Landlord/Tenant FAQs

Before filing a Landlord Tenant case you must first serve a notice upon the occupants of the property to allow them a chance to move or pay up on their rent. If the occupants fail to comply with the notice served, then you may file the Summons & Complaint with the Court. The Complaint form should match the type of notice that was originally served.

You are not required to have an attorney for Landlord/Tenant cases unless you are a corporation or an LLC. You may wish to hire an attorney if you are unfamiliar with the Landlord/Tenant lawsuit process, Michigan Court Rules, and Michigan laws. If you choose to represent yourself, you are expected to abide by the requirements the same as an attorney would.

Please see the filing fees page. There will also be additional service fees that are incurred separately.

The judgment will vary depending on the type of case filed, but generally the judgment gives the tenant(s) 10 days to vacate the property (or in some cases pay the rent owed) before the plaintiff may request to have a formal eviction done by a court officer.

Unless the parties come to an agreement for a different length of time, you will have 10 days to move.

An eviction is the process of  having a court officer come in to remove an occupant from a property that he/she is no longer legally allowed to occupy.

Yes they can. The appeal process can be complicated and you may wish to hire an attorney for assistance, our clerks may not assist you with this process.

For a basic appeal checklist, please click here. 

You may pay $20.00 to file a Motion to Set Aside the Default Judgment. Your motion will be held in front of a judge with the plaintiff in attendance as well. The judge will determine if the default judgment is to be set aside. Filing this motion does NOT guarantee the judgment will be set aside. If you wish to stop the eviction process while waiting on this motion to he heard, you will also need to post one month’s rent into escrow with the Court.