HOUSING: TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP S.B. 692:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 692 (as introduced 12-11-19)
CONTENT
The bill would amend Article 7 (Enforcement) of the Housing Law of Michigan to specify that a transfer of ownership would not constitute a change of ownership if the transferring party and receiving party were the same or otherwise both under common control.
Under the Law, an enforcing agency may maintain a registry of owners and premises regulated by the Law. If it does so, the owner of multiple dwelling or rooming house containing units that will be offered to let, or to hire, for more than six months of a calendar year, must register the following information with the enforcing agency:
-- The owner's name.
-- The address of the owner's residence or usual place of business
-- The location of the multiple dwelling or rooming house.
If the premises are managed or operated by an agent, the agent's name and place of business must be entered with the name of the owner in the registry.
The bill species that a transfer of ownership to another person would not be a change of ownership if the owner, owners, trustors, grantors, or members of the transferring person were the same as the owner, owners, trustees, grantees, or members of the recipient person, or both the transferring person and recipient person were under common control.
"Person" would mean an individual or corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited liability limited partnership, trust, individual retirement account, or other legal person recognized in the State.
(Under the Law, "multiple dwelling" means a dwelling occupied otherwise than as a private dwelling or two family dwelling. Multiple dwelling are divided into either class a, which are occupied more or less permanently and in which the rooms allow for cooking, kitchen, and toilet accommodations, such as apartment buildings; or class b, which are occupied, as a rule, transiently, and generally without any attempt to provide cooking or kitchen accommodations, such as hotels or boarding houses. Generally, a "rooming house" means a dwelling occupied in such a manner that certain rooms in excess of those used by the members of the immediate family and occupied as a home or family unit, are leased or rented to individuals outside of the family without an attempt to provide cooking or kitchen accommodations for individuals leasing or renting rooms.)
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have no fiscal impact on the State and would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on local governments. The bill's provisions would allow certain local governments to increase the interval between certain inspections, which would allow for fewer total inspections. Local units that chose not to conduct inspections likely would receive less revenue and would incur fewer expenses. Given that the Law requires inspection fees to be reasonable and that they not exceed the actual cost of the inspection, the net impact likely would be approximately zero.
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.