Detroit, MI Rental Property Rules: Rent Control (2026)

Michigan Public Act 226 of 1988 is a clean, narrow statewide preemption statute. Section 1 (codified as MCL 123.411) prohibits any 'local governmental unit' - defined to include cities, villages, townships, and counties - from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing any ordinance or resolution that has the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property. The prohibition extends to indirect controls, such as ordinances that would have the practical effect of capping rent through rent freezes or formula-based limits. Two carve-outs exist on the face of the statute. First, a local government may manage and control the rent on residential property in which the local government itself holds a property interest (such as a city-owned housing project, a land-bank-held property leased back to a tenant, or a property where the city is a co-owner under a development agreement). Second, the statute expressly permits 'voluntary' programs in which the local government offers incentives or enters into agreements with property owners that, in exchange for the incentive, agree to limit the rent on specific units to a moderate or low-cost level - this is the legal basis for Detroit's affordable-housing density bonuses, PILOT (Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes) agreements, and Housing and Revitalization Department (HRD) affordability covenants that attach to subsidized projects. Outside those two carve-outs, the field is preempted. Detroit's City Council has on occasion considered tenant-protection measures (right to counsel, source-of-income discrimination, tenant anti-harassment, rental-registration overhaul) but has never enacted - and under MCL 123.411 cannot enact - a generally applicable rent cap. Statements that Detroit 'limits annual rent increases' or 'requires a justification for rent increases above a threshold' are inaccurate; rent is set by private contract subject to state landlord-tenant law (MCL 554.601 et seq. on security deposits, MCL 554.131 et seq. on tenancies) and the city's Chapter 8, Article XV rental-ordinance compliance regime.