Tax/Deed Certification

Per Michigan Compiled Law(MCL) - MCL 211.135, The County Treasurer’s office provides tax certification on documents such as deeds, property splits, or land contracts that convey ownership of property. A tax certificate confirms that all taxes on a property have been paid in full for the past 5 years. The following is the procedure our office follows to complete this process:

Deeds

Each deed must have a parcel number that corresponds to the legal description contained in the deed.

  • Our office will compare the deed’s legal description with the legal description on file in the County Equalization Department’s electronic records.
  • If a legal description on the deed does not match the County’s legal description, the deed will not be certified without approval of the legal description by the Equalization Department or the local assessor.
  • The legal description on file with the Equalization Department is available online using the online property/parcel lookup service. To utilize this service, visit the Grand Traverse County GIS Department. 
  • Upon verification of the parcel number and legal description, our office will certify that there are no delinquent taxes owing for the parcel number(s) described on the deed.
  • If the parcel on the deed is the result of a combination of parcels or a division of a parcel(s), we will verify the taxes are paid on the ’parent’ parcels as well.

Land Division Tax Payment Certificate  

Effective September 15th, 2019 Public Act(PA) - PA23 of 2019 requires the County Treasurer to certify taxes are paid on any parcel proposing a property split.  If you would like to split your parcel located in Grand Traverse County please follow the steps below: 

  1. Contact your Township Assessor to determine if split is allowable.
  2. Bring the parcel # of the property being split and payment of $5.00 to the Grand Traverse County Treasurers’ office or pay online.
  3. We will run a tax report on the parcel # provided, and print out a Land Division Certification. If taxes are paid to date; the certification will be approved.  If taxes are delinquent; the certification will be denied. $5.00 payment is collected if the certification is denied or approved.  
  4. Take the Land Division Certification to your township assessor to continue processing your split.

**NEW**  Pay for Land Division Certification Online!

Fees

Per MCL 48.101 (2), the charge for deed certificates or property splits is $5.00 to certify a document containing up to 25 legal descriptions. There is an additional charge of $0.20 per parcel for more than 25 parcels on a single document.