Michigan Eviction Guide. Step by Step !!

[Keith Jourdan]

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. Just sharing my experiences with landlord/tenant court over the past 6 years.

I get a lot of messages on here regarding evictions. It is rare but if you are a landlord long enough, or own enough units, it will happen eventually.  

Here is a step by step process on what to do in the state of Michigan.

Once you decide on using the eviction process you need to either send tenant "7 day pay or quit notice" or "30 day notice to quit". 

"7 Day Pay or Quit Notice" gives the tenant 7 days to pay what is owed with all late fees or move out of the unit within the 7 day time period . Mail it to them first class mail or deliver it to them personally.

Printer friendly form can be found here http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/cou...

"30 Day Notice to Quit" gives the tenant 30 days to move out of the unit, no option to pay back rent/costs and remain in unit. Mail it to them or deliver it to them personally.

Printer Friendly form can be found here http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/cou...

TENANT STILL HAS NOT PAID OR VACATED

If the tenant is still occupying the unit after the 7 days or 30 days is up you move on to the next step.

SUMMONS AND COMPLAINT

Go to your local district court, the district court the rental property is located in. Go to the civil clerk window and ask for Summons and Complaint forms for landlord tenant court. Some courts will charge you $1 or $2 for these. 

When filling out the summons and complaint DO NOT WRITE YOUR LLC/Company NAME AS PLAINTIFF. The court requires all LLC's to be represented by attorneys. Write your personal name as plaintiff. You are a member of the LLC, this is perfectly legal and it saves you $1000+ on an attorney.

BRING THESE ITEMS WITH YOU

1) 3 copies of the 7 day or 30 day notice you sent to the tenant.

2) Copy of Lease (if you don't have one, don't worry its not mandatory)

3) Envelope addressed to tenants address with a stamp

4) Envelope addressed to your address with a stamp

The filing fee is different from court to court. Around $30-40. Tell them you want the court to do the service. Which means a court officer will serve the tenant with the documents. This costs an extra $40 or so but it is well worth it. You are not allowed to serve the tenant the paperwork since you are a part of the case. And do you really want to go and personally serve paperwork to save $40?! I didn't think so.

SIT BACK AND WAIT 7-10 DAYS

Some courts will give you a court date right when you file the summons and compliant, most will mail you a letter with your court date in about a week or two. Your court date will be about 1 to 2 weeks from when you receive your letter. 

*The City Of Westland requires the tenant to respond to the complaint via letter before they issue you a court date, if they do not respond you do not have to go to court and the court sends you a default judgement. Most courts do not work this way, Westland is the exception.

GOING TO COURT

Don't stress, this is actually the easy part. 

TENANT DOES NOT SHOW TO COURT

Tell the judge the tenant hasn't paid rent, judge will enter a default judgement to vacate. Takes 30 seconds. In my experience 80% of tenants do not show up.

TENANT SHOWS TO COURT

Tell the judge the tenant has not paid rent. Tenant will probably have a number of excuses why they have not paid and will often say that you have failed to make repairs to the unit. Don't worry. The Michigan statue states that a tenant can not withhold rent from a landlord for repairs, tenant needs to bill landlord for repairs or deposit rent in a court escrow account. 99.9% of the time in my experience the tenant has not done this.

Judge will enter a judgement to vacate on your behalf. Most judges follow the statute and give the tenant 10 days to vacate. I have seen judges give up to 30 days to vacate. 

NOW WHAT???

What if the tenant fails to vacate the unit in the amount of time the judge has given them? 

You can now go back to the court, go to the civil clerk window and file a "WRIT OF EVICTION"

This costs about $40. The judge will sign within about 2 days then a court officer will go to the unit and put a large notice on the door demanding the tenant to vacate within 24 hours. 

If they still don't leave?  Contact the court and they put you in contact with the sheriff. You will arrange a time for them to go and do a "lock out". Which means the cops come and kick the tenant out and change the locks. This is extremely rare and highly unlikely in my experience. 

The one thing I didn't touch on was "Money Judgements". Which is a judgement against the tenant for what they owe you. When you file the summons and complaint, ask to do a money judgement as well. At the court date the judge will enter the judgement for the money owed against the tenant.

Please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to talk to you about my experiences with landlord/tenant disputes!