Do Roof Repairs Raise Property Taxes in Michigan?

The statute does more than say "ignore it." It also closes the side doors an assessor might otherwise use to pick up the value indirectly. For the purpose of the exclusion, the assessor "shall not increase the construction quality classification or reduce the effective age for depreciation purposes," unless the original appraisal was wrong to begin with. Effective age is how old the house appraises as, and a new roof could otherwise make a 1970s house appraise as younger.

The assessor also may not give the property an economic condition factor that differs from the one used for similar properties in the jurisdiction. In plain terms, your house should be valued like the comparable houses around it, as if the roof work had not happened, for as long as you own it.

Any value that the assessor knows about and excludes is supposed to be indicated on the assessment roll. That record matters later, because it is how the excluded value is tracked and brought back on the roll after a sale.

Michigan homes carry two numbers on the assessment notice, and the roof question touches both. Assessed value, which becomes state equalized value (SEV) after county and state equalization, is meant to be half of true cash value; Article IX, Section 3 of the Michigan Constitution says assessments may not exceed 50 percent of true cash value. Taxable value is the number your millage is actually applied to.

Proposal A of 1994 capped taxable value. Under MCL 211.27a(2), taxable value is the lesser of the property's current SEV or last year's taxable value, minus any losses, times the lesser of 1.05 or the inflation rate, plus all additions. For 2026, the State Tax Commission set the inflation rate multiplier at 1.027, so a home with no additions or losses saw its taxable value rise by no more than 2.7 percent, even in a year when market values rose faster.

Because roof work excluded under MCL 211.27(2) is not counted in true cash value, it also does not show up as an addition in the capped value formula. Bulletin 7 of 2020 says this directly: since the value of normal repairs, replacement and maintenance is exempt, it is not included as an addition for the current year. Your taxable value keeps moving with the inflation cap, exactly as it would have without the new roof.

The exclusion lasts "until the property is sold." Bulletin 7 of 2020 explains that it ends in the year after the owner who made the repairs sells, and that in the year following a sale the assessed value is based on the true cash value of the entire property, new roof included.

A sale also uncaps taxable value. Under MCL 211.27a(3), after a transfer of ownership the property's taxable value for the following year becomes its SEV for that year. The buyer is the one who sees the jump, and it is usually driven far more by years of capped growth than by any roof. Buyers must also notify the assessor of the transfer by filing a property transfer affidavit within 45 days; under MCL 211.27b, late filing for a residential property can bring a $5 per day penalty, up to $200 for a principal residence.

For sellers, the practical point is different: a documented recent roof repair or replacement is a selling point, and the paperwork you keep for buyers and insurers is the same paperwork that shows what was done and when.

Assessment notices go out before the Board of Review meets in March. Bulletin 7 of 2020 says assessors must apply the exclusion to qualifying changes they know about whether or not the owner files Form 865, the State Tax Commission's Request for Nonconsideration of True Cash Value of Normal Repair, Replacement, and Maintenance Expenditures. The form is required in one situation: when the value was already increased in a year other than the immediately preceding one, or a capped value addition was already entered for the item.

If your notice shows an increase you think came from roof work, start with a phone call to the assessor and have your invoice ready. If that does not settle it, MCL 211.30 sets the March Board of Review: it meets on the second Monday in March unless the city or township has picked the following Tuesday or Wednesday, and it must hold hours in the evening. Residents generally appear in person unless the local unit allows protests by letter. Under MCL 205.735a, a residential owner must protest to the Board of Review before the Michigan Tax Tribunal will take the case, and the petition to the Tribunal is due by July 31 of the tax year.