Discrimination in Housing
ORC 4112.02 — the classes, and the sentence about availability
The housing division of Ohio's civil rights chapter lists the protected classes and then lists the conduct. It is unlawful to refuse to sell, transfer, assign, rent, lease, sublease or finance housing accommodations, or to deny or make unavailable housing accommodations, because of race, color, religion, sex, military status, familial status, ancestry, disability or national origin.
Who handles this in Ohio: Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati and Ohio Civil Rights Commission; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Deny or make unavailable is wider than refuse. Refusing outright is the obvious case and it is rarely the one that happens. The division reaches making a housing accommodation unavailable in any way on a protected ground, which covers conduct that never produces the word no.
One specific practice is named on its own: representing to any person that housing accommodations are not available for inspection, sale or rental when in fact they are available, because of a protected characteristic. That is the sentence that describes being told a unit is taken and then seeing it advertised the following week.
| Protected class | Under ORC 4112.02 |
|---|---|
| Protected classRace, color, ancestry, national origin | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
| Protected classReligion | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
| Protected classSex | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
| Protected classMilitary status | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
| Protected classFamilial status | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
| Protected classDisability | Under ORC 4112.02Listed |
Familial status is the one most people do not know is in the list, and it is the ground underneath a refusal aimed at a household with children. Disability carries its own set of obligations elsewhere in the chapter, including on modifications and on accommodations, which this page does not reach.
The division carries its own limits, written into it. Nothing in the housing division requires that a housing accommodation be made available to an individual whose tenancy would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals, or whose tenancy would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others. Section 4112.024 separately carries an exemption for housing for older persons. Both are in the law rather than being defenses somebody invented.
How a complaint is filed, the deadline for filing one, what the Ohio Civil Rights Commission does with it, the separate federal fair housing route, the exemptions for certain owner occupied and small properties, and the disability provisions on reasonable modifications and accommodations are in the chapter and in federal law, and are not on this page. Nothing here says whether particular conduct was discriminatory, which turns on evidence. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission takes housing complaints, local fair housing agencies operate in most Ohio cities, and a licensed Ohio attorney is who advises on a specific case.
Sources for this section (2)
- ORC 4112.02 — Unlawful discriminatory practices, and who the chapter protects
- ORC 4112.024 — Housing for older persons, and the exemption it carries
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.