When the Landlord Retaliates
ORC 5321.02 — three protected acts, three prohibited responses
The retaliation section is built as a pairing, and the pairing is not one to one. Any one of three things a tenant may do brings the section into play, and once it is in play all three of the things a landlord may not do are barred. Both halves have to be present for the section to apply, which is why it is written out this way rather than as a general ban on landlords behaving badly.
Who handles this in Ohio: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Three acts are protected.
- Complained to a government agency of a violation of a building, housing, health or safety code applicable to the premises, where the violation materially affects health and safety.
- Complained to the landlord of a violation of ORC 5321.04.
- Joined with other tenants to negotiate or deal collectively with the landlord on any of the terms and conditions of a rental agreement.
Because a tenant did any of those, a landlord may not do any of these.
- Increase the rent.
- Decrease services that are due to the tenant.
- Bring or threaten to bring an action for possession of the tenant's premises.
The complaint to a government agency has a qualifier on it. The protected complaint is of a violation of a building, housing, health or safety code applicable to the premises where the violation materially affects health and safety. Materially affects health and safety is a condition in the sentence, not decoration, and it is the part a landlord will argue about.
Where a landlord acts in violation of the section, the tenant may use the retaliatory action as a defense to the landlord's action to recover possession of the premises. That is a defense inside an eviction case rather than a separate lawsuit, which matters because the eviction case is usually what is moving first. In addition, the tenant may recover actual damages together with reasonable attorney's fees.
A rent increase is not retaliation merely because it followed a complaint. The section says plainly that nothing in it prohibits a landlord from increasing the rent to reflect the cost of improvements installed in or about the premises, or to reflect an increase in other costs of operating the premises. A landlord with a documented cost has a documented answer, and timing alone does not decide it.
This page does not say how retaliation is proved, what evidence a court looks for, or how close in time the landlord's response has to be. It does not cover which tenancies the landlord and tenant chapter reaches, and some do not fall under it. Where an eviction case is already filed, the deadlines in that case run regardless of the strength of any defense. Legal aid organizations across Ohio handle eviction defense, and whether a particular response was retaliatory is a question for the court hearing it and for a licensed Ohio attorney.
Sources for this section (2)
- ORC 5321.02 — Retaliatory action by a landlord prohibited
- ORC 5321.04 — Landlord obligations, including notice before entry
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.