does not warn buyers. To make the filing constructive notice to a purchaser, you must record a notice of the pendency of the action with the register of deeds under MCL 600.2701(1). A buyer who purchases after that notice is recorded takes subject to the judgment, though the notice does not itself forbid a sale.
Related Michigan pages
- Grand Rapids Real Estate Attorney
- Grand Rapids Quiet Title and Adverse Possession Lawyer
- Grand Rapids Partition Lawyer
- Grand Rapids Boundary and Easement Dispute Lawyer
- Grand Rapids Construction Lien and Builder Dispute Lawyer
- Deed restrictions and subdivision HOAs
- Fraud and misrepresentation
I handle deed and title defect matters for Michigan homeowners. Contact me 24/7 by phone or email. Your Rights, My Fight! Call for a free initial consultation.
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Law Offices of Mitchell S. Bisson, 2828 Kraft Ave SE, Suite 295, Grand Rapids, MI 49512, serving Kent County and West Michigan.
This page provides general information about Michigan law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change and every case turns on its own facts. Consult a licensed attorney about your specific situation.