Dearborn Heights, MI Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sec. 7-530 of the Dearborn Heights City Code, titled 'Rodent, vermin and unwanted animal control,' requires that every basement or cellar window used or intended for ventilation, and every other opening to a basement that could let in rodents, vermin or unwanted animals, be fitted with a screen or another device that effectively blocks their entry. This sits alongside Sec. 7-543, which requires every foundation, floor, wall, ceiling and roof of a dwelling to be reasonably weathertight, watertight and rodentproof, and Sec. 7-544, which imposes the same rodentproofing duty on every window, exterior door and basement hatchway.

Together these sections give the Building and Engineering Department, which enforces Article IX of the Code covering minimum housing standards for every dwelling in the City of Dearborn Heights, the basis to cite an owner or occupant whose basement vents, foundation gaps or damaged doors and windows are letting rodents into a structure. The related unsafe-and-unfit-dwelling provisions in Division 12 separately treat an accumulation of garbage or organic waste that could feed rodents, or an unsanitary buildup of rubbish and debris, as conditions that can support a finding under Sec.

7-651 that a dwelling is unfit for human habitation, which can lead to a vacate order from the director of building and engineering. For routine rodentproofing violations that fall short of an unsafe-dwelling finding, the Building and Engineering Department issues a written notice of violation under Sec. 7-481 with a deadline to correct the screening or sealing problem.