One year after the response is sent or the request is denied, under the official DTMB retention schedules. Not seven years, and not forever. Here are the rules as printed, with links to verify each at the source.
Clerks tend to keep FOIA files forever out of caution. The schedules are more merciful than that:
DTMB General Schedule #35 (Administrative Records), item 35.107; approved 6/6/2023. Applies to all Michigan public bodies.
DTMB General Schedule #25 (Township Clerks), item 25.103; approved 6/17/2008.
The one-year pattern repeats across nearly every office schedule: health departments, fire departments, prosecuting attorneys, libraries, and human resources all carry a FOIA series with a one-year clock (searchable in our free retention database). The trigger wording varies slightly (date created, request fulfilled, or response sent), but the term is consistently one year.
The critical distinction: the FOIA request file is the administrative wrapper. The incoming request, your acknowledgment and response, the fee itemization, the correspondence. That is what the one-year rule releases. The records you produced keep their own schedules: minutes stay permanent, personnel files keep their own clocks, and producing a copy for a requester changes nothing about the original’s retention.
Three situations extend the file’s life past a year: an appeal of a denial, litigation, or any pending dispute; all are holds that suspend disposal until resolution. And while a request is open, everything it reasonably covers is frozen, which is one of the four standard holds covered in our retention guide. A disciplined one-year disposal pass on closed, undisputed FOIA files is exactly the kind of routine program that reads as defensible when someone eventually asks. What belongs in the file while it lives is covered in our FOIA log guide.
Dekree builds the complete request file automatically: intake, correspondence, responses, fee itemizations, and the release log, all attached to the request. When a request closes, the retention clock starts on schedule, and anything under appeal or litigation is held.
Every quote links to the exact page of the official schedule on michigan.gov. The statutory FOIA deadlines for responding (a different clock entirely) are in our FOIA deadlines guide. Confirm disposal practices with your municipal attorney.
One year. General Schedule #35 item 35.107 (Freedom of Information Act Request Records), which applies to every Michigan public body, reads: RETAIN UNTIL: Response is sent, or request is denied PLUS: 1 year THEN: Destroy. The office-specific schedules agree; the township clerk schedule (GS #25 item 25.103) sets one year from date created. The request file means the administrative file: the request, the response, and the correspondence, not the underlying records that were requested.
No, and this distinction matters. The one-year rule covers the request file itself: the incoming request, your response letter, fee itemizations, and related correspondence. The records you produced copies of keep their own retention schedules. Producing a document for a FOIA request never shortens that document’s own retention period.
Then the file is under a hold and the one-year rule is suspended. Records involved in litigation, an appeal, or a pending investigation must be kept until the matter concludes. The one-year clock is a minimum for routine, closed requests with no dispute attached.
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.