Columbus Rental Registry: What Owners Need to Do Before December 31

Columbus owners have a 92-day window this fall, and it reaches the single rented house in Clintonville just as squarely as the apartment complex down the street.

What the registry is, and who has to register

Columbus City Council passed ordinance 0923-2026 on April 20, 2026 by a vote of 8-1, enacting Chapter 4515 of the Columbus City Codes and creating a Registry of Residential Rental Properties. Councilmember Nicholas Bankston sponsored it, Councilmember Emmanuel Remy cast the dissenting vote, and Building and Zoning Services was the requesting department. Passage is recorded in Columbus City Bulletin #17, April 25, 2026.

What the registry collects is deliberately unglamorous: who owns each rental property, who is responsible for it day to day, how many dwelling units it contains, its parcel identification, and an emergency contact the city can reach. Bankston framed it in NBC4’s coverage of the vote as being “about who is in control of the property, meaning whose job it is to take care of their property.”

 

Who is exempt, and who is not

Chapter 4515 sounds like a rule aimed at large complexes. It is not written that way. A rule like this sounds like it targets large complexes and absentee portfolio operators. Chapter 4515 does not read that way. Under CCC 4515.04 there are four exemptions and they are narrow: properties subject to the Vacant Building Registry (Chapter 4517), properties operating under hotel, motel or short-term rental permits (Chapter 598), dormitories under section 3303.04, and facilities licensed under Chapter 4561. Single-family homes are not exempt. Duplexes are not exempt. Condos are not exempt. Owners of one unit are not exempt.

One rented house in Clintonville carries the same registration obligation as a 200-unit apartment complex. The ordinance draws no line at portfolio size.

This is a second registration, not a replacement for one you may already have. Ohio law separately requires owners to file owner and parcel information with the county auditor under ORC 5323.02, updated within 60 days of any change, and the Franklin County Auditor’s rental registration page puts the non-compliance fine at $150 per tax year. The city registry asks for more, including the emergency contact and responsible-party detail the county filing does not capture.

As of September 2026. This article is informational and reflects Columbus and Ohio requirements as enacted. It is not legal advice, and an attorney should review how Chapter 4515 applies to a specific property or ownership structure. For broader context, see RLPM’s guide to Columbus rental laws.

 

When do Columbus landlords have to register?

The initial registration window runs October 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. The registry is established starting with the 2027 calendar year, and registration is annual after that.

There is no phase-in. Cities often stage a program like this by building size or zip code across two or three years. Columbus did not. A retiree with one rented condo in Victorian Village and an operator with 900 units face the same 92 days.

Two ongoing obligations sit behind that first filing. Registration renews annually, and registrants have 30 calendar days to update the city after any change to the required information. That second one is easy to trip over in normal operations. A new property manager starts the clock. So does a change of ownership, a new emergency contact phone number, or a conversion that changes the dwelling unit count. None of them announce themselves.

 

What does the Columbus rental registry cost?

The fee schedule is modest by design. Council set annual registration at $15 per dwelling unit with a $1,500 cap per complex, confirmed in Columbus Dispatch reporting on the April 20 vote and in ABC 6 coverage the next day. Follow-up legislation in July 2026 set the rest of the schedule and froze the fees for at least three years.

Fee	Amount
Annual registration	$15.00 per dwelling unit
Cap, per complex	$1,500.00
Units added mid-year	Prorated
Conditional status designation	$250.00 plus $10.00 per unit
Late fee, under 120 days late	10% of annual fees
Late fee, 120 days or more	20% of annual fees
Single rented house, annual	$15.00

Against real portfolios: a four-unit in Olde Towne East pays $60 a year, and a 140-unit complex that would compute to $2,100 pays the $1,500 cap instead.

Now the question the ordinance does not answer. Chapter 4515 caps fees at $1,500 “per complex,” and it does not define how that cap treats scattered sites. Thirty single-family houses spread across Reynoldsburg, Whitehall and Gahanna are not a complex in any ordinary sense. The plain reading is that those 30 houses pay 30 separate $15 fees for $450, with the cap doing nothing at all. The dollars are small, though how the city counts units here may inform how it counts them elsewhere, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.

Thirty scattered houses most likely pay thirty separate $15 fees. The per-complex cap was not written with that kind of portfolio in mind.

If you hold scattered single-family rentals, ask Building and Zoning Services (111 North Front Street, 1st floor, 614-645-7433) how the cap will be applied rather than assuming either answer.

 

The Local Operator requirement at 10 units

Chapter 4515 defines a Local Operator as an individual with charge, care or control of a building whose primary residence is within 100 miles of Columbus. Two details matter: it is a person rather than an entity, and the 100 miles runs from where that person actually lives.

Owners of fewer than ten total dwelling units are not required to identify a Local Operator. At ten or more, the requirement applies. Read “total” carefully, because the threshold counts dwelling units across the ownership rather than units at one address. Six duplexes is twelve units. Nine houses plus one duplex is eleven.

For an out-of-state owner at ten or more units, this cannot be satisfied by a mailing address, a registered agent service, or a relative who drives past occasionally. The ordinance asks for a named individual within 100 miles who has charge, care or control of the building.

A Columbus-area property manager satisfies it directly. RL Property Management’s team works out of Gahanna, well inside that radius, which is the point at which a management relationship stops being a convenience and becomes a compliance answer. (For what that relationship covers day to day, see what a Columbus property manager actually does.)

 

What will city inspectors actually look at?

This is where the rumor mill has been loudest, and where the enacted text is genuinely reassuring.

CCC 4515.07 creates a “Preventative Education Inspection” performed by Building and Zoning Services on a three-year cycle, covered by the registration fee. Its scope is the exterior, common areas (corridors, hallways, lobbies) and shared mechanical systems (boilers, central furnaces, shared hot water, heat sources, electrical panels, fire alarm panels, fire suppression pumps). The section excludes the interiors of individual dwelling units unless the inspection is requested by the tenant or by the owner or operator. For a scattered single-family rental, that leaves an exterior look. No common corridors, no shared boiler.

The routine inspection is an exterior and common-area walk. Interiors of occupied units sit outside it unless the tenant or the owner asks.

 

Why proactive interior inspections came out of the bill

That narrowness was deliberate. An earlier version contemplated proactive interior inspections and was amended before passage, with Bankston explaining that the City Attorney’s office had concluded government needs probable cause to enter a residence without consent. Chapter 4515 carries the guardrail in its own text: “No criminal penalty shall attach, nor shall any certificate of occupancy be denied, solely by reason of… refusal to consent to an inspection.”

Those concerns are live in Ohio, not theoretical. The Supreme Court of Ohio heard argument on January 8, 2026 in Department of Development Services for the City of North Canton v. CF Homes, LLC (case No. 2025-0458) on whether a city meets Ohio’s probable cause standard for an administrative search warrant when no violation has been shown, and Court News Ohio’s preview lays out the question. No decision had issued as of September 1, 2026. That case concerns North Canton’s ordinance, and Columbus wrote a narrower inspection into 4515.07 to begin with, which is one reason the registry deadline is not something to wait out. RLPM’s own approach to documenting condition is described in this rental property inspection guide.

 

Conditional status, and how a property gets out of it

Conditional status under CCC 4515.09 is where registration stops being a $15 formality. A property can be designated on any of six triggers:

1. Five or more Notices of Violation under Chapter 4509 in any 12-month period, for properties up to 100 units
2. Ten or more Notices of Violation in any 12-month period, for properties over 100 units
3. Outstanding non-compliant orders on critical building systems
4. A public nuisance declaration
5. Unsafe building orders under Title 41, or emergency vacate orders under Title 45, in non-compliance
6. Knowingly providing incomplete or inaccurate information on the registration application

Once designated, the property picks up inspection of up to 10% of its dwelling units plus the affected units and common areas carrying outstanding violations. The city may require third-party inspections at the owner’s expense. The owner submits a written remediation plan with an abatement timeline, including any tenant relocation assistance the situation requires. The designation fee is $250 plus $10 per unit. Status runs up to 12 months and lifts on substantial compliance plus payment of what is owed.

Five notices of violation in twelve months is the line. For a small portfolio that can be one deferred-maintenance year, not neglect.

Conditional status also travels with the building. On a sale, the new owner has 30 days to enter a remediation plan agreement. If you are buying in Columbus in 2027, registry status belongs on the diligence checklist next to the title work.

 

What are the penalties, and which numbers are wrong?

Start with the enacted text. Under CCC 4515.995, failing to comply with a Notice of Violation by the date specified in the notice “may incur a civil penalty of two dollars ($2.00) per dwelling unit per day.”

Two dollars, per unit, per day. A twelve-unit building sitting 30 days past a notice deadline accrues 12 × $2 × 30, or $720. A single-family rental in the same position accrues $60 for that month. The penalty attaches to non-compliance with a notice rather than automatically to a late registration, which is what the 10% and 20% late fees address.

Now the correction, because summaries still circulating online are alarming owners for no reason. You may have seen the registry described with a $20 per unit annual fee, a $2,500 per complex cap, and a civil penalty of “$2 per day per unit, with a $10 per day minimum.” Those figures are real, and they belong to a January 30, 2026 draft summary that circulated during the public comment period. Council amended the proposal before passage. The enacted fee is $15 per unit, the cap is $1,500, and no $10 per day floor appears in Chapter 4515.

The ten-dollar-a-day minimum still quoted online came out of a January draft. It is not in the ordinance Columbus enacted.

On enforcement, the Director may bring an action in the Environmental Division of the Franklin County Municipal Court, and an owner may appeal to the Property Maintenance Appeals Board under Chapter 4509. Enforcement is stayed while an appeal is pending, though penalties continue to accrue, so an appeal buys process rather than a pause on exposure.

 

What the city has not published yet

The honest status as of September 1, 2026, thirty days before the window opens: there is no rental registry page on columbus.gov, and columbus.gov/Services/Rental-Registry returns a 404. The Building and Zoning Services site lists permits, zoning, licensing, code enforcement and benchmarking, with no registry program among them. The fee does not yet appear in the published 2026 Combined Development Related Fee Schedule, which does list Vacant Building, Foreclosed Property and Residential Property Wholesaler registrations. No rules have been promulgated under the Director’s authority in section 4515.01.

The technology is funded. In April 2026 the city authorized a $399,000 contract modification with OpportunitySpace, Inc. for its BuildingBlocks platform (ordinance 1101-2026), $250,000 of it for the Rental Registry component. Nothing owner-facing has come out of it yet. Watch columbus.gov and the BZS pages, and call 614-645-7433 rather than trusting a third-party site that offers to register you.

The other unresolved piece is legal. The Columbus Apartment Association, through attorney Dimitri Hatzifotinos, said in April it would challenge the ordinance on the grounds that it duplicates data owners already file with the county auditor under ORC 5323 and imposes fees state law does not authorize. “We actually did a public records request and obtained the Franklin County auditor’s information,” Hatzifotinos told NBC4. “It’s copious.” Bankston’s answer was that the county registry “is really simply a checkbox.” As of September 1, 2026 no lawsuit had been filed.

A stated intention to sue is not an injunction. Nothing on file as of September 1, 2026 moves the December 31 deadline.

 

Your next 30 days: a readiness checklist

The portal is not the work. The information is the work, and it can be assembled now.

1. Build a unit-level inventory. One row per property: street address, parcel ID from the Franklin County Auditor’s property search, and the number of dwelling units on that parcel.
2. Count your dwelling units across the whole portfolio. That one number decides whether the Local Operator requirement reaches you. Ten is the line.
3. Name your emergency contact, and your Local Operator if you are at ten or more units. A person, reachable, with charge, care or control, primary residence within 100 miles of Columbus.
4. Confirm your Franklin County Auditor registration is current. Separate filing under ORC 5323.02, 60-day update rule, $150 per tax year fine, and city data will make gaps between the two easy to spot.
5. Close out open Chapter 4509 violations. Five in twelve months triggers conditional status. Two stale notices from last spring are better resolved in October than reweighed in March.
6. Budget the fee. Units multiplied by $15. Trivial for most owners, and worth calendaring so it does not become a 10% late fee on principle.
7. Calendar December 31, with a check-in the week of November 16. If nothing has been published by mid-November, call BZS at 614-645-7433 and ask directly.

Owners who do this in October will spend twenty minutes in the portal whenever it opens. Owners who wait will be hunting parcel IDs over the holidays.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Columbus rental registry apply to a single rental house?
Yes. The four exemptions in CCC 4515.04 cover Vacant Building Registry properties, hotel/motel/short-term rental permit holders, dormitories, and Chapter 4561 licensed facilities. Single-family homes, duplexes and condos are not among them.

When does Columbus rental registration open and close?
The initial window runs October 1 through December 31, 2026, with the registry established for the 2027 calendar year. It renews annually after that.

How much does the Columbus rental registry cost?
$15 per dwelling unit annually, capped at $1,500 per complex, with mid-year additions prorated. Late fees run 10% of annual fees under 120 days and 20% at 120 days or more.

Do I still have to register with the Franklin County Auditor?
Yes. The county filing under ORC 5323.02 is a separate state-law obligation that the city registry does not replace, and the auditor’s office lists a $150 per tax year fine for non-compliance.

Will city inspectors come inside my tenant’s unit?
Not under the routine three-year Preventative Education Inspection, which covers exterior, common areas and shared mechanical systems and excludes individual unit interiors unless the tenant or owner requests entry. Conditional status properties are treated differently.

What is a Local Operator, and do I need one?
An individual with charge, care or control of the building whose primary residence is within 100 miles of Columbus. Owners with fewer than ten total dwelling units are not required to identify one.

What is the penalty for not complying?
CCC 4515.995 provides a civil penalty of $2.00 per dwelling unit per day for failing to comply with a Notice of Violation by the date specified. Enforcement runs through the Environmental Division of Franklin County Municipal Court, with appeals to the Property Maintenance Appeals Board.

Is the rental registry being challenged in court?
The Columbus Apartment Association said in April 2026 that it intended to challenge the ordinance on ORC 5323 duplication grounds. As of September 1, 2026 no lawsuit had been filed, and the December 31 deadline stands.

Sources & Suggested External Links

• Columbus City Bulletin #17, April 25, 2026: passage of ordinance 0923-2026 enacting Chapter 4515, 8-1.
• Columbus Dispatch, Jordan Laird, April 20, 2026: fees, inspection scope, and the amendment removing proactive interior inspections.
• NBC4 (WCMH), Isabel Cleary, April 21, 2026: Bankston and Columbus Apartment Association statements.
• ABC 6 (WSYX), April 21, 2026: the $15 per unit fee and $1,500 per complex maximum.
• WOSU, Katie Geniusz, April 15, 2026: what the registry collects and how conditional status works.
• Rental registry draft summary, January 30, 2026: the pre-amendment figures still circulating online.
• Ohio Revised Code 5323.02: the separate state county-auditor filing requirement.
• Franklin County Auditor, Rental Registration: county requirements and the $150 per tax year fine.
• Court News Ohio: Dept. of Development Services v. CF Homes: the pending Ohio Supreme Court case on rental inspection warrants.
• Columbus Building and Zoning Services: 111 North Front Street, 1st floor, 614-645-7433.