Royal Oak, MI Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Chapter 752, Waterworks, requires a permit before any service connection is made or any work is performed on old or new connections to the Royal Oak water system. The City Clerk issues the permit, and § 752-2 bars issuance to anyone who is not licensed as a master plumber in the City of Royal Oak. Once issued, § 752-5 places the work under the supervision of the City's proper officers, and service pipes must be laid according to the City's waterworks rules and regulations. The City Commission sets connection fees under § 752-3, covering the cost of tapping the main, installing the curb stop and laying the pipe to the curb stop; the curb stop and pipe remain City property, and fees must be paid before the permit is issued.

Where a connection is meant to serve more than one tenement, shop, store or building, § 752-6 requires a separate branch and stop cock for each unit served, and no single service may supply more than one lot unless it holds a single building used for a single industry or enterprise. The City's water permitting rule survives even though the standalone City of Royal Oak Plumbing Code, Ordinance No. 75-7, was repealed on January 24, 2005; plumbing work inside a structure is now handled through the state construction code process administered by the City's Building Official, while work tapping into or altering the municipal water main still runs through this Chapter 752 permit and master-plumber requirement.

Meters for measuring usage are installed by the City on all served premises under § 752-7, and tampering with a meter or interfering with a City meter reading is itself unlawful.