Dearborn Heights, MI Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Sec. 8-2 of the Dearborn Heights City Code makes it unlawful for any person to engage in a business, trade or other activity requiring a city license without first obtaining that license under Chapter 8. The list of activities that need a license specifically includes any peddler and any transient merchant, defined in Sec. 8-1 as someone who travels from place to place selling goods, or who temporarily leases or occupies a building, vehicle, tent or public room to sell merchandise within the city. Sec.

8-2(b)(11) reaches further, requiring a license for any business, trade or other activity that engages in the direct, in-person solicitation of sales, whether or not it is separately named on the list. Applicants apply to the city clerk under Sec. 8-3 with their name, address, phone number, the business name and address, the type of business and a brief statement of how it will operate. Under Sec. 8-6, the clerk refers every original application to the police, fire, building and engineering, water and treasurer's departments to check for any cause to deny it, and the clerk can issue the license once ten business days pass without a written objection.

A license runs for one year from issuance under Sec. 8-4, and a licensee who renews more than seven days late faces a ten percent penalty on the license cost. The city clerk can deny, suspend or revoke a license under Sec. 8-12 for cause, including an act injurious to public health, safety or welfare, a crime involving moral turpitude, or fraud in the application, and an aggrieved applicant or licensee can appeal to the five-member license appeal board created by Sec. 8-13.