Being Evicted
ORC 5321.15 — a landlord cannot do it alone
In Ohio a landlord cannot evict anybody. A court can. Everything a landlord does before a judgment is asking, and the chapter that governs the asking is a court process with stages and dates in it. The single most useful thing on this page is that the thing most people picture as an eviction, being locked out one afternoon, is a separate statute and it is a prohibition rather than a procedure.
Who handles this in Ohio: Alliance of Ohio Legal Aids and Community Legal Aid; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.Holding a paper like this? Read my paper can read one for you, free with an account.
Locking someone out is barred in the statute's own words. No landlord of residential premises shall initiate any act, including termination of utilities or services, exclusion from the premises, or threat of any unlawful act, against a tenant, or a tenant whose right to possession has terminated, for the purpose of recovering possession, other than as provided in the chapters the section names. Nor seize the furnishings or possessions of a tenant for the purpose of recovering rent, other than in accordance with a court order.
- Changing the locks is exclusion from the premises.
- Shutting off the water, the power or the heat is termination of utilities or services.
- Removing a door, or the fridge, or a window, is the same act by another route.
- Taking a tenant's belongings to cover unpaid rent needs a court order and not a grievance.
- It reaches a tenant whose right to possession has already ended, which is the case landlords most often assume is the exception.
A landlord who violates that section is liable in a civil action for all damages caused, together with reasonable attorney fees. The attorney fees clause is why a lockout is one of the few tenant claims a private lawyer will take on a small case.
The lawful route starts with a notice, and the notice has statutory words in it that have to be there.
The three day notice carries a sentence the statute wrote. Every notice given by a landlord to recover residential premises has to contain, printed or written in a conspicuous manner: “You are being asked to leave the premises. If you do not leave, an eviction action may be initiated against you. If you are in doubt regarding your legal rights and obligations as a tenant, it is recommended that you seek legal assistance.” The notice goes by certified mail return receipt requested, by handing a written copy to the person, or by leaving it at their usual place of abode or at the premises.
| Stage | What happens | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| StageNotice | What happensThree or more days before the action begins, with the statutory language on it | Where it isORC 1923.04 |
| StageComplaint | What happensThe landlord files in the municipal or county court for the area | Where it isORC 1923.02 |
| StageSummons | What happensServed on the tenant at least seven days before the day set for trial | Where it isORC 1923.06 |
| StageFirst cause | What happensThe hearing on possession alone, decided before any money question | Where it isORC 1923.02 |
| StageJudgment | What happensIf the landlord wins possession, a judgment for restitution of the premises | Where it isORC 1923.13 |
| StageWrit | What happensThe writ of execution issues on that judgment | Where it isORC 1923.13 |
| StageSet out | What happensAn officer restores the landlord to possession within ten days of receiving the writ | Where it isORC 1923.14 |
Three days is the notice, not the eviction. The count from a notice on the door to an officer at it runs through a filing, a hearing and a writ, and every one of those is a date somebody has to appear on. A tenant who reads the notice as a deadline to be out has read the shortest number on the page as the whole timetable.
The case usually has two halves. The first cause is possession and nothing else. The second cause is money, back rent and damages, and it is frequently heard later or separately. Losing the first does not decide the second, and the chapter provides for defenses and counterclaims in a residential case rather than leaving a tenant with only a denial.
Rent escrow is the other half of this chapter and it exists in the statute rather than in folklore. Where a landlord has not met the obligations the landlord chapter sets, a tenant may deposit all rent that is due and that thereafter becomes due with the clerk of the municipal or county court for the area. The clerk then gives written notice to the landlord and holds the money in a separate rent escrow account. It is a procedure with conditions attached, not a right to stop paying.
After the tenancy ends the deposit has its own clock. Any deduction has to be itemized and identified in a written notice delivered to the tenant, together with any amount due, within thirty days after the rental agreement terminates and possession is delivered. Where a landlord wrongfully withholds part of it, the tenant may recover the amount due together with damages equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees.
The deposit remedy turns on one thing the tenant has to have done. A tenant who fails to give the landlord a forwarding or new address, as the section requires, is not entitled to the damages or the attorney fees that division provides. The underlying money is a separate question from that penalty, but the part of the section with teeth in it has that condition sitting in front of it.
“Has a court ordered this, and can I see the writ.”
This describes the residential process under the forcible entry and detainer chapter. Commercial tenancies, land installment contracts, manufactured home parks, public and subsidized housing, and cases where a tenancy never legally existed each run on their own rules and are not covered here. Local courts set their own scheduling and their own forms, notice periods differ for some grounds, and federally assisted housing can require longer notice than three days. Whether a particular notice was good, whether a defense is available, and what a counterclaim is worth are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and every county has a legal aid office that handles exactly these.
Sources for this section (11)
- ORC 5321.15 — Acts of a landlord prohibited where residential property is involved
- ORC 1923.02 — What a forcible entry and detainer action may be brought on
- ORC 1923.04 — The notice to leave the premises, and how it is served
- ORC 1923.06 — Serving the eviction summons, and when the hearing may be set
- ORC 1923.13 — The writ of execution after a judgment for restitution
- ORC 1923.14 — Enforcing the writ, and the ten days an officer has to do it
- ORC 1923.061 — Defenses and counterclaims in a residential eviction
- ORC 5321.07 — Tenant remedies, including depositing rent with the clerk of court
- ORC 5321.08 — Rent deposits, and the duty of the clerk of court
- ORC 5321.04 — Landlord obligations, including notice before entry
- ORC 5321.16 — Security deposits, the thirty days, and what a wrongful withholding costs
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.