Mobile County cannot zone land use under Alabama's Dillon's Rule. In the unincorporated county a home business faces no county location, use, or square-footage limit. Only recorded HOA or subdivision deed restrictions decide what you may run from your house.
Alabama is a Dillon's Rule state, and the Legislature has never granted Mobile County general authority to zone use in unincorporated areas. A home occupation there needs no county zoning permit, home-occupation license, or conditional-use approval. What can actually stop you is a private deed restriction recorded against your subdivision, enforced by the homeowners association or a neighbor in civil court, not by county government. Inside the limits of Mobile, Prichard, Saraland, Chickasaw, Satsuma, or Bayou La Batre, that city's zoning code applies instead, adopted under the municipal zoning enabling act.
The county issues no home-occupation citations in unincorporated areas. A deed-restriction breach is enforced by an HOA through a civil suit, with an injunction ordering the business to stop and liability for the association's costs and attorney fees.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Mobile County, AL
Mobile County has no ordinance regulating holiday lights, inflatables, or yard displays in unincorporated areas, and Alabama has no statute on them. A homeow...
Mobile County, AL
Garage-sale signs face no Mobile County rule on your own property — the county has no sign ordinance. But Alabama Code §23-1-6 makes it illegal to plant a si...
Mobile County, AL
Political signs are unregulated by Mobile County on private property — the county has no sign ordinance. Alabama Code §23-1-6 bars signs in a state highway r...
Mobile County, AL
Unincorporated Mobile County has no rental registration. Alabama counties have no zoning or home-rule power, so the county cannot license, register, or inspe...
Mobile County, AL
Alabama has no just-cause eviction rule, and Mobile County cannot add one. Under Alabama Code §35-9A-421 a landlord ends a tenancy with a seven-business-day ...
Mobile County, AL
Rent control is illegal in unincorporated Mobile County. Alabama Code §11-80-8.1 bars every county, city, and town from enacting or enforcing any ordinance t...
Side-by-side rule comparisons with other cities in Mobile County.
See how Prichard's zoning restrictions rules stack up against other locations.
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