Dearborn Heights, Michigan Building Permit Guide

Dearborn Heights is a separate city from Dearborn, incorporated from two discontinuous sections of the former Dearborn Township, and the two are confused constantly. Its building department runs from city hall on Fenton Street and its fence regime is unusually formal for a suburban Wayne County city.

The department publishes its forms as a single list covering building, zoning, electrical, heating, refrigeration and plumbing applications, certificate of occupancy and compliance, contractor registration, rental registration on a change of tenant, signs, fences and fire alarm, detection and suppression permits.

This guide covers the City of Dearborn Heights. Dearborn is a separate city with its own building department, its own ordinances and its own occupancy regime, and neither permits in the other.

What requires a building permit in Dearborn Heights?

The code is the same statewide, but fee schedules, procedures and the choice of third-party agency differ from one municipality to the next, so an exempt list from a neighbouring township is not reliable. An exemption from a building permit is never an exemption from zoning, the energy code, or an electrical or plumbing permit. Confirm scope with the Dearborn Heights Building Department before work starts.

Local rules worth knowing

The department also splits heating and refrigeration into separate permit applications rather than treating both as mechanical work, which is finer granularity than most Michigan cities of this size apply and means a single HVAC scope can need two filings rather than one.

Michigan enforces one statewide construction code under the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act (1972 PA 230); local units cannot amend it, and enforcement sits with the city, village or township, a county program or the state Bureau of Construction Codes, sometimes split by trade. Michigan rules

Who handles permitting in Dearborn Heights?

The Building Department issues building, zoning, electrical, plumbing, heating, refrigeration, sign, fence and fire alarm permits, handles contractor registration, and administers the certificate of occupancy and compliance and rental registration regimes.

The fence regime is worth planning around because it can depend on another party. Where the project replaces an existing fence that separates your property from a neighbour’s, the neighbour signs a notarised affidavit consenting to its removal and replacement. Where a new privacy fence goes up on your own land next to an existing fence, you sign a notarised maintenance affidavit accepting responsibility for grass, weeds and debris between the two; failing to maintain that strip can bring fines or tickets.

The four-day week compounds this. City hall is open Monday to Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., so an application that needs a notary appointment and a neighbour’s signature has a four-day window each week to be completed and lodged in person.

In 2025, building permits issued in Dearborn Heights authorized 13 new privately owned housing units, all of them single-family homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.

Permit types

Residential permits

Residential permits cover building and zoning work alongside the trades, with a zoning permit application distinct from the building permit application. Fences, signs and fire alarm, detection and suppression work each have their own application. Contractor registration is handled on its own form with the department.

How Michigan contractor credentials work

Commercial permits

Commercial work runs through plan review with the certificate of occupancy and compliance regime applying on occupancy and change of use, and separate commercial and residential certificate inspection forms published by the department. Right-of-way use and distribution, and temporary food truck, tent and cart operations, each have their own process.

Licenses, trade classifications and design professionals

Practically, three credential layers appear on Michigan projects: the state residential builder or maintenance and alteration licence on residential work; separately licensed electrical, plumbing and mechanical trades, also licensed by the state; and, on commercial and larger residential work, drawings sealed by a Michigan-licensed architect or professional engineer, with plans reviewed by a state-registered plan reviewer; detached one- and two-family houses of 3,500 square feet or less need no architect or engineer seal. Confirm what the Dearborn Heights Building Department requires for the specific building before filing.

Michigan licenses residential builders and maintenance and alteration contractors at state level, and the permit application must carry the licence number. Michigan rules

Dearborn Heights permit costs and fees

Dearborn Heights publishes its building and zoning permit fees as a single schedule on the department’s forms page, with separate residential and commercial certificate inspection forms. Confirm the fee for each permit with the department before filing.

Michigan fees are set by whoever holds enforcement for the parcel — the local unit, the county, or the state where neither has taken it on — so the schedule follows the authority rather than the state. A figure from a neighbouring municipality is not reliable, and a figure from a neighbouring township can be wrong even where the county enforces both. Ask the Dearborn Heights Building Department for the schedule in force on your filing date.

Fees are set by the enforcing agency — the local unit, a county program or the state — and may only fund that agency's work. Michigan rules

Trade permits and who may pull them

Electrical, plumbing and mechanical contractors hold state licences valid anywhere in Michigan, and each trade follows its part of the state construction code. Michigan rules

How to apply for a Dearborn Heights building permit

Review, corrections and what actually causes delay

In Michigan, the first cause of delay is uncertainty over who enforces the code — filing with the local unit when the county holds enforcement for it, or with the county when the state does. After that comes the edition question, because the trade parts and the building parts moved on different dates, and houses still follow the 2015 residential code, so a submission drawn to the wrong one is a correction cycle. Then a missing or expired state licence number on the application, energy-code and plan documentation, and floodplain requirements along the shorelines and rivers. Build the plan-review time into the schedule and confirm the checklist with the Dearborn Heights Building Department before filing.

A Michigan permit lapses if work does not start within 180 days or stops for 180 days; confirm the expiry with Dearborn Heights on phased or delayed work. Michigan rules

Inspections in Dearborn Heights

Where a permit is required, standard checkpoints include footing and foundation, framing, rough-in electrical, plumbing and mechanical, insulation and energy-code compliance, fire systems on commercial work, and final, with a use-and-occupancy certificate before the building is used. Certificate inspections are run on separate residential and commercial forms, so the right form has to be used for the property type.

Ask the enforcing agency which edition applies to your application, especially around a code change date — because editions are adopted part by part, the answer can differ between the building inspection and the trade inspections on the same job. They are carried out by an inspector registered with the state, employed or contracted by whichever authority holds enforcement for the parcel. Keep the approved plans and the energy-code documentation on site for the inspector to check against, and confirm the notice the Dearborn Heights Building Department needs and its inspection windows.

Do not cover work before the required inspection has been approved. Keep the issued permit, the approved plans, product listings, energy-code documentation and your correction responses available on site.

Dearborn Heights permit search and official resources

Permit records in Michigan sit with the authority that issued them — the local unit, the county, or the state bureau where neither took enforcement on. Where the Dearborn Heights Building Department is the authority for the City of Dearborn Heights, it holds the building permit, the inspection history and the use-and-occupancy certificate. If you are buying, refinancing or renovating, confirm that past work was permitted rather than assuming it was — open permits and missing certificates are a common closing problem.

These are the primary sources behind this guide. Codes, fee schedules and procedures change — confirm the position for your filing date.

• Dearborn Heights online applications and forms
• Dearborn Heights Building Department forms
• Dearborn Heights fence affidavit, neighbour approval
• Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes plan review and permits
• Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes - current code books and effective dates

Frequently asked questions

Do I need my neighbour's permission for a fence?

Only in one case. Where you are tearing down and replacing an existing fence that separates your property from a neighbour’s, Dearborn Heights publishes a fence affidavit in which the neighbour consents to the replacement, signed before a notary. A separate notarised fence owner maintenance affidavit applies where you put up a privacy fence on your own land beside an existing fence and take responsibility for the ground between them.

Is Dearborn Heights the same as Dearborn?

No. They are separate cities with separate building departments, separate ordinances and separate fee schedules. Dearborn Heights was incorporated from two discontinuous sections of the former Dearborn Township, which is why the two are so often confused. Confirm which city holds the parcel before filing.

When is the building department open?

Monday to Thursday. The city hall counter is closed on Fridays, which shortens the working week for anything requiring an in-person step or a same-week lodgement.

Do I file one mechanical permit or two?

Potentially two. The department publishes heating and refrigeration as separate permit applications rather than a single mechanical permit, so a scope covering both may need two filings.

Which code edition applies to my project?

It depends which part of the code the work falls under. One Michigan point catches almost everyone: the commercial and residential codes are not on the same edition. The bureau moved the plumbing, mechanical and electrical parts to new editions on the twelfth of March, 2024, and the building and rehabilitation parts to their 2021 editions on the ninth of April, 2025; houses still follow the 2015 Michigan Residential Code. The residential code did not move with them. Replacement residential rules were filed for an August 2025 effective date, but the Court of Claims entered a stipulated order stopping the department from implementing them while a builders’ association challenge is litigated, so the bureau still lists the 2015 Michigan Residential Code as the code in force. That case was still live when this guide was written. Confirm the edition governing each part of your work on your filing date rather than assuming the newest one applies.

Do I need to register as a contractor with the city?

The department publishes a contractor registration form alongside its permit applications, so registration is handled locally in addition to the state credential. Residential builders and maintenance and alteration contractors are licensed by the state under Article 24 of Public Act 299 of 1980, administered by the Bureau of Construction Codes, and the plumbing, electrical and mechanical trades are state-licensed as well. The licence is valid statewide. The permit application must set out the licence number and its expiry date, and performing residential work that requires a licence without holding one is a civil violation the county prosecuting attorney or the Attorney General may pursue.

Simplify Dearborn Heights permitting with Alliance Permitting

A notarised neighbour signature and a four-day counter week are a scheduling problem, not a code problem. We solve it before fence season closes.

Trusted by leading builders, developers, and national contractors — 21+ years of filing in the jurisdictions we write about.

Contractors and builders choose Alliance for Dearborn Heights because the work is done by people who have stood at the counter:

• 21+ years of filing, so the authority question gets answered before the application goes in
• We confirm the edition in force for each code part on your filing date, not the newest one published
• Licence numbers, expiry dates and the written authorisation instrument checked before submission
• Correction cycles handled directly with the reviewer so your crew is not waiting on a resubmission
• Inspection sequencing tracked through to the certificate, including trade sign-offs

Alliance Permitting is a permit documentation and submission company in Michigan. We prepare your paperwork, file it correctly and coordinate with the permitting authority through issuance. We are not a contractor and we do not perform licensed plan review or inspections; that work stays with your licensed team and the jurisdiction.

This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Dearborn Heights permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.