• Objective of new 5-point plan is to provide thousands more Detroiters quality, code-compliant housing through better tracking of upcoming expirations, targeted enforcement and more support for tenants and landlords 
• Initial goal is to increase rate of compliance from current 14% to 25% within one year 
• Mayor’s recent Senior Apartment Building effort surpassed the original August compliance goal by 32%; 86 Senior buildings now code compliant

Mayor Mary Sheffield and city buildings officials today announced a comprehensive new plan to bring thousands of 1-2 family rental properties, which make up the largest share of Detroit rental units, into compliance to better ensure that tenants are living in safe, quality housing.  The initial goal of the effort is to increase the rate of compliance among the estimated 85,000 rental properties from the current 14% to 25% in the next 12 months.  

A map showing all registered rental properties in the city with their compliance status can be found here.

Mayor Sheffield joins with city buildings officials, landlords and community members to outline her new 5-point plan to bring thousands more 1-2 family rental properties into compliance with city safety codes.

The effort comes as Mayor Sheffield also revealed that her project announced on January 26 to have 65 of the city’s 111 Senior apartment buildings into compliance by August has far exceeded that goal with 86 Senior buildings currently with a certificate of compliance (CofC), with efforts continuing.  

“All Detroiters deserve to live in safe, quality housing. Our senior building compliance effort shows that with a good strategy and follow up, we can significantly increase compliance and improve the quality of housing for thousands of Detroiters,” said Mayor Sheffield. “Now we are turning our full attention to the segment of rental properties that have received the least attention from the City in recent years.”  

The rental compliance plan will employ five key strategies:  

Creation of Master Enforcement List, including rentals that may be operating below the radar. In many cases, owners are renting properties but have not registered as rentals to avoid the process of operating lawfully. Using available data, BSEED also will track 36th District Court data, BSEED rental registrations and complaint records, as well as utility and postal service occupancy data and assessor’s office data to help determine if a home is owner occupied or if it may be operating as an unregistered rental property. If it is determined a property is operating as an unregistered rental, BSEED will begin education and enforcement to achieve compliance. 

Better tracking of CofC’s that are about to expire or have recently expired. Each year, thousands of small rental properties that are in compliance allow their annual certificates to expire, causing a large unnecessary drop in compliance rates.  As part of this strategy, the city will be much more proactive in reaching out to landlords in advance of their expiration date to better ensure a renewal of their CofC.  BSEED now will send notices to landlords 90 days, 60 days, 30 days, 7 days and one day prior to the expiration of the current CofC and assign an inspector to follow up directly.  BSEED also will follow up directly with landlords whose CofC lapsed within the past three years with a goal of getting each back into compliance within 90 days.  

Assign inspectors to specific geographic areas of the city. To increase inspector familiarity with properties and to foster great community trust, BSEED inspectors each will “own” a specific area of the city and be held accountable for the rate of rental compliance in their area.  This also will give landlords a consistent point of contact in addressing compliance issues.

Provide expanded support for smaller, less experienced landlords to help them navigate the compliance process. Detroit has a lot of smaller scale landlords that have a small number of properties and who may not have the resources of some larger landlords to pay fulltime property managers to make sure the building is in good condition. BSEED will offer “concierge” style support to provide additional guidance and information to these landlords to help them understand the compliance process and how to successfully navigate it.  To better manage a diverse group of rental properties and business models, the city has segmented them into three main categories, each with their own compliance strategies: Landlords with up to four 1-2 family properties; Landlords with five or more 1-2 family properties; and Landlords with multi-family properties with at least three units each 

Robust public education geared to both tenants and landlords. The City will provide more robust communication to the public through social media, the City website, monthly landlord compliance clinics at recreation centers and more.  

This also includes a new online system to help tenants report significant building issues that need to be addressed. Any tenant can report an issue online 24/7 at detroitmi.gov/TenantSupport. All complaints will be entered into a tracking system and prioritized for follow-up based on the nature and severity of each complaint.  

“Detroit’s rental compliance strategy is about giving residents more stability, more choices, and a clearer path to long‑term housing security,” said BSEED Director David Bell. “I’m grateful for Madam Mayor’s leadership and partnership as we work together to strengthen neighborhoods and make quality rental housing accessible to every Detroiter.” 

Residents can check the status of all known rental properties in the city on the city's online rental compliance map at detroitmi.gov/webapp/rental-maphttps://detroitmi.gov/webapp/rental-map 

Sylvia Green, who along with her husband own a handful of 1-2 family rental properties in the city, talks about how much easier the road to compliance was thanks to the support from city building inspectors.