AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT -- OFFICE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Karen Alzate and 10 co-sponsors

Modernizes nuisance law to target premises used for commercial sexual activity, replacing references to prostitution with inclusive, person-centered terminology.

03/27/2025 Committee recommended measure be held for further study

Summary — HB 5849 (Revised Judicature Act amendment)

Status
- House Bill No. 5849. Introduced June 25, 2024 (sponsor: Rep. Denise Mentzer).
- Passed the Michigan House December 11, 2024; transmitted to the Senate and referred to the Committee on Government Operations (subsequent committee and joint committee referrals and a public hearing occurred in early 2025).
- Amends section 3801 of the Revised Judicature Act of 1961 (MCL 600.3801).

Purpose / Intent
- To update the state civil nuisance statute to replace references to “prostitution” and “prostitutes” with the broader term “commercial sexual activity” and corresponding person-centered phrasing. The change is part of a legislative package that redefines prostitution-related language and offenses across Michigan law.

Key provisions
- Adds “commercial sexual activity” explicitly to the list of uses that render a building, vehicle, boat, aircraft, or place a nuisance (MCL 600.3801(1)(a)).
- Replaces language referring to “prostitutes” with “persons who provide or offer to provide commercial sexual activity” in the list of nuisance uses (MCL 600.3801(1)(b)).
- Retains other nuisance categories (e.g., unlawful drug manufacture/sale, unlawful alcohol activities, specified penal code violations, facilitating armed violence).
- Continues to declare furniture, fixtures, contents, and intoxicating liquors on the premises as nuisances (MCL 600.3801(2)) and to authorize injunction and abatement under the Act and court rules (MCL 600.3801(3)).
- Holds owners, lessors, operators, or their agents/employees of such premises criminally or civilly accountable as a nuisance (MCL 600.3801(4)).
- Cross-references the public health code definition of “controlled substance.”

Affected parties / likely impacts
- Property owners, lessees, landlords, managers, and employees of premises used to facilitate commercial sexual activity — such properties could be declared nuisances and be subject to injunctions, abatement, and related remedies.
- Law enforcement and prosecutors: updated statutory language aligns civil nuisance tools with the redefined criminal statutory framework addressing commercial sexual activity.
- People providing or offering commercial sexual activity: terminology change reframes statutory references; substantive criminal or civil consequences depend on companion penal-code changes in related bills.
- Courts: will apply the revised definition when deciding injunctions and abatement actions under the Revised Judicature Act.

Procedural / timing notes
- The bill’s text includes an enactment clause: the amendatory act takes effect 90 days after enactment. It also conditions its effectiveness on passage of a companion bill in the legislative package (referenced as Senate Bill No. ____ or House Bill No. 5841).
- HB 5849 is part of a broader package (HBs 5841–5864 and related bills) that collectively replace “prostitution” terminology with “commercial sexual activity” across statutes, and some package components adjust age references and criminal penalties; those criminal-law changes are in the companion bills.

For more detail
- Amends: 1961 PA 236 (Revised Judicature Act), sec. 3801 (MCL 600.3801).
- Related/detailed changes to criminal statutes and penalties are found in companion bills (notably HB 5841 and others in the same package).