Michigan's Construction Lien Act ties the Notice of Furnishing to the Notice of Commencement: the recipients and their addresses come from it, and on a residential structure a copy of it rides behind the notice. Here is the section-by-section reading.
Who must serve it
Subcontractors and suppliers. "A contractor is not required to provide a notice of furnishing to preserve lien rights arising from his or her contract directly with an owner or lessee" (MCL 570.1109(1)). Laborers have their own wage-and-fringe notices under 570.1109(2) and (3), with different triggers.
Who receives it
"The designee and the general contractor, if any, as named in the notice of commencement at the address shown in the notice of commencement"; if no designee is named, or the designee has died, service is made on the owner or lessee named in the notice of commencement (570.1109(1)). There is no lender recipient in the section.
The deadline
Within 20 days after furnishing the first labor or material (570.1109(1)). If the owner fails to record the Notice of Commencement, or to provide it on written request, the window runs until 20 days after it is recorded or actually furnished (570.1108(10), (11); on a residential structure, 570.1108a(9)).
A late notice keeps lien rights for work after service (570.1109(5)), and for work before service except to the extent the owner has already paid the contractor against a sworn statement or lien waiver for it (570.1109(6)).
What it must say — and the residential copy
The 570.1109(4) form: "To:" the designee (or owner or lessee) at the address from the Notice of Commencement; "Please take notice that the undersigned is furnishing to … certain labor or material for … in connection with the improvements to the real property described in the notice of commencement recorded in liber …, on page …, … records" — or "(a copy of which is attached to this notice)"; the WARNING TO OWNER in capitals; the lien claimant's name and address; the signer's name and capacity; the date.
The attached-copy branch is the residential one. Section 108 (the recorded Notice of Commencement) does not apply to an improvement to a residential structure (570.1108(18)); under 570.1108a the owner, lessee or designee provides the notice of commencement on written request, within 10 days of a certified-mail request (570.1108a(5)). The Notice of Furnishing then attaches that copy.
How it is served, and the proof you keep
"Either personally or by certified mail"; "If service of the notice of furnishing is made by certified mail, service is complete on mailing" (570.1109(1)). No return receipt is required for the notice of furnishing (contrast 570.1111(5) for the later copy of the claim of lien).
Keep the mailing record: a subcontractor's or supplier's claim of lien "shall have attached to it a proof of service of a notice of furnishing" (570.1111(4)); the section prescribes no form for that proof, so the certified tracking and the dated mailing record are what get attached.