A tenants group is challenging how Detroit’s 36th District Court — which handles thousands of eviction cases a year — is enforcing the city’s rental laws.
The Detroit Tenants Union, which has 150 members advocating for renters’ rights, and their attorneys wants the court to implement the city’s rental ordinance — which says it’s unlawful for landlords to collect rent when they don’t have a certificate of compliance (CoC) — before there’s a final judgment. Fourteen percent of rental properties in Detroit have a CoC, according to city officials.
“We see this ultimately as a public health and safety issue,” said Donovan McCarty, director of the Michigan State University College of Law’s Housing Justice Clinic, and one of the lawyers representing the Detroit Tenants Union. “The city of Detroit has a certificate of compliance regime that requires landlords to meet certain minimum habitability requirements before renting their property. But what we know is that the vast majority of landlords in Detroit are not participating in that program.”
The tenants group and attorneys say they want to start a dialogue with the court, before having to take the matter before the Wayne County Circuit Court. It’s ultimately a strategy to move the needle on the number of rental properties in the city of Detroit that aren’t in compliance, improve the oversight of living conditions for renters and “set the tone” for Detroit, tenant advocates said. Rental compliance and lack of enforcement have long been an issue, despite repeated efforts by city officials to tighten rules.
Melanie Barbaza, executive assistant to the chief judge at 36th District Court, said in an email to the Free Press on June 11 that the court had just received the letter and required additional time to review it before responding.
What does Detroit’s rental ordinance say?
Attorneys for the Detroit Tenants Union and four unnamed renters sent a demand letter, signed by several lawyers and nonprofit housing leaders, to 36th District Court Chief Judge William McConico on June 11.
They want the court to ensure landlords have a city required certificate of compliance for the time period they are asking for rent in eviction cases, and before judges make decisions.
“This certificate of compliance is kind of the crux,” McCarty said. “The ordinance says that it’s unlawful to collect rent for a period of time during which a landlord does not have a certificate of compliance. … The court should say, ‘Can you just show me your certificate of compliance for the period of time during which you’re trying to collect rent,’ and if they can produce it, all good. Then they can get a judgment entered. If they can’t produce it, then they shouldn’t be able to collect that rent, because they’re not entitled to it. They’re not legally entitled to it under the ordinance.”
Lawyers for the tenants said that the CoC is collected during the eviction filing stage, but that the court does not “enforce the substantive consequence of its absence at the judgment stage.”
The court instead regards it as a defense for tenants to raise, they said, and doesn’t ask about the status of the certificate of compliance before entering a judgment in cases where a tenant is in court for not paying rent.
They argue this doesn’t align with the city’s rental ordinance, which they say is reinforced by court rules and state law.
Detroit’s rental ordinance goes further than Michigan housing law, they said. Under state law, a property owner must comply with local health and safety laws. Detroit’s housing rules tie several state and court provisions together, they said.
“Considered together, these provisions establish that a nonpayment summary proceeding brought by a landlord lacking a valid CoC cannot lawfully proceed to judgment for possession or for rent,” the letter to McConico states. This should apply to cases in which a tenant doesn’t appear in court, and a judgement is entered by default, they argue.
Lawyers for the tenants’ union propose resolving the issues they raise through administrative action, without litigation. They plan to file a complaint in the Wayne County Circuit Court soon, according to the letter, basically asking the higher court to have the 36th District Court comply with the ordinance.
The letter outlines three requests:
- For Chief Judge McConico to issue a local administrative order saying that the court applies the city of Detroit’s rental ordinance and other laws by reviewing the certificate of compliance before issuing a judgment for possession or for rent in nonpayment cases, and that the plaintiff must show they have a CoC.
- For the court to update its public filing forms and instructions to reflect this.
- For the court to include an advisory about Detroit City Code for tenants as part of their first hearing, letting them know that a landlord can’t collect rent for the time period they didn’t have a valid CoC.
The tenants’ union’s request, its lawyers said, is administrative and doesn’t ask the court to reverse, vacate or modify individual judgments. The relief, they said, is institutional and prospective.
Leaders of several nonprofit and legal aid groups, including the United Community Housing Coalition, Lakeshore Legal Aid, Michigan Legal Services, Sugar Law Center and the Detroit Justice Center signed onto the letter.
What usually happens in court
The issue of certificates of compliance came up during the court’s budget hearing earlier this year, in which the city council discussed the court’s finances.
At-Large Detroit City Council Member Mary Waters asked McConico during the 36th District Court budget hearing if the court requires landlords to have valid certificates of compliance before accepting or hearing an eviction case. The court cannot reject a filing if there’s no certificate of compliance, per an opinion from the state, he said, and must proceed to a judge. The ordinance comes into play at the hearing stage.
“The defense has to raise that argument,” he told council members in March.
Cases are dismissed for not having a compliance certificate, but that doesn’t happen often because people aren’t making the argument that they didn’t pay rent because the owner doesn’t have a CoC, he said.
“There are arguments concerning habitability,” he said. “The furnace doesn’t work, or there’s lead remediation (that) needs to happen, and they argue on those issues.”
Compliance in Detroit lags
The 14% of rental properties in Detroit with certificates of compliance is up from 10% in 2024, when Detroit City Council approved changes to the rental ordinance in an effort to crack down on negligent landlords and boost inspections. City officials at the time wanted to see a much higher increase in properties with a CoC, up from 10% to 20% to 30% a year or two after the changes were approved.
“We think it’s very important for landlords to have basic accountability,” said Steven Rimmer, director of the Detroit Tenants Union.
Since the 2024 overhaul of Detroit’s rental ordinance, landlords recently told Outlier Media they appreciated clearer rules but said trying to follow them is a challenge.
Erika Farley, executive director for the Rental Property Owners Association of Michigan, made up of more than 2,000 members, said while she can’t speak to the court’s compliance with the ordinance, her association encourages its members to make sure properties are following state laws and local ordinances.
“All municipalities, specifically the city of Detroit — because there are so many rental properties within the city — need to make it clear and concise what rental property owners have to do to fall into compliance,” she said. “… If they own just a handful of properties, these are not management companies, and not every rental property has a management company to run their properties. This is someone who more than likely has another job, and this is something they’re doing for retirement, or something that they had inherited. They are not specifically a professional real estate investor.”
The eviction process can also be difficult for rental property owners as they wait for an eviction order and have no income coming in, Farley said.
“The rental property owner is carrying that cost,” she said.
