Ann Arbor landlord rules are stricter than in most Michigan cities: every rental needs a city Certificate of Compliance and periodic inspection, a “right to renew” ordinance controls when you can offer renewals or show a unit, and city ordinances cap application fees, ban most pre-tenancy fees and restrict criminal-history screening. Rent itself is not regulated, because Michigan law bars local rent control, so the compliance burden falls on process, timing and fees rather than on how much you charge.
This guide walks through the city ordinances in the order an owner meets them during a tenancy, then covers the Michigan statutes that apply to every Ann Arbor lease, and closes with a practical checklist.
Why Ann Arbor’s renter majority shapes the rules
Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County and home to the University of Michigan’s main campus. The Census Bureau’s QuickFacts for Ann Arbor counted 123,851 residents at the 2020 Census and estimated 122,233 as of July 1, 2025. The owner-occupied housing rate for 2020–2024 was 45.5%, so roughly 54.5% of the city’s 50,499 households rent, and the median gross rent over that period was $1,649.
A renter majority, heavily weighted toward students who sign leases months in advance, is the backdrop for nearly every ordinance below. City Council has repeatedly targeted the leasing calendar, up-front fees and screening practices, and it continues to amend those rules. An owner who learned the local requirements five years ago is likely out of date on at least three of them.
Registration and the Certificate of Compliance
Ann Arbor treats the right to rent a unit as a license. Under City Code §8:516(4) and the housing code in Chapter 105, a unit cannot be rented without an active Certificate of Compliance. The city’s rental housing program states that it inspects every rental unit in the city every 30 months.
Several features of the program matter for owners of apartment buildings:
- Clean inspections earn time. If a unit passes its first inspection with no violations, the expiration date on the certificate is extended by one year for that cycle only.
- The license does not follow the building. The city’s registration page states that the license is not transferable if the property is sold, so a buyer must register in their own name.
- Fees scale by building type. The fee schedule effective July 1, 2025 charges a $25 registration fee per building per cycle (not charged for one- and two-family homes) and an initial inspection fee of $90 per unit for buildings with 3 to 30 units, compared with $175 per unit for one- and two-family homes, townhouses and condominiums.
- Missed deadlines cost money. The same schedule lists a $150 fee for failing to renew or register, $100 for posting a property and $250 for an enforcement ticket.
For a 20-unit building, the per-unit inspection fee alone comes to about $1,800 per cycle, before any reinspections, which is a useful number to build into an operating budget.
The right to renew and Ann Arbor’s leasing calendar
The rule that most surprises new owners is the city’s early-leasing ordinance, now framed as a right to renew. City Council adopted ordinance ORD-24-03 on March 4, 2024, amending §8:530, and it applies to leases signed after March 17, 2024.
When renewals can be offered
The ordinance sets a fixed sequence:
- A landlord may not offer a renewal earlier than 180 days from the start of the current lease.
- The tenant gets at least 30 days to respond to the renewal offer.
- If the tenant accepts, the landlord has 30 days to deliver the lease.
- The tenant then has 10 days to sign, and the landlord has 10 days to countersign.
When a unit can be shown
The city’s 2026 Rights and Duties of Tenants booklet tells tenants that a landlord cannot enter to show the unit to prospective tenants until 150 days before the lease ends. Because student leasing in Ann Arbor has long started well before the current lease ends, this pushes marketing for the following academic year into the back half of the current lease. Property managers used to pre-leasing early in the school year now have a shorter window and should staff accordingly.
Good cause and relocation assistance
The ordinance also requires landlords to offer renewal unless they have good cause. A landlord who fails to make a good-faith renewal offer owes the tenant relocation assistance equal to two months’ rent under the current lease. Fines start at $500 for a first offense and run up to $1,000 for repeat violations, and a court may award up to twice the relocation payment for willful violations.
The practical effect is that non-renewal in Ann Arbor should be a documented decision tied to a reason the ordinance recognizes, not a default. Owners planning a major renovation or a sale should talk to counsel about timing before letting leases run out.
A worked example of the calendar
Consider a typical Ann Arbor lease that starts August 1 and ends July 31 of the following year. Day 180 of that lease falls in late January, so the earliest a landlord may offer a renewal is the end of January. If the tenant takes the full 30 days to respond, the answer arrives in late February. The 150-day showing date, counted back from July 31, lands in early March, so the landlord can begin showing the unit to new prospects only after the current tenant has had the chance to accept or decline. For a building with dozens of August-start leases, that compresses most renewal decisions and new-tenant marketing into a roughly two-month window each spring.
Screening rules: criminal history and source of income
Fair Chance Access to Housing
Ann Arbor’s Fair Chance Access to Housing ordinance, ORD-21-06, was approved on April 5, 2021 and took effect April 18, 2021. Codified in Chapter 122, §§9:600–9:613, it prohibits landlords from asking about or considering criminal history unless federal or state law requires it. When a check is required, it may come only after a conditional offer and written notice to the applicant. Public housing authorities and permanent supportive housing providers are exempt, and penalties can reach $500 per day.
Source-of-income protections, city and state
The city’s anti-discrimination ordinance in Chapter 112 already listed source of income as a protected class, which covers applicants using housing vouchers. Michigan has since added a statewide rule. Under 2024 Public Act 180, which amended the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and took effect April 2, 2025, landlords may not deny or end a tenancy because of a person’s lawful source of income and may not exclude voucher payments when applying income requirements. The state rule does not apply to a landlord who, together with related entities, owns fewer than five rental units in Michigan, but any owner of an apartment building is above that line, and the city ordinance applies regardless.
For screening criteria, this means minimum-income tests must be applied to the tenant’s share of the rent when a voucher covers part of it, and criminal-history questions should come off standard application forms entirely.
Application fees and the 2026 fee transparency rules
Ann Arbor has also regulated what landlords can charge before and during a tenancy.
The $50 application fee cap
Ordinance ORD-24-33, which added §8:532 and took effect January 26, 2025, caps rental application fees at $50. The fee must be disclosed in advertising, and it must be refunded within 60 days if the applicant is not offered a unit. The ordinance also bans pre-tenancy fees such as holding fees, wait-list fees and move-in fees. It does not regulate rent or security deposit amounts.
Mandatory fees folded into rent
The city went further in 2026. Ordinance ORD-26-04, adopted February 2, 2026 and effective August 1, 2026, amends §8:532 to require that all mandatory tenancy fees be included in the base rent. Under the amended rule:
- Optional fees are allowed only when they reflect an actual cost to the landlord, and they must be listed on page one of the lease or in a clearly labeled addendum.
- Tenants who do not use parking cannot be charged a parking fee.
- Advertisements must show the total rent.
- Violations carry fines of at least $500 for a first offense and $500 to $1,000 for repeat offenses.
Owners who relied on separate amenity, technology or administrative fees should rework their rent schedules. Leases and listings that predate August 2026 deserve a review against the new language before the next renewal cycle.
Required documents and habitability standards
What tenants must receive
Under §8:525, adopted as ORD-17-08 and effective August 1, 2017, landlords must give tenants the city’s Rights and Duties of Tenants booklet before a lease is signed or renewed, along with voter-registration information and a copy of the Michigan voter registration form. Failing to do so can draw a fine of up to $500. The booklet itself is updated periodically, and the city posts the current version online.
Life-safety and comfort standards
- Carbon monoxide detectors. Under §8:527, registered rental units must have carbon monoxide detectors, effective July 6, 2023.
- Heat. The city’s housing standards require heating capable of keeping habitable rooms, including bathrooms, at 68°F when the outdoor temperature is as low as 10 degrees below zero.
- Hot water. Hot water must be supplied at a minimum of 110°F.
- Repairs. The city describes typical expectations as 24 hours for life-safety problems and 72 hours for non-emergency repairs.
These standards are what inspectors check during the 30-month cycle, so a building that meets them day to day is also a building that earns the one-year certificate extension.
Michigan statutes behind every Ann Arbor lease
City ordinances sit on top of a state framework that applies everywhere in Michigan.
Rent control is preempted
Section 123.411 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, enacted in 1988, provides that a local government “shall not enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged.” The text of MCL 123.411 is the reason Ann Arbor regulates fees and leasing timelines rather than rent levels. House Bill 4009, introduced on January 14, 2025 by Rep. Carrie Rheingans of Ann Arbor, would repeal the preemption; it was referred to the House Government Operations Committee, where it had not advanced as of the sources reviewed for this guide. The city’s own tenant booklet is blunt on the point, telling renters, “You have no right to fair rent in Ann Arbor.”
Security deposits
Michigan’s Security Deposit Act sets the rules that matter most at move-in and move-out:
- Cap. Under MCL 554.602, a deposit may not exceed one and a half months’ rent.
- Inventory checklist. Under MCL 554.608, the landlord must give the tenant two blank inventory checklists at move-in, and the tenant returns one within seven days.
- Return deadline. Under MCL 554.609, the landlord has 30 days after the tenant vacates to mail an itemized list of damages along with any balance owed.
- Forwarding address. The tenant must provide a forwarding address within four days of moving out, as the city’s booklet explains.
Notice periods
For nonpayment of rent, Michigan requires a written seven-day demand for possession before filing in district court under MCL 600.5714 and MCL 554.134. A month-to-month tenancy can be terminated with one month’s notice, or one full rental period, under MCL 554.134(1). Ann Arbor’s right-to-renew ordinance adds the good-cause and relocation requirements on top of these state timelines for leases covered by the ordinance.
Putting Ann Arbor landlord rules into practice
For owners and passive investors in Ann Arbor apartment buildings, the practical consequences come down to a short operating checklist:
- Calendar every lease. Track day 180 for renewal offers, the 30-day tenant response window and the 150-day showing date, and build them into your property management software.
- Audit your fee schedule. Fold any mandatory fees into base rent, document the actual cost behind optional fees and update listings to show total rent.
- Rewrite screening criteria. Remove criminal-history questions, apply income tests to the tenant’s portion of rent and keep application fees at or below $50.
- Keep registration current. Budget for per-unit inspection fees each 30-month cycle and aim for clean first inspections to earn the extension.
- Paper the move-in. Deliver the city booklet, voter information and two inventory checklists, and calendar the 30-day deposit deadline at move-out.
- Plan non-renewals early. If you intend to renovate, reposition or sell, work out the good-cause basis and any relocation exposure well before day 180.
Due diligence when buying a building
Buyers of Ann Arbor apartment buildings inherit the compliance record along with the leases. Before closing, it is worth requesting:
- The current Certificate of Compliance for each building and the date of the last inspection cycle, plus any open violation notices.
- A lease-by-lease schedule showing start dates, so the renewal and showing windows for the first year of ownership are clear.
- Copies of the lease template and addenda, checked against the August 2026 fee rules and the $50 application fee cap.
- Evidence that tenants received the city booklet, voter-registration information and move-in inventory checklists.
These rules also shape what happens when a building changes hands. Because the rental license is not transferable and existing leases carry renewal rights, a buyer will look closely at the rent roll, lease dates and compliance history. Our guide to selling a rental property with tenants in place covers how occupied buildings are typically marketed and transferred. For broader local context, see our Ann Arbor market page, and compare other cities through our overview of Michigan apartment markets.
The short version for Ann Arbor owners
Ann Arbor cannot cap rents, so its landlord rules focus on everything around the rent: licensing and inspections, a fixed renewal and showing calendar, limits on fees and screening, and required disclosures. Layered on top of Michigan’s deposit and notice statutes, those rules reward owners who run their buildings on a written calendar and an up-to-date lease template. The ordinances have changed four times since 2021, so checking the city’s rental housing pages before each leasing season is part of the job.
