Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Michigan, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 4 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 3 years from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 30 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Michigan?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 4 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 3 years from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 30 days |
“A claim against a decedent’s estate that arose before the decedent’s death is barred against the estate…unless presented within 4 months after the date of the publication of notice to creditors…For a creditor known to the personal representative…within 1 month after the subsequent sending of notice or 4 months after the date of the publication of notice to creditors, whichever is later. If the notice requirements…have not been met, within 3 years after the decedent’s death.”
What makes Michigan different
Michigan runs three parallel clocks: a 4-month bar from publication, a 1-month-from-actual-notice track for known creditors, and a 3-year outer bar for estates that never publish notice.
A note on sourcing: legislature.mi.gov could not be directly rendered this session (a TLS chain issue); the figures were cross-checked across four independent search retrievals quoting the identical statutory text but not visually confirmed on the rendered official page.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Michigan’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 700.3801, 700.3803 |
| Michigan courts (general reference) | Michigan judicial branch |
| Confidence | Medium |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.