Maintenance Responsibilities in Michigan Commercial Leasing

Unlike residential leasing in Michigan, where landlords are rigorously bound by the "implied warranty of habitability" requiring them to fix everything from a broken furnace to a leaky roof, commercial leasing operates in a totally different legal environment.

In Michigan commercial real estate, there is no automatic implied warranty that the premises are fit for the tenant's particular business purpose.

The entire maintenance relationship is dictated by the specific clauses drafted into the lease agreement.

Disclaimer: This guide provides general legal information for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Commercial maintenance clauses are notoriously litigious. Always consult a licensed commercial real estate attorney for advice specific to your situation. Information last verified: March 2026.

Dividing the Property: Structure vs. Interior

If a Michigan commercial lease is completely silent regarding who paints the exterior or who fixes a broken toilet, assigning liability often requires expensive litigation. Therefore, well-drafted commercial leases explicitly divide the property along structural lines.

1. Landlord Maintenance Obligations

Typically, the landlord retains responsibility for maintaining the "Base Building" and the structural integrity of the property. For a multi-tenant office building or an industrial warehouse in Michigan, this usually includes:

• The foundation, concrete slab, and load-bearing columns.
• The structural walls and exterior facade.
• The building's original roof structure and waterproof membrane (though roof patching is sometimes pushed onto single-tenant NNN leases).
• Maintaining shared common areas (elevators, parking lot snow removal, landscaping) paid for via the tenants' Common Area Maintenance (CAM) reimbursements.

2. Tenant Maintenance Obligations

Conversely, the commercial tenant is generally responsible for everything from the interior walls inward, including any specialized equipment they install. This encompasses:

• Interior non-load-bearing walls and fresh paint.
• All specialized floor coverings (e.g., commercial-grade carpets, epoxy warehouse floors).
• Plumbing fixtures (toilets, sinks) located solely within their demised premises.
• Glass shopfronts and commercial exterior signage.
• Routine interior pest control and janitorial services.

The HVAC Battleground

In Michigan, the most frequent point of contention in commercial leasing revolves around the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. Given the brutal Michigan winters, a failing heating system can completely shut down a retail business or freeze industrial pipes.

A meticulous lease must specify exactly who is responsible for the HVAC.

• The Routine Contract: Most leases force the tenant to enter into a biannual preventative maintenance contract with a licensed HVAC technician at the tenant's sole cost (e.g., replacing air filters, checking refrigerant levels).
• The Capital Replacement Fight: If a 25-year-old rooftop compressor physically dies beyond repair in year 4 of a 5-year lease, who pays the $30,000 replacement cost?
  • A highly aggressive, pro-landlord absolute NNN lease will force the tenant to buy the brand new unit.
  • A fairer, highly negotiated lease will require the tenant to perform routine repairs, but force the landlord to cover massive capital replacements at the end of the unit's lifecycle.

Snow Removal and CAM Charges

In Michigan, parking lot snow removal is a massive, highly variable seasonal expense. In a multi-tenant commercial property, the landlord typically signs the contract with the commercial plowing company, ensuring the entire lot is cleared before business hours.

The landlord then treats this massive expense as a Common Area Maintenance (CAM) charge, passing the actual cost down to the tenants proportionately based on their square footage. If a brutal winter causes snow removal costs to triple, the tenants' NNN estimated monthly payments will be severely underfunded, requiring the landlord to issue a massive "true-up" invoice during the year-end reconciliation.

Centralizing Commercial Portfolios

Delegating a burst pipe repair to either your landlord-preferred vendor or pushing it back to the tenant based on the exact wording of that specific unit's Net Lease is an administrative nightmare across a 50-unit industrial park. Landager digitizes your commercial portfolios, centralizing disparate lease clauses so property managers can instantly verify whether the tenant is liable for the roller door repair, and automatically deploy the correct commercial vendor if landlord intervention is contractually required.

Back to Michigan Commercial Landlord-Tenant Laws Overview.