Novi, MI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 5-6 of the Novi City Code, titled simply "Noise," prohibits harboring or keeping "any animal, including but not limited to any dog," whose loud, frequent, or habitual barking, yelping, or howling causes an annoyance to the neighborhood or to people passing on the street. The section does not require a minimum decibel level, a time-of-day threshold, or a set duration; the standard is whether the noise rises to the level of an annoyance, which the Novi Police Department and code compliance officials assess from a complaint and their own observation.

A violation is expressly made a municipal civil infraction rather than a criminal misdemeanor, and Section 5-6 sets its own fine schedule separate from Chapter 5's general penalty table in Section 5-3: one hundred dollars for a first offense, two hundred dollars for a second offense, and four hundred dollars for a third or subsequent offense. Because the ordinance is framed around the keeping of an animal rather than a single incident, a resident who repeatedly lets a dog bark unchecked risks the escalating tiers of the fine schedule on each new citation.

The dog owner, rather than a tenant or dog-sitter without a possessory interest, bears responsibility as the "owner" defined in Section 5-2, and Section 5-13 extends that liability to the parent or guardian of a minor who claims ownership of the dog. Enforcement authority under Section 5-14 lets any code compliance official or police officer use appearance tickets to pursue the fine.