Michigan Expungement and Apartment Applications: Tenant Rights After a Set-Aside

You apply for an apartment. The landlord runs a tenant screening report. Your expunged conviction appears, and the application is denied. Under Michigan law, that denial may be based on information that should not have been reported at all.

What a Set-Aside Means for Housing Applications

A Michigan set-aside makes your conviction nonpublic under MCL 780.623. For an ordinary housing application, MCL 780.622 generally allows you to answer "no" when asked whether you have that conviction, subject to statutory exceptions. A private screening report may still contain an entry from another source, so check its accuracy.

That is the law. The reality is different.

Why Sealed Records Appear on Tenant Screening Reports

Tenant screening companies — TransUnion SmartMove, RentPrep, MyRental, and others — may use court records, data brokers, or other sources. They do not necessarily receive updates when the MSP record changes.

When a set-aside is granted, private screening companies do not necessarily receive an automatic update. An older entry may remain until the company's source is updated or someone files a dispute.

Additionally, a local county court website may not reflect an automatic set-aside at the same time as ICHAT. A conviction may be cleared from ICHAT but still appear as active on a county court website, and a screening company that uses that record may report it.

Your Rights Under the FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects you. If a screening company reports an expunged conviction:

1. If the landlord relies on a consumer report, request the applicable FCRA notices and identify the screening company
2. You have the right to request a free copy of the report
3. You can file a formal dispute with the screening company, including a copy of the set-aside court order
4. The company generally has 30 days to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation and correct or delete information it finds inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable; a limited 15-day extension can apply if you provide relevant information during the first 30 days.

If a screening report contains a sealed conviction, dispute the inaccurate information with the screening company under the FCRA.

MCL 780.623(6) provides a state-law liability exception for reporting a conviction that was public on the report date; a set-aside alone does not prove that a private screening entry is inaccurate.

Timing Your Applications

The practical move: identify the screening company before you apply for housing. Use a self-check or ask the landlord which company it uses, then dispute any inaccurate entry with the company that reported it. TransUnion SmartMove, CoreLogic, and other providers may use different records.

A self-check through a tenant screening service shows what that company currently holds; another screening company may have different records. Dispute any inaccurate listing before you apply.

What Landlords Can and Cannot Ask

The product research does not establish statewide or local rules about questions on housing applications. It does establish that a set-aside record is nonpublic and that a person may legally answer "no" to a standard landlord asking whether they have a conviction for that offense. If a tenant screening report still lists the conviction, dispute it with the screening company.

The Michigan Expungement & Record Sealing Guide includes dispute letter templates for the major tenant screening companies and a pre-application background check audit checklist.

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