Michigan eviction law

If rent is unpaid, you may serve a written demand for possession. If the tenant stays without paying within 7 days from service, you may start summary proceedings. The demand must be dated and signed, describe the home, state the reasons, the time to act and the amount due.

MCL 600.5714(1)(a) MCL 600.5716

• You may serve the demand by handing it to the tenant, leaving it at the home with a household member of suitable age who is asked to pass it on, or by first-class mail. A mailed demand counts as served on the next regular mail delivery day after mailing. MCL 600.5718(1)(a) to (c)
• Electronic service works only if the tenant consented in writing and the consent was confirmed by an electronic reply. You may not refuse to rent to someone who declines electronic service. MCL 600.5718(1)(d), (2)
• Rent due does not include any amount accelerated because of a breach. MCL 600.5714(1)(a)
• A landlord may also end a tenancy for nonpayment with a written 7-day notice to quit. MCL 554.134(2)

Michigan sets no general notice or cure period for a lease violation other than unpaid rent. If the lease gives you a power to terminate for the breach, or the law implies one, you may start summary proceedings once the tenant holds over after that termination.

MCL 600.5714(1)(c)(i)

• If the tenant willfully or negligently causes a serious and continuing health hazard or extensive and continuing physical injury to the home, discovered within the 90 days before you file, you may serve a demand for possession; the tenant then has 7 days after service to leave or substantially restore or repair. MCL 600.5714(1)(d)
• If the lease allows termination for controlled substance activity on the premises and a formal police report was filed, a 24-hour demand for possession or notice to quit applies. MCL 600.5714(1)(b) MCL 554.134(4)
• If the tenant, a household member or a person under the tenant's control caused or threatened physical injury to someone on your property and police were notified, a 7-day notice to quit applies, except where the person hurt or threatened is the tenant or in the tenant's household, or federal housing rules forbid it. MCL 600.5714(1)(e)
• A month-to-month tenant whose lease gives no power to terminate for the breach can be removed after the one-month notice to quit ends the tenancy and the tenant holds over, unless a shorter statutory route applies: the 7-day demand for a serious health hazard or extensive injury to the premises, or the 7-day notice to quit after physical injury or threats on your property. MCL 600.5714(1)(c)(iii) MCL 554.134(1) MCL 600.5714(1)(d), (e) See Ending a month-to-month tenancy on the Michigan page
• Public housing and mobile home park tenants are not holding over after a lease termination unless it was for just cause. MCL 600.5714(2), (3)

Michigan evictions are summary proceedings in district court. After the required demand or notice period runs, you file, and the summons sets trial within 10 days after it issues, served at least 3 days before trial, unless a local court rule sets a different schedule.

MCL 600.5704 MCL 600.5714 MCL 600.5735(2)(b), (4)

• Unless a court rule says otherwise, the case must be heard within 7 days after the tenant's appearance or trial date and may be adjourned beyond that only by agreement of the parties. MCL 600.5735(6)
• In a nonpayment case the judgment states the amount due, after deducting rent excused by your breach of the lease or of the repair covenants. MCL 600.5741 See Tenant repair remedies on the Michigan page
• The writ of restitution generally may not issue until 10 days after judgment, and in a nonpayment case it may not issue if the tenant pays the judgment amount and taxed costs within that time. MCL 600.5744(5), (7)
• The court may not enter judgment for possession if the termination was retaliatory. MCL 600.5720 See Retaliation on the Michigan page

A landlord may not take back possession by self-help. Changing locks without immediately giving the tenant keys, removing or keeping the tenant's belongings, boarding up the home, removing doors, windows or locks, or causing an interruption of heat, running water, hot water, electricity or gas, whether the tenant arranged the service or you must furnish it, is unlawful interference with possession.

MCL 600.2918(2)

• The tenant may recover actual damages or $200, whichever is greater, for each occurrence, and regain possession. A tenant forcibly put out may recover three times actual damages or $200, whichever is greater. MCL 600.2918(1), (2)
• These protections cannot be waived. A tenant has 90 days to sue to regain possession and one year to sue for damages. MCL 600.2918(7), (8)
• Entry into premises must be permitted by law and made peaceably, not by force. MCL 600.5711(1), (2)

You do not unlawfully interfere with possession if you believe in good faith that the tenant has abandoned the home, have reason after diligent inquiry to believe the tenant does not intend to return, and current rent is unpaid. The statutes read for this page set no storage period for belongings left behind.

MCL 600.2918(3)(c)

• A separate procedure applies after a tenant's death: you told the tenant in writing of the option to name an authorized contact, rent is unpaid, you believe in good faith the tenant died at least 18 days earlier with no surviving tenant, at least 10 days before reentry you post a notice on the door, notify the public administrator and reasonably try to reach any contact the tenant named, and no probate estate has been opened. MCL 600.2918(3)(d)
• After an eviction judgment, the officer serving the writ removes the occupants and their belongings, leaves the property in an area open to the public or the public right-of-way or delivers it to the sheriff, and decides whether it was abandoned. MCL 600.5744(1), (2) See Eviction process on the Michigan page

A court may not enter judgment for possession if the termination was mainly a penalty for the tenant trying to secure or enforce rights under the lease or the law, for complaining to a government authority about a health or safety code violation, or for lawful activity such as membership in a tenant organization.

MCL 600.5720(1)(a) to (c)

• The same defense applies if you raised the tenant's obligations as a penalty for those acts and the termination was mainly for not meeting the added obligations. MCL 600.5720(1)(e)
• If the tenant took official action through a court or government agency within 90 days before you filed, and it was not dismissed or denied, retaliation is presumed unless you prove otherwise by a preponderance of the evidence. MCL 600.5720(2)
• If the action came more than 90 days before filing or ended against the tenant, the presumption runs the other way and the tenant must prove retaliation. MCL 600.5720(2)