Royal Oak, MI Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 110, Condemnation and Demolition, added at § 556-4.D of the Royal Oak City Code, replaces the model Property Maintenance Code demolition section with the City's own dangerous-building process. Under 110.1, it is unlawful for an owner or agent to keep or maintain any dwelling or structure that is a dangerous building as defined in 110.2, which lists conditions including exits that do not meet the fire code, fire, wind or flood damage that leaves structural strength appreciably less than before, parts likely to fall and injure people, settlement that weakens resistance to wind, dilapidation that invites vagrants or an attractive nuisance to children, unsanitary conditions the Health Officer finds unfit for habitation, a vacant building left open to the elements, unpermitted construction, and, at 110.2(j), a building where the Code Official estimates repair costs exceeding 50% of the real value the City Assessor has set.

Section 110.3 requires the City to notify the owner, agent or lessee of record, or the last taxpayer of record if none is registered, and to set a hearing at least 10 days out where the owner can show cause against demolition. Under 110.4, a hearing officer appointed by the City Commission takes testimony and can order the building demolished or made safe; if the owner does not comply, the City Commission itself reviews the case and can approve the demolition, and the cost of the demolition or of making the building safe becomes a lien against the property, assessed by the City Assessor.