City of Detroit BSEED · queried live

Is this Detroit rental registered and certified?

Detroit requires two separate things to rent a property legally: a rental registration, and a current Certificate of Compliance. They are not the same, and most properties have only the first. Citywide, about 28% of registered rentals hold a current certificate — 11,550 of 41,861.

Tenant · Buyer · Investor

Rental compliance lookup

Enter a Detroit street address. This queries the City's records at the moment you ask.

What each one means. Registration tells the City a property is being rented. A Certificate of Compliance means it passed inspection and is currently valid — that is the one that lapses. A property can be registered for years with no certificate at all.

Results appear here.

Read this before relying on a result. No result means no matching record was found in the City's published data — it does not establish that a property is unregistered or unlawfully rented. Address formats differ between records, and City data lags actual filings. Registration and certification are permitting facts; neither says anything about a property's condition or habitability. Verify anything you intend to act on directly with Detroit BSEED.

Why this matters, by who you are

If you are	What this tells you
A tenant	Whether your landlord has done what the City requires. An uncertified rental has not passed inspection.
Buying an occupied rental	Whether you are inheriting a compliance problem. Roughly seven in ten registered Detroit rentals do not hold a current certificate, and it becomes yours at closing.
An investor	What you have to do before you can legally collect rent — register, then pass inspection and obtain the certificate.
Selling a rental	A gap surfaces during the transaction. Better to find it now than three days before closing.

Related: compliance rates by neighborhood · Detroit buyer programs · land contracts. Source: City of Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department, via the City's open data portal. This page is informational and is not legal advice.