Housing issues / eviction

FIX THIS AND MAKE IT SPECIFIC TO APPROPRIATE STATE:

Thank you for reaching out to us. I am sorry to hear what you are going through. Although I am not
specifically familiar with MI laws, and I cannot provide legal advice, I hope that I can provide
some helpful general information and referrals.

In general, a landlord or his/her agents (someone working for the landlord or under the landlord’s management) cannot enter a tenant’s home unless there is an emergency, as you said. I found some specific information about this related to this from the Michigan Legal Help website (http://michiganlegalhelp.org/self-help-tools/housing/tenant-rights-and-r…), which I am pasting relevant sections into this email here:
“You have the right to quiet enjoyment of your home. This means your landlord can’t do anything that prevents you from having access to your home. Your landlord must not:…

Enter your home without your permission, unless it’s an emergency…

Your landlord can’t enter your home without permission except in an emergency. If there is a problem that your landlord needs to enter your home to fix, you should be given notice a reasonable time before the landlord plans to enter. If there’s an emergency problem, like an urgent leak or a condition that’s hazardous to neighbors, your landlord is allowed to enter without giving you notice.”

Also, La Tanya, Michigan Legal Aid’s website has a whole section specifically addressing this issue and what to do - see here: http://www.michiganlegalaid.org/library_client/resource.2005-05-30.11174… (Sometimes a person may even decide to have information such as this printed out or viewable on a computer when approaching a landlord about a topic.)

(Please note that we are not affiliated with either of the above websites and cannot vouch for the information contained on them - we provide it for your information only).

In general, if a person believes his/her lease is being violated, it is often helpful to keep a detailed record of incidents/violations and to address the issue to the landlord in writing so that the tenant has a record of attempts made to correct the situation. In general, if any contract is violated (and a lease is a legal contract), a person may have the right to sue the other party to the contract for any damages caused for violating the contract. Perhaps you may want to see about getting some legal advocacy or advice from a local legal services organization (for example, perhaps they may have a sample letter that you can send to your landlord or perhaps they may have advice as to what steps to take if contacting the landlord doesn’t stop the problem.) Here is a link for free and paid legal services:http://www.womenslaw.org/gethelp_state_type.php?type_name=Finding%20a%20…

Also, for some basic information on suing someone in small claims court (if this is something you end up considering), you can go to our website, WomensLaw.org - see here:http://www.womenslaw.org/laws_state_type.php?statelaw_name=Suing%20Your%…