Michigan: Eviction Notice Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Michigan calls the eviction lawsuit "summary proceedings," and the rules are
split across two statutes. The grounds a landlord can evict on, and the notice
period for each, are in the Summary Proceedings Act at MCL 600.5714; the demand
notice's required form and contents are in § 600.5716, and how it must be served
is in § 600.5718. The notice-to-quit periods for ending a periodic tenancy — plus
the 7-day nonpayment notice and the 24-hour drug notice — come from an older
section, MCL 554.134. The anti-retaliation protection is § 600.5720.

Notice for unpaid rent

The nonpayment route is a written 7-day demand for possession. A landlord may
recover possession when a tenant "holds over premises after failing or refusing
to pay rent due... within 7 days from the service of a written demand for
possession for nonpayment of the rent due" (§ 600.5714(1)(a)). The 7 days run on
calendar days from service. Two things to note: the amount demanded cannot
include "any accelerated indebtedness" — future rent the lease says becomes due
all at once on a breach — only the rent actually due; and paying that rent within
the 7 days defeats the nonpayment ground, so the case cannot proceed on it.

Notice for a lease violation

Michigan has no general statutory cure-or-quit period for a fixable, non-rent
lease breach. Instead, a lease violation is handled through the lease's own
termination clause — a ground for summary proceedings when a tenant holds over
"after termination of the lease, pursuant to a power to terminate provided in the
lease or implied by law" (§ 600.5714(1)(c)(i)). When a landlord uses that route,
the written demand still has to "clearly state" both "[t]he reasons for the
demand and the time to take remedial action" (§ 600.5716) — so any chance to fix
the problem comes from the lease and from what the demand itself allows, not from
a fixed statutory clock. For a month-to-month tenant, a landlord who simply wants
the unit back can instead end the tenancy with one month's notice (see below).

Unconditional quit (no cure allowed)

Three grounds let a landlord terminate on a short notice with no cure:

• 24-hour notice to quit for a controlled-substance offense — where a tenant,
  household member, or someone under the tenant's control "has unlawfully
  manufactured, delivered, possessed with intent to deliver, or possessed a
  controlled substance on the leased premises" (§ 600.5714(1)(b); § 554.134(4)).
  This works only "if a formal police report has been filed" alleging it.
• 7-day notice to quit where the tenant or a household member "has caused or
  threatened physical injury to an individual" on property the landlord owns or
  operates (§ 600.5714(1)(e)) — again only if the police were notified, and not
  where the injured person is the tenant's own household member.
• 7-day demand where the tenant "willfully or negligently causes a serious and
  continuing health hazard" or "extensive and continuing physical injury to the
  premises," and does not restore or repair within 7 days (§ 600.5714(1)(d)).

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

To end an at-will or month-to-month tenancy when the tenant has done nothing
wrong, § 554.134(1) requires "1 month's notice." If rent is "payable at periods
of less than 3 months," the notice only needs to equal "the interval between the
times of payment" — so a week-to-week tenant can be given a week's notice. A
year-to-year tenancy is different and much longer: it ends only "at the
expiration of 1 year from the time of the service of the notice" (§ 554.134(3)).

How the notice must be served

Section 600.5716 sets the content: the demand must be "in writing, addressed to
the person in possession," give "the address or other brief description of the
premises," "clearly state[]" the reasons and "the time to take remedial action,"
state "the amount due at the time of the demand" if it is for nonpayment, and be
"dated and signed" by the landlord or an agent. Section 600.5718 sets the
delivery methods: personal delivery to the tenant; personal delivery on the
premises to a suitable household member or employee "with a request that it be
delivered"; first-class mail (with an important timing rule — "the date of
service... is the next regular day for delivery of mail after the day when it was
mailed"); or electronic service, but only if the tenant "has in writing
specifically consented" to it.

Tenant's right to cure/reinstate

For unpaid rent, the cure right is built into the ground itself: paying the rent
due within the 7-day demand period means the tenant has not "fail[ed] or refus[ed]
to pay rent due... within 7 days," so the landlord cannot recover on that basis
(§ 600.5714(1)(a)). Separately, § 600.5720 bars a possession judgment where the
eviction is retaliatory — "intended primarily as a penalty" for the tenant trying
to "secure or enforce rights," for the tenant's "complaint to a governmental
authority with a report of" a health- or safety-code violation, or as
"retribution" for tenant-organizing. If the tenant took that protected step
"within 90 days before the commencement of summary proceedings" through a court
or agency, "a presumption in favor of the defense of retaliatory termination
arises," and the landlord must rebut it.

What trips people up

A "demand for possession" and a "notice to quit" are different instruments.
Unpaid rent runs through the 7-day demand for possession (§ 600.5714(1)(a)); a
no-fault end to a periodic tenancy runs through the one-month notice to quit
(§ 554.134(1)). Using the wrong one, or the wrong day count, can get a case
dismissed.

The short notices have a police-paperwork prerequisite. The 24-hour
drug-activity notice requires that "a formal police report has been filed," and
the 7-day physical-injury notice requires that "the police department with
jurisdiction has been notified." Without that step, the accelerated ground is not
available and the landlord is back to an ordinary notice.

Ordinary private tenants get no statewide just-cause protection — but two
categories do. A private month-to-month tenancy can be ended for any reason on
proper notice. Public housing operated by a local government and mobile-home-park
tenancies are the exception: § 600.5714(2)-(3) says a tenant there is not
"holding over" unless the tenancy "has been terminated for just cause." (This
survey otherwise covers ordinary residential tenancies; mobile-home-park spaces
have their own separate chapter.)

Common questions

What if I can't pay the full rent within 7 days of the demand? The landlord
may then file summary proceedings on the nonpayment ground. Paying everything due
inside the 7 days is what defeats that ground under § 600.5714(1)(a); once the 7
days pass without payment, that cure window has closed, and what happens next
belongs to the court process, which is beyond this notice guide.

Does my landlord need a reason to end my month-to-month lease? For an ordinary
private tenancy, no — Michigan has no statewide just-cause requirement, so a
landlord can end a month-to-month tenancy for any reason (or none) by giving one
month's notice to quit under § 554.134(1). The exceptions are public housing and
mobile-home-park tenancies, which require just cause.

The demand came by first-class mail — when does my time start? Under
§ 600.5718(1)(c), when a demand is mailed "the date of service... is the next
regular day for delivery of mail after the day when it was mailed." So the clock
starts the next mail-delivery day, not the day the landlord dropped it in the box.

Can my landlord change the locks or shut off my utilities instead of going to
court? No. Only a court can order an eviction in Michigan, carried out by a
court officer under a writ of restitution. A lockout, a utility shutoff, or
removing a tenant's belongings to force a move-out is unlawful self-help,
addressed separately under state law, and is not a substitute for summary
proceedings.

Statutes and sources

• MCL 600.5714 — grounds and notice periods for summary proceedings: 7-day
  nonpayment demand, 24-hour drug notice, 7-day health-hazard demand, 7-day
  physical-injury notice, and the public-housing/mobile-home just-cause carve-out.
  https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-600-5714 (accessed 2026-07-10)
• MCL 554.134 — termination of periodic tenancies: one month (at-will/month-to-
  month, or the rent interval if shorter than 3 months), one year (year-to-year),
  7-day nonpayment notice to quit, and 24-hour drug notice to quit.
  https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-554-134 (accessed 2026-07-10)
• MCL 600.5716 — required form and contents of the demand for possession or
  payment (writing, description, reasons, time to take remedial action, amount
  due, date, and signature).
  https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-600-5716 (accessed 2026-07-10)
• MCL 600.5718 — how the demand may be served: personal delivery, substituted
  delivery, first-class mail (service dates to the next mail-delivery day), or
  consented electronic service.
  https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-600-5718 (accessed 2026-07-10)
• MCL 600.5720 — bar on a possession judgment for a retaliatory termination, with
  a 90-day presumption in the tenant's favor.
  https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-600-5720 (accessed 2026-07-10)