The Principal Residence Exemption in Leelanau Township

If you’re buying in Leelanau Township and this will be your main home, add the Principal Residence Exemption — the PRE — to your closing checklist. It’s a tax exemption for full-time residents, not vacation buyers or landlords. After closing, you file a short affidavit with your township assessor to get on record as a primary resident. If your situation ever changes — you start renting it out, sell, or move away — there’s a rescission form to file with the assessor as well.

Any property sale in Leelanau Township also requires a Property Transfer Affidavit filed with the township assessor. That one applies to all buyers, not just primary residents.

One more thing worth knowing: if questions come up about your “taxable value” — including something called an “uncapping issue” — the township’s Board of Review is the right place to bring them. In Leelanau Township, the Board of Review holds meetings in July and December specifically to hear appeals like these, including PRE disputes.