Filling out Michigan's DC 100a the way the court expects

Most states hand you a rule and leave the paperwork to you. Look up the notice period, write something that satisfies it, serve it, hope a judge agrees you got it right.

Michigan doesn't work that way. The Michigan Supreme Court's State Court Administrative Office publishes the demand itself — Form DC 100a, "Demand for Possession, Nonpayment of Rent" — with the required language already printed on it and a certificate of service built into the landlord's copy.

That changes the job. You're not drafting a document; you're filling in a handful of blanks on a form district court judges read every week. Pull a generic pay-or-quit template off the internet and at best you've done extra work on paper the court has never seen — at worst you've omitted something the statute requires and handed your tenant a defense.

A late rent notice is worth sending first; it's the nudge that often gets the check written without anyone filing anything. Once you're serious about court, the DC 100a is the document.

The form, and where to get it

Where to download the current revision

DC 100a is free on the Michigan courts website, courts.michigan.gov, in the SCAO-approved forms library. The current revision at the time of writing is Rev. 5/22, and the footer cites its statutory basis: MCL 600.5714(1)(a), MCL 600.5716, MCL 600.5718, and MCL 600.5775(2)(f).

Check that revision date each time you download it.

Why DC 100a isn't technically mandatory

Now the honest part. The header reads "Approved, SCAO," which in Michigan's system means approved for use, not mandatory use.

What MCL 600.5716 actually requires

What actually controls is MCL 600.5716. The demand must:

• Be in writing.
• Be addressed to the person in possession.
• Describe the premises.
• Clearly state the reasons and the time to take remedial action.
• State the amount due when nonpayment is claimed.
• Be dated and signed by the person entitled to possession or their attorney or agent.

Use the form anyway

So a court can't reject your demand purely because it wasn't on DC 100a. Use it anyway.

The form satisfies every one of those requirements, prints the seven-day language in the statute's own terms, and comes as a two-part set — a court copy with the certificate of service, and a tenant copy. There's no upside to writing your own.

What goes in each field

The form is short. Take it slowly anyway, because the two things that get demands thrown out — the amount and the service — are both on this page.

The "To:" block

All tenant names, spelled as the lease spells them, plus the mailing address where you're delivering the notice. SCAO's instructions note this may be where the tenant lives or does business, and it can differ from the rental property address.

Your name

Item 1 reads "Your landlord/landlady, , says that you owe $ rent." Print the owner's legal name or the entity that owns the property. Signing as a property manager? Say so in the signature block.

The amount

This field decides cases. Enter rent actually due now. MCL 600.5714(1)(a) is explicit that rent due "does not include any accelerated indebtedness because of a breach of the lease," so the remaining months of the term stay out of the box.

Late fees and utilities are murkier — whether they count as rent depends on your lease, and district courts vary. Demand the base rent you're certain of. An inflated number invites a fight you don't need.

The premises

There's a line for the address or description of the rental property if it differs from the mailing address. When they're the same, SCAO's instructions say to write "Same as mailing address" rather than leaving it blank.

The preprinted paragraphs

Item 2 already says the tenant must, within 7 days from the date the notice was served, pay the rent owed or move out. Items 3 and 4 cover the tenant's right to be heard and to consult a lawyer.

Don't edit any of it, and don't change the number of days.

Date, signature, contact information

Sign as owner or agent and fill in address, city, state, ZIP, and phone. An unsigned demand is a defective demand.

The certificate of service

Court copy only, completed after you serve: the date, the name of the person served, a checkbox for the method, and the server's signature. Keep that copy — it gets attached to your complaint.

Counting the seven days

The clock starts on the date of service

The clock starts on the date of service, not the date rent was due and not the date you signed. Item 2 says it plainly: seven days from the date the notice was served.

What counts as the date of service

What "date of service" means depends on the method:

• Personal delivery is the day you hand it over.
• First-class mail. MCL 600.5718(1)(c) sets service as the next regular mail-delivery day after the day you mailed it — drop it in the box Thursday and Friday is your service date.
• Electronic service runs from the day you send it.

Seven calendar days, not business days

The statute says seven days, not seven business days. If your seventh day lands on a weekend or court holiday and you plan to file immediately, call the clerk or wait an extra day.

Nobody ever lost an eviction case for being patient. Plenty have lost one for filing on day six.

Serving it, and proving you did

The four permitted methods

MCL 600.5718 permits four methods, and the certificate of service lists all four as checkboxes:

1. Personal delivery to the person in possession.
2. Personal delivery on the premises to a member of the family or household, or an employee of the person in possession, who is of suitable age and discretion, with a request that it be delivered to the person in possession.
3. First-class mail addressed to the person in possession.
4. Electronic service — but only if the tenant specifically consented in writing to electronic service of the demand, and the consent or a confirmation of it was sent by one party and affirmatively replied to electronically by the other. Michigan also bars a landlord from refusing to enter a lease because a prospective tenant declines to consent.

The methods that aren't service

What's missing matters just as much. Michigan Legal Help and SCAO's instruction packet flag the same failures: slipping the demand under the door, leaving it outside the door, taping it to the property, and mailing it by any method requiring a signature.

Certified mail feels more official and is worse here than plain first-class. Posting alone is not service.

Close the loop the same day

Serve the tenant copy, keep the court copy, and complete the certificate the same day.

Seven days is the nonpayment number, not the Michigan number

Each ground has its own form and its own clock

Michigan has a separate SCAO form and a separate period for each ground, and using the nonpayment form for a non-rent problem gets you nowhere.

• Nonpayment of rent — 7 days. DC 100a, under MCL 600.5714(1)(a).
• Damage or a serious and continuing health hazard — 7 days. Form DC 100b, under MCL 600.5714(1)(d). The tenant either repairs the damage or removes the hazard, or moves out.
• Terminating a tenancy — DC 100c. If you searched for "Michigan DC 100c form" expecting the nonpayment notice, that's a different document: "Notice to Quit to Recover Possession of Property," Rev. 10/24, citing MCL 600.5714(1)(c)(iii) and (1)(e).
• Month-to-month and other periodic tenancies. MCL 554.134(1) requires one month's notice to end an estate at will or by sufferance, and where rent is payable at intervals shorter than three months, notice equal to that interval is enough. Year-to-year tenancies under MCL 554.134(3) end a full year from service. If you're ending a tenancy rather than collecting rent, a lease termination letter and the right SCAO notice do different jobs.
• Unlawful drug activity — 24 hours. Form DC 100e, under MCL 600.5714(1)(b), which applies only where a formal police report has been filed and the lease has a termination clause covering it.

Other states' numbers don't transfer

Periods differ this sharply across state lines too — Georgia's three-business-day rule and Michigan's seven-day rule look similar on a chart and behave nothing alike, so check a state-by-state eviction notice comparison before trusting anything about "the standard eviction notice."

After the seven days run out

If the tenant pays

If the tenant pays the full rent due within seven days, you're done. The nonpayment ground is cured, and filing anyway is how you lose.

If the tenant neither pays nor moves

If they neither pay nor move, you file a summons and complaint in the district court for the county where the property sits. Michigan Legal Help notes your filing needs the lease, the demand you served, and the certificate of service attached — the whole reason you kept that court copy.

These are summary proceedings, built for speed, and the hearing date is set on the summons.

What you have to prove at the hearing

At the hearing you prove three things: the tenant didn't pay, the tenant was properly served with a demand for nonpayment, and the tenant neither paid nor moved out within seven days. Miss one and the judge should rule for the tenant.

Michigan also has a rental assistance process that can pause a case while an application is processed. If you win, Michigan Legal Help says a tenant will in most cases have 10 days to pay or move before you can ask for the order that lets a court officer remove them.

Mistakes that cost landlords their filing date

Form and timing errors

• Using the wrong form. DC 100a is for unpaid rent only.
• Filing early. Count from the service date, and remember mailed demands are served the next mail-delivery day.
• Padding the amount. Accelerated rent is off the table by statute, and charges your lease doesn't treat as rent are an argument waiting to happen.

Service and paperwork errors

• Posting, or signature-required mail. Neither is a permitted method.
• Leaving the certificate of service blank or unsigned. It's your proof, and it goes to the court.
• Serving only one of several named tenants. Serve each adult on the lease.
• Mixing up the copies. The tenant gets the tenant copy, which carries the legal-help information; you keep the court copy.

This is general information, not legal advice

Everything here describes Michigan law and court forms as of the date on this article. It isn't legal advice, and no article accounts for your lease, your district court's practices, or facts like subsidized housing rules, foreclosure, or a mobile home park tenancy — all of which change the analysis. If money or a home is on the line, talk to a Michigan landlord-tenant attorney. Tenants who can't afford one can start with Michigan Legal Help at michiganlegalhelp.org or a local legal aid office, and the State Bar of Michigan's referral service is printed right on the DC 100a.

Before you serve it

The last-minute checklist

Pull the current DC 100a from courts.michigan.gov. Reconcile your ledger so the dollar figure is one you'd defend under oath. Spell the names the way the lease spells them.

Sign and date it, pick one of the four permitted service methods, then sign the certificate of service the same day.

Then wait out the full seven days

Michigan handed you the form and printed the deadline on it — the only two ways to blow this are to substitute your own paper or to run the clock short.