Land Contract Forfeiture in Michigan: What Sellers Should Know

Published August 18, 2026 · Land Contracts · by Hassan A. Zaarour

Land contracts are common across Wayne County, and so are defaults. When a purchaser stops paying, a seller has two very different remedies, and choosing the wrong one costs months.

Forfeiture versus foreclosure

Forfeiture runs through district court summary proceedings. It is comparatively fast and it ends the purchaser's interest and returns possession. What it generally does not do is produce a money judgment for the unpaid balance.

Foreclosure of a land contract runs in circuit court. It takes considerably longer and costs more, but it can reach a deficiency where the property is worth less than the balance owed.

The practical question is usually about equity. If the purchaser has paid very little and the property is worth more than the balance, forfeiture and a fresh sale is often the better economics. If a large balance is owed on a property that will not cover it, foreclosure may be the only route to the shortfall.

The notice controls everything

A forfeiture proceeding begins with a notice of forfeiture served on the purchaser. It has to identify the contract and the property correctly, state the default, state what has to be paid or done to cure, and give the contractual or statutory time to cure. Errors here are the single most common reason a case gets thrown out and restarted — and the most common errors are mundane: the wrong parcel identification number, a legal description copied from the wrong instrument, or service on the wrong party.

If the notice period passes without a cure, the seller files a complaint for possession in the district court where the property sits.

Redemption after judgment

A judgment of possession does not immediately end the matter. The purchaser gets a statutory period to pay the amount found due and keep the property. How long that period runs depends on how much of the purchase price the purchaser has already paid in — purchasers who have paid a substantial share of the price get materially longer than those who have paid little. Only after the redemption period expires without payment does the court issue a writ of restitution.

Mistakes that cost sellers money

• Accepting partial payments during the notice period without a written reservation. This can be argued as a waiver of the default and can require starting over.
• Self-help. Changing locks or shutting off utilities creates a damages claim against the seller regardless of how far behind the purchaser is.
• Wrong property identification. A recorded instrument with the wrong parcel number is a defect that surfaces later, usually at the worst moment.
• Not checking the record first. Intervening liens, tax delinquency, and recorded assignments change the analysis and sometimes the remedy.

Before you serve anything

Pull the recorded contract or memorandum, the payment history, the tax and title status, and the notice provisions of the contract itself. Those four documents determine which remedy is available and what the notice has to say. Sending a notice before reviewing them is how a three-month process becomes a nine-month one.