When The Landlord Will Not Fix It
ORC 5321.07 — rent escrow, and the condition that decides it
Withholding rent and escrowing rent are two different things, and only one of them is in the statute. Simply keeping the money is a default a landlord can evict on. Escrow is a procedure: the rent still gets paid, in full and on time, to the clerk of the municipal or county court instead of to the landlord, and the clerk holds it until the condition is dealt with.
The step before escrow is a written notice. It has to specify the acts, omissions, or code violations that make up the landlord's noncompliance, and it goes to the person or the place where rent is normally paid rather than wherever seems reasonable. A verbal complaint to a maintenance number is not this notice, which is where most of these attempts fail.
| Step | What the section requires |
|---|---|
| Written notice | Specifies the acts, omissions or code violations, sent where rent is normally paid |
| Time to remedy | A reasonable time, with thirty days set as the outside of it |
| Tenant current | Rent paid up at the point the deposits begin |
| Deposit | All rent due, and all rent that becomes due after, paid to the clerk |
| The clerk | Gives written notice to the landlord and holds the money in a separate escrow account |
What counts as the landlord's obligation is set out in its own section rather than left to argument. It covers keeping the premises fit and habitable, complying with housing, building, health and safety codes, keeping the common areas safe, and keeping the supplied heating, plumbing, electrical and appliances in working order.
“Is the rent current, and was the notice in writing and to the right address.”
Each clerk of courts runs its own escrow paperwork and its own filing fee, and the forms differ from one county to the next. Retaliation against a tenant for a code complaint is its own section and is not covered here. Whether a particular condition is a landlord obligation, whether a notice was sufficient, and what a court will do with a deposit are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and legal aid offices across the state handle landlord and tenant cases as a matter of course.
Sources for this section (4)
- ORC 5321.07 — Tenant remedies, including depositing rent with the clerk of court
- ORC 5321.04 — Landlord obligations, including notice before entry
- ORC 5321.08 — Rent deposits, and the duty of the clerk of court
- ORC 5321.09 — A landlord's application to have escrowed rent released, including where the tenant was not current
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.