Abandonment and Divorce in Michigan: What the Law Actually Says

Abandonment is one of the most common words we hear on the phone, and one of the least useful legally. Callers use it to describe a spouse who moved out last week, a father who has not called in six years, and everything in between. Those are different problems with different answers.

Michigan does not recognize abandonment as a ground for divorce. There is no petition to file, no waiting period that transfers the house to the spouse who stayed, and no rule that a parent who leaves automatically loses custody. Fault of every kind was written out of Michigan’s divorce grounds in 1972.

What survives is narrower but still worth understanding. Desertion can affect how a judge divides property, how much spousal support gets awarded, and, most consequentially, what the custody arrangement looks like when the case ends. This guide walks through where the word actually carries weight in Michigan law and where it does not.

Michigan’s Only Ground for Divorce

Under MCL 552.6, a complaint for divorce is filed on the allegation that there has been a breakdown of the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved. The statute goes further than most people realize: it directs that the plaintiff “shall make no other explanation of the grounds for divorce than by the use of the statutory language.”

In other words, you are not permitted to plead abandonment even if you want to. The defendant may admit or deny the statutory grounds, but nothing more.

Two things follow. First, a spouse who left cannot block the divorce by objecting, because one party’s sworn testimony to the statutory language is sufficient. Second, proving that your spouse walked out will not get you divorced any faster or on better terms as a matter of course. The consequences of leaving show up later in the case, in the parts that are actually contested.

Property Division: Fault Is a Factor, Not a Lever

Michigan divides marital property equitably under MCL 552.19, which in practice usually means close to evenly, though not by formula.

The controlling framework comes from Sparks v Sparks, 440 Mich 141; 485 NW2d 893 (1992), which sets out nine factors: duration of the marriage, contributions of the parties to the marital estate, age, health, life status, necessities and circumstances of the parties, earning abilities, past relations and conduct of the parties, and general principles of equity.

Desertion falls under the eighth factor. But Sparks itself was a reversal of a trial court that leaned too hard on it. The trial judge there had awarded the husband 75 percent of the marital estate largely because of the wife’s affair, and the Supreme Court sent the case back for a new hearing before a different judge, holding that courts must weigh all relevant factors and may not assign disproportionate weight to any one circumstance. A year later, in Sands v Sands, 442 Mich 30, 36-37; 497 NW2d 493 (1993), the Court reiterated that the object of property division is equity, not punishment.

Spousal Support

Spousal support is authorized by MCL 552.23 and, for support during the case, MCL 552.13. There is no statewide formula. Courts work through the factors collected in Olson v Olson, 256 Mich App 619, 631; 671 NW2d 64 (2003), which include the past relations and conduct of the parties, the length of the marriage, the parties’ abilities to work, the source and amount of property awarded, the parties’ ages, ability to pay, present situation, needs, health, prior standard of living and responsibility for supporting others, contributions to the joint estate, a party’s fault in causing the divorce, the effect of cohabitation on a party’s financial status, and general principles of equity.

Note that fault appears twice on that list, once as past relations and conduct and again as fault in causing the divorce. Support is one of the few places in a Michigan divorce where conduct gets that kind of double billing.

Even here, the persuasive version of the argument is economic. A dependent spouse who lost income, health coverage, or the ability to work when the other spouse left is describing something the Olson factors were built to address. A spouse who is simply angry is not.

Moving Out Does Not Cost You the House

This is the correction we make most often. Leaving the marital home does not forfeit your ownership interest in it. The house remains marital property subject to division regardless of which spouse is sleeping there when the complaint is filed, and your name does not come off the deed because you changed your mailing address.

The real risks of moving out are different ones, and they are worth taking seriously:

• Cash flow. You may end up funding two households while the case is pending. A court can order the spouse remaining in the home to contribute, or order temporary support, but that requires a motion and it takes time.
• Possession is not ownership, but it is leverage. A judge can grant one spouse exclusive use of the home during the case. That order does not transfer title, though as a practical matter it is much harder to reverse than to obtain.
• Your belongings. Personal property left behind is not legally abandoned; the judgment of divorce will divide it. Recovering specific items months later, however, is a familiar and avoidable headache.
• The children. This is the one that matters most.

Established Custodial Environment: The Real Stakes

If you move out and the children stay, you may be creating what Michigan law calls an established custodial environment.

MCL 722.27(1)(c) provides that a custodial environment is established if, over an appreciable time, the child naturally looks to the custodian in that environment for guidance, discipline, the necessities of life, and parental comfort. The statute directs courts to also consider the child’s age, the physical environment, and the inclination of the custodian and the child as to permanency of the relationship.

The same subsection then says a court shall not modify its previous orders so as to change an established custodial environment unless clear and convincing evidence shows the change is in the child’s best interests. That standard applies whether the environment exists with one parent or with both. Foskett v Foskett, 247 Mich App 1, 6; 634 NW2d 363 (2001). And under MCR 3.210(C)(1), a court may not enter an order changing an established custodial environment in a contested matter without first holding an evidentiary hearing.

Read together, these provisions mean that a living arrangement which sets in during the months a case is pending can become very difficult to undo. Michigan appellate courts have described the purpose of the rule as erecting a barrier against removing a child from a settled environment. That barrier works against whichever parent is on the outside of it.

Separately, the best interest factors in MCL 722.23 include the length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment and the desirability of maintaining continuity, along with the permanence as a family unit of the proposed custodial home. Extended absence tends to cut against the absent parent on both.

The Waiting Period That Does Not Exist

Callers frequently ask how long a spouse has to be gone before it counts: six months, a year, two years. The premise is wrong. No period of absence automatically produces a custody award, a property award, or a judgment in a Michigan divorce.

Michigan family law does contain a number of specific time periods, but each belongs to a different proceeding:

There is one genuine oddity worth flagging. MCL 552.9f, which sets the 60 day waiting period, contains an exception “where the cause for divorce is desertion.” That language predates the 1972 no-fault amendments, and since MCL 552.6 no longer permits desertion to be pleaded as a cause for divorce, the exception has no clear modern application. Do not plan around it.

When the Other Parent Has Actually Disappeared

This is where abandonment carries real legal weight, and the right approach depends entirely on what you are trying to accomplish.

You need a divorce and cannot locate your spouse

You can still get divorced. Under MCR 2.106, when a defendant cannot be found after diligent inquiry, the court may authorize service by publication or posting. You file a motion supported by an affidavit describing the efforts you made to locate the person. If the court grants it, notice is published once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper in the county, and a copy is mailed to the last known address.

Document the search before you file the motion: last known addresses, employers, relatives contacted, social media, mail forwarding, skip trace results. Judges deny these motions when the affidavit is thin. Watch the summons expiration as well, since a summons is valid for a limited period and must be extended if service is not completed in time.

Once alternate service is complete and the response period runs, the case can proceed to default. A default does not by itself produce a judgment; you still have to appear, testify to the statutory grounds, satisfy the waiting period, and file a non-military affidavit before the court will sign.

You want the other parent’s rights terminated

Termination of parental rights is not a motion one parent files against the other in a custody case. Desertion of 91 or more days without seeking custody is a statutory ground under MCL 712A.19b(3)(a)(ii), and there is a parallel 28 day ground where the parent is unidentifiable, but these apply in child protective proceedings initiated through DHHS and the prosecutor, on a clear and convincing evidence standard.

For most parents asking this question, the realistic remedy is not termination. It is a custody order awarding sole legal and physical custody, with parenting time suspended or made conditional on re-engagement.

Your spouse wants to adopt your child

This is the most direct path, and it is available in the right facts. MCL 710.51(6) allows a court to terminate the other parent’s rights on a stepparent adoption petition where:

1. The parents are divorced, or are unmarried and the father has acknowledged paternity or is a putative father meeting the statutory conditions;
2. The petitioning parent has custody of the child according to a court order, and has married the person petitioning to adopt;
3. The other parent, having the ability to support, failed to provide regular and substantial support, or failed to substantially comply with an existing support order, for two years or more before the petition was filed; and
4. The other parent, having the ability to visit, contact, or communicate with the child, regularly and substantially failed to do so for two years or more before the petition was filed.

Both the support prong and the contact prong must be satisfied. A parent who sends sporadic money but never visits, or who visits occasionally but never pays, will usually defeat the petition. Courts look at the two year window immediately preceding the filing, and the Court of Appeals held in In re MSL (2024) that consistently making health insurance available to a child counts as support under the statute, regardless of whether the custodial parent used it.

Criminal Desertion and Nonsupport

Michigan does criminalize abandonment, though this is seldom the remedy people are looking for.

MCL 750.161 makes it a felony to desert and abandon a spouse, or children under 17, without providing necessary and proper shelter, food, care, and clothing, and likewise to fail or refuse to provide those things while having sufficient ability to do so. The penalty is one to three years in prison, or three months to one year in county jail.

MCL 750.165 covers failure to pay court-ordered support for a current or former spouse or a child. It is a felony punishable by up to four years or a $2,000 fine. The statute requires that the person either appeared in, or was personally served with notice of, the proceeding in which the support order was entered.

Both are charged by the prosecutor, not by you, and a criminal case does not produce a custody order, a support order, or a divorce judgment. If the goal is money, a motion in your family law case and enforcement through the Friend of the Court will move faster.

Practical Steps When a Spouse Has Left

1. Write down the date and the circumstances while they are fresh, including what was said, what was taken, and whether any support has been provided since.
2. Get copies of the financial records now, including account statements, tax returns, retirement statements, and pay records. Access has a way of disappearing.
3. Open an individual account, but do not empty joint accounts. Unilateral moves with marital money tend to be remembered at trial.
4. File the motion for temporary relief early. Support, exclusive use of the home, and a parenting time schedule can all be addressed in the first weeks of a case. Waiting is what lets the other side’s version of the status quo harden.
5. Log everything. Missed parenting time, missed payments, and communications should be recorded as they happen, not reconstructed a year later.
6. Talk to a lawyer before you move out if you have not already gone. It is one of the few decisions in a divorce that is genuinely difficult to unwind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I file for divorce in Michigan on grounds of abandonment?

No. Michigan is a no-fault state. MCL 552.6 provides one ground, breakdown of the marriage relationship, and directs that no other explanation of the grounds may be stated in the complaint. Desertion may still be considered as one of several factors in dividing property and awarding spousal support.

If my spouse abandoned me, do I automatically get the house?

No. The marital home is divided equitably along with the rest of the marital estate under the Sparks factors. A spouse’s departure may be weighed as part of the parties’ past relations and conduct, but the Michigan Supreme Court has held that no single factor may be given disproportionate weight.

If I move out, do I give up my rights to the house?

No. Moving out does not forfeit an ownership interest in marital property. The greater exposure is to custody: if the children remain in the home with the other parent, an established custodial environment may form there, and changing it later requires clear and convincing evidence under MCL 722.27(1)(c).

How long does a spouse have to be gone before it counts as abandonment in Michigan?

There is no such period in a Michigan divorce. The 91 day and two year periods people find online belong to termination of parental rights in child protective proceedings and to stepparent adoption respectively, and neither applies to a divorce filing.

Can I get divorced if I cannot find my spouse?

Yes. After a documented diligent search, you can ask the court under MCR 2.106 for permission to serve by publication or posting. Notice runs once a week for three weeks and is mailed to the last known address. Once the response period expires the case can proceed by default, though you still must appear and prove the statutory grounds.

Can I terminate the other parent’s rights because they abandoned our child?

Not directly. Termination proceeds through child protective proceedings brought by DHHS and the prosecutor, not by one parent against the other. The realistic outcomes for a private party are a sole custody order with parenting time suspended, or, where the two year statutory conditions are met and a stepparent is ready to adopt, a stepparent adoption under MCL 710.51(6).

Does abandonment affect child support?

Support is set under the Michigan Child Support Formula based on income and overnights, not on fault. A parent who leaves still owes support. If they cannot be located, support can be established and later enforced through the Friend of the Court, including by income withholding, license suspension, and contempt.

Sources & References: MCL 552.6 — Grounds for divorce · MCL 552.9, 552.9f — Residency and waiting periods · MCL 552.13, 552.19, 552.23 — Property division and spousal support · MCL 722.23, 722.27 — Best interest factors and established custodial environment · MCL 710.51(6) — Stepparent adoption · MCL 712A.19b(3)(a)(ii) — Desertion ground in child protective proceedings · MCL 750.161, 750.165 — Criminal desertion and nonsupport · MCR 2.106 — Service by publication · MCR 3.210(C)(1) — Evidentiary hearing requirement · Sparks v Sparks, 440 Mich 141 (1992) · Sands v Sands, 442 Mich 30 (1993) · Olson v Olson, 256 Mich App 619 (2003) · Foskett v Foskett, 247 Mich App 1 (2001) · In re AGD, 327 Mich App 332 (2019) · In re MSL (Mich Ct App 2024)