Buildings

Landlord Responsibility 
In December 2023, City Council approved an Ordinance creating the Landlord Responsibility Program. The new Landlord Responsibility legislation establishes a procedure by which tenants may receive relocation assistance if ordered by the City to vacate their residences due to unsanitary living conditions that are either created, or knowingly and willfully left unabated by the property owner. For example, exposure to lead dust and paint chips is detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of tenants, and, especially in the case of children, may result in lead poisoning and cause significant negative effects on a child's health and psychological development. The Cincinnati Health Department (CHD) is occasionally required to issue a Notice of Noncompliance and Order to Vacate residential properties due to the existence of lead hazards that make properties unsafe for human occupation, and the failure to abate is due to the property owner’s failure to cooperate with the City's lead hazard abatement enforcement efforts. Additionally, during cold weather months, CHD and B&I are regularly alerted to rental properties where there is insufficient heat and are required to issue orders requiring the vacation of these properties to protect the health and safety of their occupants.

Vacate orders are issued by the City as a last resort, when necessary, where living conditions become unsafe, and only reasonable attempts to attain compliance have been exhausted. The expenses incurred in moving and the difficulty of finding affordable replacement housing create a financial hardship on tenants, especially low-income tenants. The City currently provides minimal tenant relocation assistance out of goodwill, not as a legal requirement, to help tenants who are forced to vacate their rental units due to substandard living conditions to obtain safe and sanitary housing.

Property owners who fail to provide safe and sanitary housing, consistent with the obligations under Chapter 5321 of the Ohio Revised Code, should bear responsibility for the costs incurred by the City in providing relocation assistance to displaced tenants.  This is needed to supplement existing state and common law remedies that are insufficient to address the problems facing tenants and the City when a rental property is deemed uninhabitable by the City's code enforcement team.