Farmington Hills Short Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a home in Farmington Hills and you're weighing whether to list it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Unfortunately, the honest answer is no, not as a nightly rental. Farmington Hills, in Oakland County, Michigan, treats short-term rental of a house as a "motel" use under its own zoning ordinance, and motels are only permitted in the city's B-3 and ES commercial districts, nowhere near a residential street. That's been the rule for longer than most hosts assume, and the city tightened the wording in 2023 specifically to close any doubt about it.

The push behind that tightening came from City Hall itself, not from copying some other city's crackdown. Farmington Hills' own planning staff told the City Council in 2023 that short-term rentals had been "historically prohibited" already, and that the amendment, Ordinance C-9-2023, simply gave the city firmer legal ground to enforce a rule it says it was already enforcing. This isn't a story about a market that recently closed, then. It's a market that appears to have never really opened, at least not for the classic buy-a-house-and-Airbnb-it model.

This guide walks through what that means in 2026: why the zoning code treats a nightly rental like a motel, what the city's separate rental-registration program covers instead, the taxes that would apply if a stay somehow qualifies, and who to call with questions. Every figure below comes from Farmington Hills' own council and planning commission records, or from the city's published forms and fee schedule, read in July 2026. Run any Farmington Hills property through BNBCalc first, since the math changes a lot once nightly stays are off the table.

Starting a Short Term Rental Business in Farmington Hills

Before you run any numbers, it helps to see exactly how the city arrived at this position, because the history explains why there's no simple workaround. Farmington Hills' Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 34 of the city code, defines a "motel" broadly enough to capture a house rented by the day or the room to the public, and motels are restricted to the B-3 General Business and ES Expressway Service districts. Nearly every residential neighborhood in the city sits in an RA-1 or RA-2 One Family Residential district instead, where a motel use, and by extension a nightly rental, simply isn't on the list of permitted uses.

City Planner Erik Perdonik put the reasoning on the record at the Planning Commission's July 20, 2023 meeting: the proposal "came through the City Attorney's office in response to the issue of short-term rentals throughout the City, which use has historically been prohibited." The city wasn't asking permission to ban something new. It was patching a definitional gap that Michigan case law had left around the word "motel," so an enforcement case wouldn't turn on a technicality.

That patch became Zoning Text Amendment 3, 2023, introduced at the City Council's September 18 meeting and enacted three weeks later as Ordinance C-9-2023. Both votes ran 4-1 and then 5-1, with Councilmember Samantha Newlin casting the lone "no" each time, arguing that travel patterns had shifted toward families renting whole homes instead of hotel rooms and that some residents needed the rental income. Director of Planning and Community Development Charmaine Kettler-Schmult was direct about what the ordinance actually changed at the October 9 enactment meeting: "this amendment does not change uses permitted within the city but defines motel more clearly. The city does not currently allow for short-term rentals and this ordinance would not change that fact."

So starting an Airbnb business here, in the sense most people picture it, buying or converting a house purely to run nightly stays, isn't something Farmington Hills' zoning code will let you operate anywhere near a typical subdivision. What is still open to you is renting the same home on a lease of roughly 30 days or longer, which the city attorney distinguished directly from the motel definition at that same meeting: "if it is being rented on a monthly basis, then this ordinance would not apply." That's the door the rest of this guide walks through.

Short Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Farmington Hills

Walk through that door and the first thing to understand is that there's no short-term rental license waiting on the other side, because the city has never built one. Farmington Hills doesn't issue permits, certificates, or registrations for nightly or by-the-day rentals, and it can't, since that use isn't zoned for in a residential district in the first place. If you're picturing an application form somewhere on fhgov.com for an "STR permit," don't go looking. It doesn't exist.

What does exist is licensing for the alternative: the Single-Family Rental Dwelling Registration, Safety and Maintenance Inspection Program, created by Ordinance C-7-2014 and enacted in its current form on August 8, 2016. Any single-family home rented to someone other than the owner, on a month-to-month lease or longer, has to register with the Department of Planning and Community Development before the owner is even entitled to collect rent. Registration runs on a 3-year cycle: once at first rental, again every three years after that, and again within 30 days of a sale to a new owner.

Getting registered costs $140 as of July 2026, payable online through BSAonline.com or by check to the Planning and Community Development Department at 31555 W. Eleven Mile Road. That fee covers registration and schedules an exterior inspection under the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code, and once you pass it, you get a Certificate of Compliance valid for three years. Don't forget that renewal is on you, even though the city says it tries to email a reminder 60 to 90 days out.

Keep in mind this program has nothing to do with occupancy limits, parking, or guest turnover the way a true short-term-rental license would elsewhere. It's a housing-maintenance inspection, aimed at exterior condition, fire egress, and structural upkeep, not a hospitality permit. So if your plan depended on flipping guests every two or three nights, this program doesn't authorize that. It only legitimizes the 30-day-plus lease that let you sidestep the motel definition in the first place.

Required Documents for Farmington Hills Short Term Rentals

Assuming you're going that route, the paperwork itself is fairly light, even if pulling it together takes a little time. The city's own step-by-step guide, updated March 2025, lays out exactly what a Single-Family Dwelling Rental Registration Application needs before staff will even schedule an inspection.

• Proof of ownership, attached to the application itself.
• A completed, typed registration form, sent to [email protected]. The city insists the fields be typed rather than handwritten, since a form with any blank field gets rejected outright.
• Email addresses for both the owner and the property manager, if you're using one. That's the primary channel the city uses to schedule inspections and send renewal reminders, so an outdated address is the easiest way to miss a deadline.
• Officer or agent details, if the owner is a corporation or joint ownership, including the name and address of the principal officer or resident agent.
• The $140 registration fee, paid at submission by check or, for renewals, online through BSAonline.com.

Once that's in and approved, the Department still has to schedule an exterior inspection and notify you by email. Make sure you give tenants 21 days' written notice of that inspection date, by mail and by posting it at the entrance, and be aware that you or your agent has to be physically present to accompany the inspector. Inspectors check the exterior only, under the 2015 IPMC checklist, unless there's a reported condition like unsafe equipment or a structure unfit for occupancy, which opens the door to an interior look.

Clear up any open building permits or enforcement actions before you apply, too, since the certification guide flags unresolved permits as a common reason an application stalls. Once everything checks out, the Certificate of Compliance arrives by email and stays valid for three years, at which point the whole cycle starts again.

Farmington Hills Short Term Rental Taxes

Once you're through that cycle and collecting rent, there's still a tax question to answer, though it looks different here than in a city where nightly stays are legal outright. Since a genuine short-term, sub-30-day stay isn't a permitted use in a Farmington Hills residential district to begin with, most of Michigan's short-term-rental tax machinery simply doesn't come into play for the typical host here. It matters mainly for a stay that legitimately falls inside a commercial B-3 or ES district, or for a furnished stay that still lands under 30 days somewhere in between.

Michigan's state use tax is the one layer that would apply if a stay qualifies. Under MCL 205.93a of the Use Tax Act, the state taxes lodging furnished on a commercial basis for stays of 30 days or less at 6%, and a room rented to the same tenant for more than a month is exempt outright. Airbnb's own Michigan tax page confirms it collects that 6% automatically on qualifying Michigan reservations, while Vrbo does not, since Michigan doesn't appear on Vrbo's list of states where it collects and remits. Anyone booking directly, or hosting through Vrbo, would have to register and remit that 6% themselves through Michigan Treasury Online.

County and city lodging taxes are a separate matter and vary a lot across Michigan. Kent County levies an 8% hotel-motel tax and Genesee County levies 5%, both confirmed on Airbnb's own tax page, under authority the 1974 Excise Tax on Business of Providing Accommodations Act grants to counties statewide. Oakland County is one of the counties that act authorizes to levy such a tax, but going through Oakland County's own site and Airbnb's Michigan page, I couldn't find any evidence the county has actually enacted one. Treat that as "not currently in effect" rather than a confirmed zero, and do check again before you rely on it, since a county board can adopt one at any time.

The 30-day-plus rental registration program itself carries no separate lodging tax of its own. Ordinary rental income from a longer lease is just taxable income at the state and federal level, the same as any landlord's, with the usual deductions for a rental property.

Farmington Hills wide Short Term Rental Rules

Beyond tax, a handful of citywide rules apply no matter which side of the 30-day line your rental falls on, and they're worth knowing even if the longer-lease route is your plan. Farmington Hills sits inside Oakland County, and while the county sets none of the zoning rules covered here, our Oakland County guide is useful if you're comparing neighboring cities within the county.

The zoning boundary is the one rule that overrides everything else: motel-type use, meaning a home offered to the public and compensated on a nightly or by-the-room basis, is confined to the B-3 General Business and ES Expressway Service districts, full stop. That's true regardless of who owns the home, whether they live there, or how many guests they'd host. Nothing in the city's public record describes an owner-occupancy exception, a homestay carve-out, or a cap-and-grandfather system for existing operators, and I found no evidence any of that exists here, however common those structures are in other Michigan cities.

For a home that qualifies as a genuine long-term rental instead, the Single-Family Rental Dwelling ordinance governs the property itself rather than how guests behave inside it. The city cares about exterior maintenance, fire egress, structural condition, and pest and sanitation issues under the 2015 IPMC, and it reserves the right to inspect a vacant rental every 180 days if it shows signs of neglect. A credible complaint can trigger an inspection at any time, on top of the regular three-year cycle.

Watch out for one detail that trips owners up: the registration obligation attaches to the property, not to a particular tenancy, so a new owner has 30 days after closing to register in their own name, even if the existing certificate is still valid. And any change to your contact information, whether you move, change property managers, or update an email address, has to reach the Department in writing within 30 days. Miss that and you risk missing an inspection notice or a renewal reminder entirely.

Does Farmington Hills strictly enforce STR rules?

Missing a notice is a paperwork problem. Ignoring the zoning rule altogether is a different kind of risk, and the city's own record suggests it isn't shy about pursuing it. At the same meeting where Ordinance C-9-2023 was enacted, City Manager Gary Mekjian told the Council about "the very high level of administrative costs associated with enforcing ordinances in place to address the short-term rentals that the city is experiencing." That only makes sense if enforcement was already an active, ongoing effort before the definition got tightened. It reads like a program the city was already running, not one it was just standing up.

Zoning enforcement runs through the Planning and Community Development Department's own Zoning Division, which fields complaints, sends inspectors into the field, and can refer a case to the 47th District Court for a civil infraction hearing. Three zoning inspectors cover the city day to day, and the division's general line, 248-871-2520, is the number both a neighbor and a host would call: one to report a suspected violation, the other to sort one out.

I couldn't confirm an exact dollar fine schedule for a zoning-definition violation from an official page. Michigan municipal civil infractions generally run through a district court's own posted fine schedule rather than a single statewide number, and the city's separate rental-registration ordinance states that violations there are municipal civil infractions handled under Chapter 1 of the code. What is clear is that enforcement isn't theoretical here. It already carried a high enough administrative cost for the city manager to raise it as a reason for the 2023 amendment, and I found no news coverage or court record of the city backing off that posture since.

So if your plan involves a nightly listing anywhere outside the B-3 or ES districts, the honest read is that you're not looking at a gray area the city hasn't gotten around to policing. You're looking at a use it has already spent real money enforcing against.

How to Start a Short Term Rental Business in Farmington Hills

Given all that, starting something here takes a different shape than the usual buy-furnish-list playbook most Airbnb guides walk you through.

1. Confirm your property's zoning district first. If it's zoned RA-1, RA-2, or any other residential classification, which covers almost every single-family home in the city, a nightly rental is off the table before you've spent a dollar. Only B-3 General Business and ES Expressway Service parcels can legally host a motel-type use.
2. Decide whether a 30-day-plus lease still works for you. Since this is the path the city actually permits, run the numbers on furnished mid-term rentals rather than nightly stays. A relocating executive, a traveling nurse, or a family between houses are the realistic tenants here, not weekend guests.
3. Register the property before you rent it. Submit the Single-Family Dwelling Rental Registration Application to [email protected] with proof of ownership attached, and pay the $140 fee by check or, for a renewal, through BSAonline.com.
4. Prepare for the exterior inspection. Clear open permits, fix obvious exterior issues under the 2015 IPMC checklist, and be ready to accompany the inspector in person once a date is scheduled.
5. Get your Certificate of Compliance and diarize the three-year renewal. The city aims to email a reminder 60 to 90 days out, but the responsibility to renew on time is yours, not theirs.
6. Keep your contact information current, since the city communicates almost entirely by email, and notify the Department in writing within 30 days of any change.
7. If nightly stays are truly the goal, start with zoning, not the property. A B-3 or ES parcel able to support an actual motel-style use is a commercial real estate decision, not a typical single-family purchase, and it comes with its own site-plan and use approvals well beyond this guide's scope.
8. Run the numbers on a nearby market that still allows nightly rentals. Farmington Hills' restriction doesn't extend across Oakland County, so compare what a mid-term lease here would clear against what a legal short-term rental could earn in Rochester Hills or elsewhere in the county.

Who to contact in Farmington Hills about Short Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever path you land on, a handful of city offices handle nearly every question you'll have, and knowing which one to call first saves you a transfer or two.

Office	What they handle	Contact
Planning and Community Development	General department line, forms, zoning questions	31555 W. Eleven Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48336. 248-871-2540. Mon-Fri, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM
Rental Inspection (within PCD)	Single-family rental registration, the $140 fee, inspections, Certificates of Compliance	[email protected], 248-871-2545
Zoning Code Enforcement	Zoning violations, motel-definition and district questions, complaints	248-871-2520. Supervisor David Curry, 248-871-2528
47th District Court	Civil infraction hearings for zoning and rental-registration violations	31605 W. Eleven Mile Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48336. 248-871-2900

A couple of things are worth knowing before you call. Zoning inspectors are usually out in the field, so the Zoning Code Enforcement page lists 8:30-9:30 AM and 3:30-4:30 PM as the windows they're reliably in the office. And do check the Rental Inspection page before you email, since it hosts the current registration form, the exterior maintenance checklist, and the certification-process guide, which together answer most process questions without a call at all.

What do Airbnb hosts in Farmington Hills on Reddit and Bigger Pockets think about local regulations?

Not every question gets answered by a phone call or a PDF, though, and it's worth knowing what people actually say about this ordinance. I looked for a dedicated Reddit or BiggerPockets thread specifically about Farmington Hills and didn't find one, so I'm not going to pretend I surveyed a community that, as far as I can tell, hasn't really formed around this city's rules yet. What I do have is a genuine public record of local pushback, which is arguably more useful than an anonymous thread anyway.

At the October 9, 2023 City Council meeting, area realtor Kevin Halprin spoke against the ordinance directly, arguing the city already had noise, trash, and disturbance ordinances on the books and didn't need to restrict how an owner uses their property on top of them. Teri Spiro, representing the Greater Metropolitan Association of Realtors, made a similar case for private property rights while conceding there's real ambiguity in what counts as a short-term rental. Councilmember Newlin was the lone vote against the ordinance both times it came up, on the grounds that travel patterns have changed toward families renting whole homes instead of hotel rooms, and that some residents need the rental income.

Zoom out to the state level and the sentiment is broader than one meeting. Michigan cities from Traverse City to Mackinaw City to New Buffalo have restricted or banned short-term rentals in similar fashion, and investor-side pushback statewide helped drive a 2021 bill, House Bill 4722, that would have stopped cities from banning STRs outright. It passed the House 55-48 and then died without a Senate vote, and no equivalent has passed since. So the debate happening in Farmington Hills' council chambers is really the same one playing out across the state, and our Michigan short-term rental guide covers that statewide fight in more detail.

If Farmington Hills doesn't pencil out for a nightly rental, pull up the Michigan market numbers in BNBCalc Markets before you rule out the state entirely. Plenty of nearby cities in Oakland County still allow the business model this one doesn't.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Farmington Hills in 2026?

Not as a nightly rental in a residential neighborhood. Farmington Hills' zoning ordinance defines short-term rental of a home as a "motel" use, and motels are restricted to the city's B-3 General Business and ES Expressway Service commercial districts under Ordinance C-9-2023, enacted October 2023. The only legal option for an ordinary single-family home is a lease of roughly 30 days or longer, registered through the city's Single-Family Rental Dwelling program for $140 every three years.

Does Farmington Hills require a short-term rental license or permit?

No, because the city doesn't recognize nightly rental as a permitted use outside its B-3 and ES commercial districts, so there's no license to apply for. What it does require, for any home rented on a month-to-month or longer basis, is registration under the Single-Family Rental Dwelling Registration, Safety and Maintenance Inspection Program: a $140 fee, an exterior inspection under the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code, and a Certificate of Compliance valid for three years.

What happens if you run a short-term rental in Farmington Hills anyway?

You're operating outside the zoning code, and the city has been actively enforcing against exactly that. City Manager Gary Mekjian told the City Council in October 2023 that the city already faced high administrative costs enforcing against short-term rentals before the definition of "motel" was even tightened. Zoning Code Enforcement fields complaints and can refer a case to the 47th District Court for a municipal civil infraction hearing, and I could not confirm a specific fine amount from an official source.

Can you rent your Farmington Hills home for 30 days or more?

Yes, and that's the main legal path for most homeowners here. A lease of roughly 30 days or longer falls outside the zoning code's "motel" definition entirely, according to the city attorney's own comments at the ordinance's 2023 enactment hearing. You'll still need to register the property with the city's Single-Family Rental Dwelling program, pay the $140 fee, and pass a periodic exterior inspection, but nothing in that program restricts how long a tenant stays.

Does Michigan state law override Farmington Hills' rental restrictions?

No. Michigan has no statewide law protecting short-term rentals from a local ban, and a 2021 bill that would have created one, House Bill 4722, passed the state House but died without a Senate vote. Cities and townships keep full authority to zone, restrict, or prohibit short-term rentals under Michigan's home-rule system, which is exactly the authority Farmington Hills used to write its own motel-based restriction.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.