3 rules for unincorporated Oakland County, Michigan.
Verified from official government sources
Oakland County has no rent control or rent stabilization. Michigan law (MCL 123.411) explicitly bars every county, city, township, and village in the state from enacting or enforcing any ordinance that controls the amount of rent charged for private residential property. Landlords in Royal Oak, Troy, Farmington Hills, Pontiac, Birmingham, Southfield, and every other Oakland County jurisdiction may set and raise rent at will, subject only to the terms of a written lease and standard contract law. Rent increases on month-to-month tenancies still require a 30-day written notice under MCL 554.134(1).
MCL 123.411
a local governmental unit shall not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property.
Oakland County has no county-wide just-cause eviction ordinance. Landlord-tenant disputes in Royal Oak, Troy, Farmington Hills, Southfield, Pontiac, and every other Oakland County municipality are governed by the Michigan summary proceedings statute, MCL 600.5714, and are heard in the county's 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 50th, 51st, or 52nd District Court depending on jurisdiction. A landlord may recover possession only on the statutory grounds listed in MCL 600.5714 — generally nonpayment of rent (7-day notice), material lease violation (30-day notice), serious health hazard or extensive property damage (7-day notice), or controlled-substance activity confirmed by police report (24-hour notice). Holdover after a fixed-term lease ends is also a permitted ground.
MCL 600.5714(1)(b)
A person entitled to possession of premises may recover possession by summary proceedings in the following circumstances: ... (b) When a person holds over premises after such time as the person fails or refuses to pay rent due ... within 7 days from the service of a written demand for possession for nonpayment of rent due.
Oakland County itself does not operate a county-wide rental registration program. Rental registration is set by each city, village, or township and the rules and fees vary widely across the 62 Oakland County municipalities. Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Ferndale, Pontiac, Hazel Park, Berkley, Oak Park, Southfield, and most other inner-ring suburbs require landlords to register every non-owner-occupied dwelling, obtain a rental certificate of occupancy, and submit to a periodic interior inspection. Michigan state law (MCL 125.526) caps the interval between mandatory rental inspections at 4 years, or 6 years if the most recent inspection found no violations and ownership has not changed.
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