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It also allows tenants to make arrangements themselves to get the issue repaired after the 48 hours and deduct it from rent.

Effectively half a month on average.

It's better than nothing. Wish it were better but it's a step in the right direction.

So, the landlord can effectively wait a month.

I guess Michigan could pass a law requiring landlords to accept rent payments every day. I'm not sure anyone would actually want that as a reform.

So… I don’t get it. You cannot enforce 48 hours unless the repair is requested less than 48 hours before rent is due.

I guess the question becomes - can you bill your landlord if you are forced to live outside their property, and deduct that cost from rent? If that's the case, the withheld rent becomes a means by which you can immediately recoup the cost of housing outside the rental unit.

Even then, just the threat of non-payment is a big deal for a landlord who is - themself - likely paying a note on the property and at risk of default if they can't use your money to pay their own creditors. The possibility of missing a mortgage payment creates a natural incentive to fix the property sooner rather than later.

As it stands, this would be a significant improvement to landlord/tenant relations. Which is why it likely won't pass.

It really depends on the definition of commencement. Scheduling a mold remediation company to come out in two weeks is arguably commencement of repairs.

Depends on the action needed.

Personally, I feel like for health and safety items, after 48 hours the renter should be able to call someone to do the repair on their behalf and bill the landlord any reasonable fees / withhold that money from the next month’s rent.

Michigan has colder winters. What if your heat goes out? Two days is too long in this scenario, especially for elderly or young kids.

If it’s heat or power or water in the dead of winter, 2 days is frankly extremely generous.

A short time frame is fine because the consequences for missing it is that rent is delayed until the repair is complete, or the tenant is authorized to arrange for repairs themselves and deduct the costs from the rent. Neither of those are onerous so there doesn't need to be a long grace period.

This is also specifically for safety related repairs. It's not like a tenant can withhold rent for a broken window screen or dripping faucet.

Yeah some work requiring contractors can take days to even find someone who can fit you into their schedule. 2 days seems great for critical to life things like no heat/ac, no functioning water/sewer, etc. But like, roof damage, a broken window? shit like that? Larger jobs It'll take at least a week to get a crew scheduled to even show up, and seems like an unreasonable legal burden.

My assumption would be they have 48hrs to book a service that takes time to fix and provide notice of scheduling.

Seven days is a long time to be homeless simply due to a landlord's neglect.

The wording seems to be that repairs must start within 48 hours, which is reasonable. Landlords could likely successfully argue that ordering replacement parts or having a someone scheduled to come out counts as starting or commencement.

Wrong, they should be on-call 24/7 to do repairs immediately. 48 hours is a generous compromise offer.

The submitted in writing part

Why would they spend their own money to fix things if nothing needed fixing?

It's not about completion it's about starting a repair.