East Lansing drops fines for homeowners who allow long-term guests

East Lansing residents won’t face the possibility of $500-per-day fines for having long-term guests in their homes after voters approved a ballot measure this month.

Proposal 1, approved Nov. 5, will prohibit the city from “interfer[ing] with rights of owners to live with persons of their choice, so long as they are not rent-paying tenants.” It will change a situation under which residents who allowed nonpaying guests in their homes for more than 30 days, were, with some exceptions, required to seek a city permit or risk being fined.

Voters supported the proposal by a vote of 7,972 in favor to 6,666 opposed.

“This vote and campaign showed that East Lansing residents want to have guests live in their home without potentially facing large fines,” the East Lansing Charter Committee, which pushed for the change, said on its website.

“Those for and against Proposal 1 agreed on the key points – they want to have live-in child care, to age in place without fines, to have loved ones live so they can be cared for,” the committee continued. “City council and officials were moving in that direction. YOU just made it official.“

The committee included on its website testimony from a retired Ingham County circuit court judge who described a case brought to him that involved thousands of dollars in fines. Outrageous fines were not unusual, wrote retired judge James R. Giddings. A retired prosecutor wrote that one factor in her decision to leave East Lansing was the possibility of being fined by the city if she ever needed in-home caregivers.

Michigan Capitol Confidential submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city, asking for records of all permits issued to residents under now-repealed requirements. It also sought information about any citations and fines issued to violators. City officials responded that they do not have such records.

“The reason that this request was denied is as follows,” wrote Carrie Sampson, the city’s communications director. “The City is not in possession of documents that respond to this (FOIA) request. Homeowners can have guests and the City does not issue permits for guests. We do not issue citations to homeowners for having guests, and no permits would have been issued, since such a thing does not exist,” she told CapCon in an email.

But Mark Grebnar, a longtime East Lansing resident, said a colleague faced fines from the city. In the last 10 years, he has represented about 30 clients who had problems because of the unusual regulations on residential guests, Grebnar told a public forum.

Members of the charter committee asked the city to change its code, Grebnar said, but council members replied that there was not a problem.

The charter committee gathered enough signatures to add the proposal to the ballot, at which point, Grebnar said, officials decided to begin reforming the rule.

Various press accounts, as well as the charter amendment committee, said that some property owners have been fined thousands of dollars.

CapCon has asked the city the amount of revenue it has collected through these fines since 2020. It is awaiting a response.