Subletting Clause
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Michigan law says, what's specific to Detroit - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- The Michigan sections we read set no deadline for a landlord to answer a written sublet request and no standard for refusing one. Any reply period is a term to look for in the lease.
- MCL 554.601(a)(i) says "Landlord" means "The owner, lessor, or sublessor of a rental unit or the property of which it is a part". For that act's purposes, a tenant who sublets is a landlord to the subtenant.
- MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a lease term letting a lessor "alter a provision of the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant", apart from listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days. § 554.633(3) makes a violating provision "void."
- Detroit City Code § 12-7-20(5) says the Detroit Housing Commission "shall prohibit subletting by tenants" in its housing projects, a duty MCL 125.694(e) also places on housing commissions.
- § 23-6-1(a) lists a sublessee among those who may not discriminate in renting a housing accommodation, on grounds including marital status, familial status, age, height, weight and public benefit status. § 23-6-2(a)(1) exempts some owner-occupied settings.
Understanding the Subletting Clause
A sublet clause decides whether someone else may take over your Detroit unit for part of the term, what you must ask first, and how long the landlord may take to answer. On the reply period and the grounds for a refusal, the Michigan sections we read set no deadline and no standard.
Michigan's Landlord-Tenant Act does know what a sublease is. MCL 554.601(a)(i) counts a sublessor among the people who are a landlord, so a tenant who sublets steps into that role toward the subtenant for the act's purposes.
Detroit adds two rules that touch a sublet without timing it. The Housing Commission must prohibit subletting in its own housing projects under City Code § 12-7-20(5), and § 23-6-1 bars a sublessee, among others, from discriminating on the grounds it names. Any reply period is one to look for in your lease.
The Michigan text behind this page was read on archived copies of the Legislature's own pages. Read MCL 554.601 as it stands today before you rely on it.
What renters assume
That Michigan law gives a Detroit landlord a set number of days to answer a sublet request, and that a landlord who stays silent has said yes.
What is actually true
The Michigan sections we read set no reply period and no standard for a refusal, and nothing in them turns silence into consent. New York City's row in the comparison carries 30 days under New York law.
Detroit's reads no deadline; lease controls, which leaves the sublet paragraph you signed as the document that answers it.
The bars in the comparison on this page measure a landlord's deadline to answer a written sublet request. One of the 18 rows carries a figure: New York City, at 30 days. The other 17 rows are blank.
Eleven of those read no statute: Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Boston and Las Vegas. Chicago and Portland read no deadline.
Washington, DC reads no deadline, lease may bar it, Columbus no statute; lease controls, Newark no deadline; city bars short-term sublets, and Detroit no deadline; lease controls.
Detroit's label names the document that fills the gap. The Michigan sections we read define a sublessor as a landlord and set no reply period, and the one Detroit subletting rule our record reached binds the Housing Commission's own projects.
For a private Detroit rental, the sublet paragraph is the text to read for a reply date and a standard.
Plain English Version
Michigan's Landlord-Tenant Act mentions a sublessor to say that someone who sublets to you is your landlord for that act's purposes. The Michigan sections we read give no reply period and no standard for saying no, so read your sublet paragraph first.
A landlord also cannot rewrite a running lease without your written consent, apart from a short list of changes on 30 days' notice. In Detroit, the Housing Commission must bar subletting in its own housing projects, and a tenant who sublets must not discriminate on the grounds the city names.
Sublet Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Detroit, MI
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
Occupancy of Premises — Tenant shall not assign nor underlet any part or the whole of the premises, nor shall permit the premises to be occupied for a period longer than a temporary visit by anyone except the individuals specifically named in the first paragraph of this tenancy, their spouses, and any children born to them hereafter, without first obtaining on each occasion the assent in writing of Landlord.
Quoted from the published opinion in Slavin v. Rent Control Board of Brookline, 406 Mass. 458, 548 N.E.2d 1226 (1990). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
“not assign nor underlet any part or”
Underletting is the act Michigan's Landlord-Tenant Act names, in its definitions rather than in a rule. MCL 554.601(a)(i) says “Landlord” means “The owner, lessor, or sublessor of a rental unit or the property of which it is a part”. Underlet a room and, for that act's purposes, you are a landlord to the person in it. The Michigan sections our record read set no reply period and no standard for the consent this sentence demands.
“a temporary visit by anyone except the”
The lease separates visitors from occupants by time. Michigan's definition separates them by consent and payment: under MCL 554.601(g) a tenant is an individual who occupies a rental unit “with the landlord's consent for an agreed upon consideration.” A friend staying a week for nothing is not who that sentence describes. A subtenant paying you rent, with your consent, is much closer to it.
“and any children born to them hereafter”
The lease names a household by marriage and birth. Detroit's fair housing rule reaches the people who rent out a home, and it names the tenant too. Detroit City Code § 23-6-1(a) makes it unlawful for “the owner, lessee, sublessee, assignee, or managing agent” to refuse to deal or to discriminate in terms on grounds including familial status and marital status. Choosing a subtenant puts you on that side of the section.
“occasion the assent in writing of Landlord”
The lease demands the landlord's assent in writing. Michigan asks the same of the landlord in the other direction: MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a provision letting a lessor “alter a provision of the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant”. The exceptions are listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days, and under § 554.633(3) a violating provision “is void.”
The landlord did not have to be reasonable, and the tenant lost. The Supreme Judicial Court read this clause and refused to add anything to it: a residential lease requiring the landlord's written assent before an assignment, an underletting or an additional occupant carries no implied duty to act reasonably. Absent express lease language - or a statute - saying consent will not be unreasonably withheld, the landlord may refuse arbitrarily, so a blanket refusal to accept any replacement occupant did not excuse the tenant's breach. The annulment of the rent board's decision was affirmed and the certificate of eviction ordered to issue. The court knew it was declining a trend: it found no demonstrable trend involving residential leases, reasoned that in a rent-controlled town a landlord has little economic incentive to withhold consent, warned that the opposite rule would generate a plethora of litigation, and handed the question to the Legislature - noting in a footnote that four states had already legislated, New York's Real Property Law § 226-b among them. Two limits belong with the holding. The disposition was not a clean sweep: the court reversed the Appellate Division's award of double costs and attorneys' fees even as it affirmed the annulment. And the closing footnote says the court makes no suggestion about the rule it might adopt in other contexts - this is a rule about residential leases and nothing wider.
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Michigan Law on Subletting Clause
- Michigan law treats a sublessor as a landlord. MCL 554.601(a)(i) says "Landlord" means "The owner, lessor, or sublessor of a rental unit or the property of which it is a part", and § 554.601(g) defines a tenant as an individual who occupies a rental unit "with the landlord's consent for an agreed upon consideration." For that act's purposes, a tenant who sublets is a landlord to the subtenant.
- A landlord cannot rewrite the lease midstream without written consent. MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a lease provision providing that "a lessor may alter a provision of the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant", except for listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days: changes required by law, rule changes required to protect health, safety or peaceful enjoyment, and rent changes to cover certain tax, utility and insurance increases. Under § 554.633(3), a provision that violates the section "is void."
- Public housing tenants may not sublet. Detroit City Code § 12-7-20 lists the Housing Commission's duties on rentals and tenant selection, and item (5) reads: "It shall prohibit subletting by tenants." MCL 125.694(e) imposes the same duty on a housing commission operating housing projects under the Housing Facilities Act.
- Detroit's fair housing rule reaches a tenant who sublets. Section 23-6-1(a) makes it unlawful for "the owner, lessee, sublessee, assignee, or managing agent" of a housing accommodation to refuse to deal or to discriminate in terms on grounds including race, color, religious beliefs, national origin, age, height, weight, familial status, marital status, disability, public benefit status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Section 23-6-2(a)(1) exempts renting a unit in an owner-occupied building of not more than two units, or a room in a single-family dwelling where the lessor or the lessor's immediate family lives.
Sources include Mich. Comp. Laws § 554.601(a); Mich. Comp. Laws § 554.633; Mich. Comp. Laws § 125.694; Detroit City Code § 12-7-20; Detroit City Code § 23-6-1; Detroit City Code § 23-6-2 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
The Michigan sections we read set no deadline for a landlord to answer a written sublet request and no standard for refusing one. That is a statement about the sections read, not a survey of the state's code, and it leaves the sublet paragraph you signed as the document that answers both.
What Michigan does write is a status. MCL 554.601(a)(i) says "Landlord" means "The owner, lessor, or sublessor of a rental unit or the property of which it is a part".
Under § 554.601(g), a tenant is an individual who occupies a rental unit "with the landlord's consent for an agreed upon consideration."
Set those definitions side by side and a sublet changes your position. For that act's purposes, a tenant who sublets is a landlord to the subtenant.
Our Michigan record does not reach what a sublet does to your own lease with the owner, so read that lease's sublet paragraph first.
One more section limits what a landlord can do to the lease once it has begun. MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a provision letting a lessor "alter a provision of the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant".
The exceptions are listed adjustments made on written notice of not less than 30 days.
Those adjustments are narrow. They are changes required by law, rule changes required to protect health, safety or peaceful enjoyment, and rent changes to cover certain tax, utility and insurance increases. Under § 554.633(3), a provision that violates the section "is void."
Our Michigan record lists those adjustments without applying them to a sublet term. If your landlord proposes to change the sublet paragraph partway through the lease, § 554.633(1)(l) is the section to read.
The contrast in the comparison on this page is New York. Its row carries 30 days for a landlord's answer, and nothing in the Michigan sections we read supplies an equivalent figure.
The 30 days in § 554.633(1)(l) is a notice period for a landlord's listed adjustments, not a reply period for a sublet request.
The Michigan text behind this page was read on archived copies of the Legislature's own pages. Read MCL 554.601 and MCL 554.633 as they stand today before relying on them.
Michigan Tenant Protections
Three state rules and two city rules stand behind a Detroit renter on this clause, and each is narrow. First, MCL 554.601(a)(i) defines landlord to mean the owner, lessor, or sublessor of a rental unit or the property of which it is a part, so a tenant who sublets is a landlord to the subtenant for that act's purposes.
Second, under MCL 554.601(g) a tenant is an individual who occupies a rental unit with the landlord's consent for an agreed upon consideration.
Third, MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a lease provision letting a lessor alter the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant, except for listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days. Under § 554.633(3) a provision that violates the section is void.
In Detroit, City Code § 12-7-20(5) says the Housing Commission shall prohibit subletting by tenants in its housing projects, a duty MCL 125.694(e) also places on housing commissions.
Section 23-6-1(a) makes it unlawful for the owner, lessee, sublessee, assignee, or managing agent of a housing accommodation to refuse to deal or to discriminate in terms on the grounds it names. Section 23-6-2(a)(1) exempts renting a unit in an owner-occupied building of not more than two units, or a room in a single-family dwelling where the lessor or the lessor's immediate family lives.
None of these sets a reply date or a standard for a refusal.
Read the current text of each before relying on it.
What's Specific to Detroit
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Detroit's code was searched for this question rather than read cover to cover, and that is part of the answer. Our record of the Detroit City Code on Municode, read through a text search for sublease, sublet, subletting, subtenant and sublessee, finds no Detroit section setting a deadline for answering a sublet request.
The one rule that search reached on subletting a home is § 12-7-20(5). In its housing projects, the Detroit Housing Commission "shall prohibit subletting by tenants". MCL 125.694(e) places the same duty on housing commissions operating projects under the Housing Facilities Act.
Read that rule for who it binds. It is a duty on the Housing Commission in its own projects, and our record does not apply it to a private landlord.
A tenant in Commission housing has a direct answer; for a private rental, the sublet paragraph is the text to read. Section 12-7-20 sets out the Commission's duties on rentals and tenant selection, and the subletting bar is item (5) on that list.
The second Detroit rule reaches the person subletting. § 23-6-1(a) makes it unlawful for "the owner, lessee, sublessee, assignee, or managing agent" of a housing accommodation to refuse to deal or to discriminate in terms on the grounds it names.
Those grounds include race, color, religious beliefs, national origin, age, height, weight, familial status, marital status, disability, public benefit status, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. A tenant choosing a subtenant is choosing who to rent to, and the section names a lessee and a sublessee alongside the owner.
Two grounds on that list sit close to the questions a sublet raises. A refusal tied to how a proposed subtenant would pay the rent can touch public benefit status, and a refusal tied to who would live with them can touch familial status or marital status.
The section carries an exemption worth checking. § 23-6-2(a)(1) exempts renting a unit in an owner-occupied building of not more than two units, or a room in a single-family dwelling where the lessor or the lessor's immediate family lives. A tenant renting out a room in a home they live in should read it closely.
Here is the edge of the reading. Municode marks its codified copy as codified through Ordinance No. 2024-32, effective June 25, 2024, and its ordinance bank holds later ordinances not yet codified.
We describe § 12-7-20 and § 23-6-1 as enacted and do not predict how either would apply to a particular sublet. Read both as they stand on the day you need them.
The Michigan sections we read set no deadline for an answer, which leaves the clause as the place a reply date would be written.
The Michigan sections we read set no standard for a refusal, so a reasonableness promise is a term to ask for before you sign.
Detroit City Code § 12-7-20(5) says the Commission "shall prohibit subletting by tenants" in its housing projects.
MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a provision letting a lessor alter the rental agreement after it begins without the tenant's written consent, apart from listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Mich. Comp. Laws § 554.601(a); Mich. Comp. Laws § 554.633; Mich. Comp. Laws § 125.694; Detroit City Code § 12-7-20; Detroit City Code § 23-6-1; Detroit City Code § 23-6-2, read on web.archive.org. The Michigan Legislature's page for MCL 554.601, in an archived copy dated November 3, 2025, marks the compiled laws as complete through Public Act 30 of 2025.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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Consent at the landlord's sole discretion
The Michigan sections we read set no standard for a refusal. Wording that puts the decision wholly in the landlord's hands takes its meaning from the lease alone, which makes it worth changing before you sign.
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A request with no date for an answer
The Michigan sections we read set no deadline, and our record of the Detroit code found none either. Keep the written request and the date you sent it.
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A subtenant turned away on listed grounds
§ 23-6-1(a) names a lessee and a sublessee among those who may not refuse to deal on grounds including familial status, marital status, age and public benefit status.
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Subletting in Housing Commission housing
§ 12-7-20(5) requires the Detroit Housing Commission to prohibit subletting by tenants in its housing projects. A sublet plan in one of those units runs into that duty.
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A sublet rule rewritten mid-lease
MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a provision letting a lessor alter the agreement after it begins without the tenant's written consent, and § 554.633(3) makes a violating provision void.
Your Rights as a Detroit Tenant
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A sublessor is a landlord
MCL 554.601(a)(i) includes a sublessor in the definition of landlord, so for that act's purposes a subtenant's landlord is the tenant who sublet to them.
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No mid-lease rewrite without your written consent
MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars a provision letting a lessor alter the rental agreement after its commencement without the written consent of the tenant, apart from listed adjustments on 30 days' written notice.
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A void term stays void
Under § 554.633(3), a provision or clause of a rental agreement that violates the section "is void."
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Fair housing reaches the person subletting
§ 23-6-1(a) covers the owner, lessee, sublessee, assignee or managing agent of a housing accommodation, with an exemption in § 23-6-2(a)(1) for some owner-occupied settings.
What To Do - Step by Step
Read your sublet paragraph for three things
Whether consent is required, what applying costs, and whether a reply date appears. The Michigan sections we read set no deadline and no standard, which leaves that paragraph as the text that answers them.
Check who runs the building
If the unit is in a Detroit Housing Commission project, § 12-7-20(5) requires the Commission to prohibit subletting by tenants.
Ask in writing and put your own date on it
Name the subtenant, the dates and the rent. With no reply clock in the Michigan sections we read, the date you put in the request is the one both sides can point to later.
Choose a subtenant on lawful grounds
§ 23-6-1(a) reaches a lessee and a sublessee. Check the exemption in § 23-6-2(a)(1) if you are renting a room in a home you live in.
Watch for changes to the lease partway through
MCL 554.633(1)(l) bars altering the agreement after it begins without your written consent, apart from listed adjustments on written notice of not less than 30 days.
Read the current text before relying on any of it
Confirm MCL 554.601 and MCL 554.633 as they read today, and read § 12-7-20 and § 23-6-1 in the current Detroit code. The copy our record read was codified through Ordinance No. 2024-32.