For Michigan townships, permits and construction applications are kept for the life of the structure plus 7 years. City and village rules differ by series, and several are permanent. Quoted from DTMB General Schedules #10 and #8.
Building records are the schedules’ longest-lived office series, because the trigger is not a date at all:
DTMB General Schedule #10 (Michigan Townships), Building Department; approved 7/9/1997, updated 2009, 2014.
DTMB General Schedule #10 (Michigan Townships), Building Department; approved 7/9/1997, updated 2009, 2014.
The plans behind the permits go further still: commercial building plans and site plans in the townships schedule are PERMANENT, while non-commercial building plans ride the life-of-structure-plus-7 rule. As long as the building stands, its file stands with it.
The city and village schedule (GS #8) splits building records into many narrow series with very different clocks, and the splits are where mistakes happen:
DTMB General Schedule #8 (Municipalities), Building Department; approved 4/7/1998, updated 2010, 2026.
DTMB General Schedule #8 (Municipalities), Building Department; approved 4/7/1998, updated 2010, 2026.
The permit is permanent; the application clears in a year. Trade permits (plumbing, heating, electrical) run current year plus 5 years, permit log books are permanent, and contractor licensing records run 10 years. The full Building Department section is browsable on the GS #8 database page, and it rewards a careful read.
Life-of-structure triggers cannot live in a spreadsheet column; they need to be anchored to the record and reviewed, not auto-expired. Dekree applies the right series from your entity’s schedule and keeps event-triggered records out of every disposal pass until the event actually happens.
Every quote links to the exact page of its official PDF on michigan.gov, and both schedules are searchable in our free retention database. Building officials often operate under both a construction code authority and the retention schedules; confirm your office’s practice with your municipal attorney.
Life of the structure plus 7 years, under the townships schedule (GS #10, Building Department series: Permits and Construction Applications). The certificate of occupancy and inspector reports carry the same rule, and commercial building plans and site plans are PERMANENT. The clock is anchored to the building, not the paperwork date, so a permit for a standing structure is never eligible for disposal.
The city and village schedule (GS #8, Building Department section) is more granular and in places stricter: the permits series for building and wrecking is PERMANENT, permit log books are PERMANENT, while building permit applications run only until the current year ends plus 1 year, and trade permits such as plumbing, heating, and electrical run current year plus 5 years. Which series a document belongs to matters more in GS #8 than almost anywhere else.
Because the permit file is how a building proves what it is. Decades later, a fire investigation, a sale, an insurance dispute, or a code question reaches back to the original permits, plans, and inspection reports. The record has to outlive every owner of the building, which is why the trigger is demolition, not a calendar date.
This article is educational information for Michigan public bodies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your municipal attorney. Statute text: legislature.mi.gov.