Whether administrative fees may be included in the chargeback to a township as part of the county treasurer's right to recover the amount of the delinquent taxes & interest from the township under MCL 211.87b; Delinquent tax revolving fund; Rafaeli, LLC v Oakland Cnty; “Taxes”; Applicability of the definition in MCL 211.78a(1); “Delinquent taxes”; MCL 211.78a(3); MCL 211.44(6); MCL 211.59(6); Conversion; Motion to amend

The court held that defendant-county treasurer could properly include its administration fees in its chargeback to plaintiff-township under MCL 211.87b(1). Also, defendant could not have converted any monies in the delinquent tax revolving fund where “the administrative fees assessed and collected by defendant belong to defendant as a charge against properties with delinquent taxes.” Finally, the trial court properly denied plaintiff’s motions to amend. Plaintiff contended that “when the county treasurer sells properties delinquent in their taxes at a foreclosure sale for less than the delinquent taxes owed, it may not include administrative fees incurred by it in its efforts to collect delinquent taxes from the property owners as ‘taxes’ chargeable back to the taxing entities under MCL 211.78a(1).” The court found that “even though plaintiff was not advanced monies to cover the county administration fees, this does not mean that the county must ‘eat’ the costs it incurred in pursuing the payment of delinquent taxes on properties located within in plaintiff’s boundaries.” It noted that “MCL 211.78m(8) requires that the foreclosing governmental unit shall ‘deposit the proceeds from the sale of property under this section into a restricted account’” for the delinquent tax property sales proceeds for a given year. “MCL 211.78m(8) then requires that the foreclosing governmental unit use those proceeds to first reimburse the delinquent tax revolving fund created under MCL 211.87b of MCL 211.87f ‘for all taxes, interest, penalties and fees’ MCL 211.78m(8)(a)-(d).” Thus, the court determined that “any taxes, interest, penalties, and fees on foreclosed upon properties paid out of the revolving tax fund must be reimbursed from the foreclose sale proceeds. There is no language limiting the taxes, interest, penalties and fees to only those due and owing before the property taxes became delinquent and were turned over to the county for collection efforts. Simply, if money was taken out of the revolving fund in connection with a later-foreclosed upon property, all of those monies must be repaid back into the revolving fund first and foremost upon foreclosure. As a result, defendant could properly include its administration fees in its chargeback to plaintiff.” The court affirmed summary disposition for defendant.