(1) All unpaid costs and damages for which a person is liable under section 20126 constitute a lien in favor of the state upon a facility that has been the subject of response activity by the state and is owned by that person. A lien under this subsection has priority over all other liens and encumbrances except liens and encumbrances recorded before the date the lien under this subsection is recorded. A lien under this subsection arises when the state first incurs costs for response activity at the facility for which the person is responsible.
    (2) If the attorney general determines that the lien provided in subsection (1) is insufficient to protect the interest of the state in recovering response costs at a facility, the attorney general may file a petition in the circuit court of the county in which the facility is located seeking either or both of the following:
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Terms Used In Michigan Laws 324.20138

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Attorney general: means the department of the attorney general. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the director or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • Facility: means any area, place, parcel or parcels of property, or portion of a parcel of property where a hazardous substance in excess of the concentrations that satisfy the cleanup criteria for unrestricted residential use has been released, deposited, disposed of, or otherwise comes to be located. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Owner: means a person who owns a facility. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 324.301
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Release: includes , but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of a hazardous substance into the environment, or the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing a hazardous substance. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Remedial action: includes , but is not limited to, cleanup, removal, containment, isolation, destruction, or treatment of a hazardous substance released or threatened to be released into the environment, monitoring, maintenance, or the taking of other actions that may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Remedial action plan: means a work plan for performing remedial action under this part. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • Response activity: means evaluation, interim response activity, remedial action, demolition, providing an alternative water supply, or the taking of other actions necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare, or the environment or the natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.20101
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
  • Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
    (a) A lien upon the facility subject to response activity that takes priority over all other liens and encumbrances that are or have been recorded on the facility.
    (b) A lien upon real or personal property or rights to real or personal property, other than the facility, owned by the person described in subsection (1), having priority over all other liens and encumbrances except liens and encumbrances recorded prior to the date the lien under this subsection is recorded. However, the following are not subject to the lien provided for in this subdivision:
    (i) Assets of a qualified pension plan or individual retirement account under the internal revenue code.
    (ii) Assets held expressly for the purpose of financing a dependent‘s college education.
    (iii) Up to $500,000.00 in nonbusiness real or personal property or rights to nonbusiness real or personal property, except that not more than $25,000.00 of this amount may be cash or securities.
    (3) A petition submitted pursuant to subsection (2) shall set forth with as much specificity as possible the type of lien sought, the property that would be affected, and the reasons the attorney general believes the lien is necessary. Upon receipt of a petition under subsection (2), the court shall promptly schedule a hearing to determine whether the petition should be granted. Notice of the hearing shall be provided to the attorney general, the property owner, and any persons holding liens or perfected security interests in the real property subject to response activity. A lien shall not be granted under subsection (2) against the owner of the facility if the owner is not liable under section 20126.
    (4) In addition to the lien provided in subsections (1) and (2), if the state incurs costs for response activity that increases the market value of real property that is the location of a release or threatened release, the increase in value caused by the state funded response activity, to the extent the state incurred unpaid costs and damages, constitutes a lien in favor of the state upon the real property. This lien has priority over all other liens or encumbrances that are or have been recorded upon the property.
    (5) A lien provided in subsection (1), (2), or (4) is perfected against real property when a notice of lien is filed by the department with the register of deeds in the county in which the real property is located. A lien upon personal property provided in subsection (2) is perfected when a notice of lien is filed by the department in accordance with applicable law and regulation for the perfection of a lien on that type of personal property. In addition, the department shall, at the time of the filing of the notice of lien, provide a copy of the notice of lien to the owner of that property by certified mail.
    (6) A lien under this section continues until the liability for the costs and damages is satisfied or resolved or becomes unenforceable through the operation of the statute of limitations provided in section 20140.
    (7) Upon satisfaction of the liability secured by the lien, the department shall file a notice of release of lien in the same manner as provided in subsection (5).
    (8) If the department, at the time or prior to the time of filing the notice of release of lien pursuant to subsection (7), has made a determination that the person liable under section 20126 has completed all of the response activity at the real property pursuant to the approved remedial action plan, the department shall execute and file with the notice of release of lien a document stating that all response activities required in the approved remedial action plan have been completed.
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