Repairs and Living Conditions

State law (Ohio Revised Code 5321.04) lays out a landlord’s main responsibilities for maintaining the quality of a tenant’s home. These include:

• Doing whatever repairs are necessary to keep the property “fit and habitable” and in a “safe and sanitary” condition
• Following all applicable health and safety regulations (such as city or county health codes)
• Supplying running water, reasonable amounts of hot water, and reasonable heat
• Maintaining all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning fixtures and appliances, and elevators, supplied or required to be supplied (Note: state law does not require landlords to provide air conditioners, dishwashers or certain other appliances or elevators – but if a landlord has supplied them, the landlord must keep them working)
• Not entering their tenant’s home unlawfully. Unless in cases of emergency, landlords and their authorized agents (e.g. maintenance workers, property managers) may only enter at reasonable times, after giving tenants reasonable advance notice (usually 24 hours), and may not make excessive demands for entry that have the effect of harassing tenants. (Note: Landlords sometimes use unlawful entry as a way to commit additional illegal acts, such as sexual harassment of their tenants. In these situations, landlords can be held accountable for more than just the unlawful entry. Click here to learn more.)
• Protecting a tenant’s right to “quiet enjoyment” or “peaceful enjoyment.” This includes a landlord getting a tenant’s noisy neighbors to quiet down, when the neighbors have the same landlord, such as in an apartment building.

If a landlord isn’t following these rules, the law allows their tenants to take certain actions against the landlord, which we cover below. But keep in mind, a landlord may not like those actions, and may try to retaliate against a tenant who exercises their rights. So tenants who want to address problems with their landlord should first learn how to protect themselves from landlord retaliation.

In some Ohio cities tenants can report problem landlords to a local government agency that can help. We cover dealing with these agencies next. But first, here are the options that state law (Ohio Revised Code 5321.07) gives tenants everywhere in Ohio.

The first step is for the tenant to notify their landlord of the problem(s) in a letter sent by certified mail, with the tenant also keeping their own copy. This letter must give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to fix the problem. That’s usually 30 days, but can be less time in emergency situations, such as a broken furnace in the middle of winter.

If the landlord fails to correct the problem within a reasonable amount of time after receiving the written notice, the tenant may then do any of the following four things:

1. Escrow rent. The tenant can apply to the local Clerk of Courts to begin paying their rent to the court, which will not give the landlord the rent money until the landlord has fixed the problem(s).

NOTE: Tenants CANNOT just stop paying rent to try to get their landlord to make necessary repairs. This makes tenants vulnerable to being evicted for nonpayment of rent. Tenants MUST go through the court’s formal escrow process to stay housed and get problems fixed. 

To start escrow, a tenant CANNOT owe any back rent to the landlord. During escrow, the tenant MUST continue to pay their rent on time – just to the court, rather than to their landlord. Here is a Step-by-Step Guide to Escrow.

NOTE: Tenants considering escrow while on a month-to-month rental agreement, or when their long-term lease is due to expire soon and hasn’t yet been renewed, may be more vulnerable to landlord retaliation. These tenants should contact COHHIO at 888-485-7999 or rentinfo@cohhio.org for more information on how to protect themselves while exercising their legal rights.

2. Apply for a court order for the landlord to fix the problem(s), to reduce rent until the problem(s) are fixed, and/or to use rent money to fix the problem(s).

3. Terminate the rental agreement.

4. Sue the landlord to recover monetary damages for the loss of value resulting from the landlord’s failure to properly maintain the rental home. (See also: Ohio Revised Code 5321.12 )

If a landlord is entering a tenant’s home unlawfully, Ohio Revised Code 5321.04 allows tenants to sue the landlord for actual damages resulting from the entry or harassing demands, apply for a court order to stop the landlord’s behavior and a judgement for reasonable attorney’s fees, or terminate the rental agreement. (Some Ohio cities have stronger local laws against unlawful entry. And if a landlord is entering unlawfully in order to sexually harass their tenants or violate other tenant rights, there are additional ways tenants can respond. Click here to learn more.)

Reporting Landlord to Local Government Agency

All big cities and even some small towns in Ohio have local housing codes that include more detailed landlord responsibilities. State law (R.C. 5321.04) requires landlords to follow these local housing codes.

If your city has a local housing code, it probably also has a local code enforcement agency that can help get landlords to make required repairs. To find out if your city has local code enforcement, use our Local Resource Finder or call your city hall or village office.

If you live in a rural area, you probably don’t have a local housing code or code enforcement agency. Sometimes a county health department can still help – but not always.

Tenants should ALWAYS ASK an agency what they can do to help before tenants share their address and ask the agency to come inspect the home. Sometimes local agencies can be very helpful getting landlords to make repairs. But other times agencies will just condemn a home with big problems and make the tenants homeless. So tenants must always find out first! Usually code enforcement agencies are more helpful than county health departments – but it all depends on how that specific local agency operates.

NOTE: Some cities have local “Relocation Assistance” ordinances that require landlords to pay the costs of moving tenants to safe housing when the original rental housing has been made unsafe by the landlord’s negligence. To find out if a policy like this exists where you live, visit our Local Services Finder or call 888-485-7999 or email rentinfo@cohhio.org.

The most helpful agencies will notify the landlord of any violations they find during an inspection and then give the landlord a certain amount of time to fix those violations. Tenants should ask the inspector for their contact information, and for a copy of any record of the landlord’s code violation(s). If the landlord doesn’t correct violations by a certain deadline, then the local government may fine the landlord, criminally prosecute them, and even revoke their business license.

Possible advantages of reporting a landlord to a code enforcement agency:

1. Takes some of the burden off the tenant. Local government now has its own beef with the landlord. The agency will work to get the landlord to make necessary repairs and follow local rules.
2. Helps document problems. In addition to a tenant’s own evidence –such as photos, videos and copies of communication with the landlord that show evidence– Code Enforcement will independently verify the existence of any housing code violations, and formally notify the landlord.
3. Helps support an escrow case. Remember, state law (Ohio Revised Code 5321.04) requires landlords to comply with local housing codes affecting health and safety, and state law (Ohio Revised Code 5321.07) allows tenants to escrow rent with the court when landlords don’t follow those local codes. Therefore, Code Enforcement’s official determination that a landlord has violated the local housing code shows that the landlord has also violated state law. That’s very powerful evidence of the tenant’s right to escrow rent with the local court.
4. Code Enforcement works faster than escrow. Before a tenant can escrow their rent, they must first give their landlord written notice of the problem, and then wait a reasonable amount of time for the landlord to fix the problem.

A reasonable amount of time is usually 30 days. But a tenant can’t start escrowing their rent until the next rent due date AFTER that 30 days has passed. So if a tenant notifies their landlord of a problem on September 5, but rent is due on the first of each month, that tenant can’t start escrowing rent until November 1, which is 56 days after notifying the landlord of the problem.

Also, a tenant cannot escrow their rent if they owe any late rent. So if the tenant in the above example fails to escrow their rent by the November 1 due date, they can’t begin escrow on November 2. That tenant must pay the November rent to their landlord, and then wait another whole month before they can start to escrow rent on December 1.

But Code Enforcement doesn’t have to wait to act, and it doesn’t matter to Code Enforcement whether the tenant is current on rent (the tenant just needs to stay current to protect themselves from eviction). Code Enforcement will usually inspect the tenant’s home as soon as the tenant reports a problem, and then immediately issue the landlord a notice of violation to start pressuring the landlord to fix the problem(s).