Quick Answer
Michigan landlord tenant law isn’t one single law. It’s spread across a few different statutes, and each one covers a different piece.
The Landlord and Tenant Relationships Act covers deposits.
The Revised Judicature Act covers evictions.
The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act covers fair housing. In plain terms: security deposits cap at 1.5 months’ rent and are due back within 30 days.
Eviction notices range from 24 hours for drug activity up to 30 days for ending a tenancy without cause.
One change here is genuinely new. As of April 2, 2025, landlords with 5 or more rental units can’t turn someone down just because they pay rent with a housing voucher or other assistance. Another change isn’t law yet, even though it gets talked about like it is. Bills that would stretch the standard 7-day nonpayment notice to 14 days are still sitting in committee.
We work with landlords across Michigan. This is the mix-up we hear about most: mistaking a proposed bill for a rule that’s already in effect. Let’s walk through what’s on the books, in plain language, so you know exactly where you stand.
Security Deposits: A 1.5-Month Cap and Deadlines That Interlock
Michigan’s deposit rules have more moving parts than most states. Miss one small step, and you can lose the right to keep any of the deposit, even if the tenant genuinely owes you money.
The Cap, and Where the Money Has to Sit
Here’s the simple version: a security deposit can’t be more than 1.5 months’ rent (MCL 554.602). That cap includes pet deposits, since Michigan counts any refundable deposit as part of the same total, not a separate charge. You also can’t just keep the money in your regular checking account. It has to sit in a regulated bank or credit union. A cash or surety bond with the Michigan Secretary of State works instead (MCL 554.604). And within 14 days of taking the deposit, you owe the tenant a written notice saying where that money is (MCL 554.603). None of this can be waived in the lease, even if the tenant agrees to it (MCL 554.606).
The Return Deadline and the Penalty for Missing It
Once the tenant moves out, they have 4 days to give you a forwarding address (MCL 554.611). From there, the clock is on you. You get 30 days to either send back the full deposit or mail an itemized list of what you’re keeping and why (MCL 554.609). The tenant then gets 7 days to push back on those deductions. Here’s the part that catches landlords off guard. Skip a step, or blow past the 30-day window, and you don’t just lose that deduction. You owe the tenant double whatever you wrongfully held onto (MCL 554.613).
RentRedi’s guide to writing a security deposit return letter covers exactly what that itemized statement needs to say. The rental inspection checklist helps you document the unit’s condition up front, before any of these deadlines even start running.
Late Fees and Rent Increases: No Caps, but Real Limits
Michigan doesn’t set a dollar cap on late fees, and it doesn’t require a grace period either. That sounds like total freedom, but courts still expect the fee to be reasonable, generally somewhere in the 4% to 5% range of rent. Push much past that, and a judge can toss the fee out as a penalty rather than a legitimate charge. One rule is easy to miss: you can’t charge a late fee that grows every day rent stays unpaid. One flat fee per late payment is the limit, not a daily add-on. A bounced check is its own thing. It’s capped by statute at $25 if paid within 7 days or $35 if paid within 30 days (MCL 600.2952).
Rent increases work on the same “no hard cap, but read the lease” logic. There’s no rent control in Michigan and no limit on how much you can raise rent between lease terms. What you can’t do is raise it mid-lease, unless the lease itself says you’re allowed to. RentRedi’s guide to late fees by state shows how Michigan’s reasonableness standard stacks up against states that use a hard number instead.
Eviction Notices: 24 Hours to 30 Days, and Two Bills That Haven’t Passed
How much notice you owe a tenant depends entirely on why you’re evicting them, and each reason runs on its own clock.
- Nonpayment of rent: a 7-day demand for possession. Pay the full amount owed within those 7 days, and the eviction stops (MCL 600.5714(1)(a)).
- Drug activity: just 24 hours, the fastest ground in the state and among the fastest anywhere in the country (MCL 600.5714(1)(b)).
- Serious health hazard or major property damage: a 7-day notice. The tenant can still save the tenancy by fixing the damage in that window (MCL 600.5714(1)(d)).
- Physical injury or a threat to someone else: a 7-day notice with no chance to fix it, once police have been notified (MCL 600.5714(1)(e)).
- Ending a month-to-month tenancy without any specific reason: a 30-day notice (MCL 554.134(1)).
Changing the locks or shutting off the power yourself is illegal, full stop, under MCL 600.2918. And evicting someone because they reported a problem to a code inspector is its own separate violation under MCL 600.5720.
Here’s where the confusion creeps in. House Bill 4982 and House Bill 4985, both introduced in September 2025, would stretch that 7-day nonpayment notice out to 14 days. They’d also add a requirement that landlords show good cause before ending most tenancies, something Michigan doesn’t currently require. Both bills are still sitting in the House Committee on Regulatory Reform, with no further movement as of this writing. Until one of them actually passes, keep using the 7-day notice. RentRedi’s eviction letter guide walks through matching the right notice to the right situation before you serve one.
Entry Notice and Habitability
No Statutory Notice Period, Which Surprises Most Landlords
Here’s a genuine surprise for a lot of landlords. Michigan has no law spelling out how much notice you need to give before walking into a rental unit. Entry runs on the lease and on the tenant’s basic right to enjoy their home without being intruded on (MCL 600.2918). Courts tend to treat 24 hours as reasonable in practice, but nothing forces that number unless your own lease says so. The safest move is simple: write your own notice period into the lease, so there’s no ambiguity later. RentRedi’s guide to landlords’ legal right of entry covers how this compares to states that do set a fixed number of hours.
The Habitability Covenant Under MCL 554.139
Every Michigan lease comes with a built-in promise, whether it’s written down or not. The unit has to be fit to live in, kept in reasonable repair, and up to local health and safety code. A 1972 court case, Rome v. Walker, gave this promise real teeth. If you break it, the tenant can use that as a defense in an eviction case. A judge can knock part or all of the rent off any judgment against them (MCL 600.5741). What Michigan doesn’t have is a clean, fixed dollar amount for repair-and-deduct, the way some guides describe it. The actual remedy runs through this rent-offset defense in court, or an escrow arrangement a judge allows, or a separate lawsuit. It isn’t a number a tenant can just decide to withhold on their own.
Fair Housing in Michigan: A Genuine Change as of April 2025
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2101 et seq.) already covered more ground than most people expect. Beyond the usual list, race, religion, national origin, age, sex, and disability, it also protects sexual orientation and gender identity. It goes further still, covering familial status, marital status, and even height and weight. That last pair is rare. Only a handful of states protect against height or weight discrimination in housing. You can read the full text of the Act through the Michigan Legislature.
As of April 2, 2025, one more category joined that list: source of income. This one only kicks in if you own 5 or more rental units, including units under related entities (MCL 37.2502(3)-(4), MCL 554.601c). Source of income means things like a housing voucher, Social Security, or veterans’ benefits. If you own fewer than 5 units, this specific state rule doesn’t apply to you yet. A few Michigan cities, including Ann Arbor, Lansing, and East Lansing, already had their own local versions of this rule before the state caught up.
Squatters’ Rights and Adverse Possession in Michigan
Squatters and adverse possession come up constantly for Michigan landlords sitting on a vacant or inherited property. A lot of what’s written about it online oversimplifies the real rule.
Michigan’s version is more straightforward than most guides make it sound. A squatter has to occupy your property for 15 straight years. That possession has to be continuous, out in the open, without your permission, all to themselves, and genuinely lived-in, not just occasional use (MCL 600.5801(4)). Some sites describe a shortcut where paying property taxes or holding some form of title paperwork gets the timeline down to 5 or 10 years. Michigan doesn’t work that way. Those shorter windows in the statute only protect someone defending a tax deed or a court-ordered sale, not a squatter trying to build a claim. Fifteen years, every element proven, is the only door in.
Michigan also hands police a tool most states don’t have. Occupying a single- or two-family home without permission is a crime here, not just a civil dispute (MCL 750.553). First offense is a misdemeanor. Do it again, and it’s a felony. That said, this criminal angle doesn’t let you skip the formal process to actually get someone out. You still have to go through the regular eviction procedure under MCL 600.5714. Changing the locks or cutting the power yourself remains illegal no matter how obviously someone doesn’t belong there.
RentRedi’s overview of squatters’ rights breaks down the general concept if you’re comparing Michigan to another state.
A Realistic Scenario
Picture a landlord like Angela, a common scenario rather than a specific customer, who owns 6 rental units in Grand Rapids. A prospective tenant applies with a Housing Choice Voucher. Angela’s always turned voucher applicants down, a habit left over from before the law changed. She owns more than 5 units, though, so that old habit is now a real violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. It’s been against the law since April 2025, whether Angela realized it or not.
Updating her tenant screening policy fixes it fast: drop the blanket voucher rule, and judge each applicant on income, credit, and rental history instead.
Common Mistakes Michigan Landlords Make
Treating the Pending 14-Day Notice Bill as Current Law
HB 4982 and HB 4985 haven’t passed yet. The nonpayment notice is still 7 days, and there’s still no statewide requirement to show good cause before ending a tenancy.
Skipping the 14-Day Deposit Disclosure
Most landlords remember the 30-day return deadline and forget the separate 14-day rule requiring them to say where the deposit is being held. Miss either one, and the same double-damages penalty applies.
Refusing Voucher Applicants Without Checking Unit Count
The source-of-income rule only kicks in at 5 units. If you own that many, even spread across different properties, it’s time to update your screening criteria.
Assuming a Repair-and-Deduct Dollar Cap Exists
Michigan’s habitability remedy works through a rent-offset defense in court, not a fixed dollar figure a tenant can quietly withhold on their own.
Believing Self-Help Removal Is Legal Against a Squatter
Even an occupant with zero legal right to be there still has to go through the formal eviction process. Changing locks or cutting utilities yourself opens you up to liability, no matter how obvious the trespass looks. RentRedi’s overview of squatters’ rights covers the removal process landlords actually have to follow.
What’s Next
The Michigan landlords who stay out of trouble can tell the difference between a law that already changed and one that’s just been proposed. Right now that gap is widest on eviction notices. Three things to do with this:
- Check whether your portfolio hits the 5-unit mark that triggers the new source-of-income rule.
- Stick with the 7-day nonpayment notice until HB 4982 or HB 4985 actually passes, not a day before.
- Track the 14-day deposit disclosure and the 30-day return deadline in the same place, since missing either one costs you the same penalty.
RentRedi’s lease renewal and deadline reminders help keep these overlapping deadlines from slipping through the cracks. Built-in e-signature and accounting tools cut down on the paperwork that turnover season tends to bury. See how RentRedi supports Michigan landlords.
FAQ
How long does a landlord in Michigan have to return a security deposit?
Thirty days after the tenant moves out and gives a forwarding address, under MCL 554.609. You either return the full deposit or send an itemized list of damages and whatever you’re keeping. Miss that deadline, and you lose the right to any deduction and owe the tenant double what you wrongfully held back.
What is the maximum security deposit a landlord can charge in Michigan?
1.5 months’ rent, under MCL 554.602. That cap includes pet deposits and any other refundable charge, since Michigan lumps them all into one total security deposit rather than treating them as separate fees. Charging more than that, even if the tenant agrees to it in writing, still puts you out of compliance.
Has Michigan’s eviction notice period changed to 14 days?
No, not yet. Bills that would stretch the 7-day nonpayment notice to 14 days, House Bill 4982 and House Bill 4985, were introduced in September 2025. They’re still sitting in committee, with no further action reported. The nonpayment notice is still 7 days under MCL 600.5714(1)(a).
Does Michigan protect housing voucher holders from discrimination?
Yes, but only if you own 5 or more rental units. As of April 2, 2025, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act added source of income as a protected class in rental housing, covering vouchers, Social Security, and similar subsidies, for landlords who meet that unit threshold.
How much notice does a landlord need to enter a rental unit in Michigan?
There’s no state law setting a required number. Entry runs on the lease and the tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment of their home. Courts usually treat 24 hours as reasonable. You’re better off spelling out a specific notice period in the lease itself rather than relying on that unwritten convention.
What are squatters’ rights in Michigan?
A squatter needs 15 straight years of open, exclusive, and genuinely lived-in possession to claim your property through adverse possession (MCL 600.5801(4)). Unlike some states, Michigan gives no shortcut to someone who pays property taxes or holds some form of title paperwork. Those shorter windows only apply as defenses in unrelated situations, never as a faster path to ownership.
Can a Michigan landlord evict a tenant for drug activity with only 24 hours’ notice?
Yes. A 24-hour demand for possession applies when the lease includes a clause allowing termination for drug-related activity, under MCL 600.5714(1)(b). This is the fastest eviction ground in Michigan and one of the fastest in the country. It’s well ahead of the 7-day and 30-day notices that cover most other situations.
Note: This content is not intended to substitute, replace, or be construed as professional legal advice. It is for reference purposes only. Please consult your legal counsel to ensure your lease complies with state and federal regulations.