Ohio landlord notices: the 3-day notice, the 30-day cure notice, and the deposit interest rule

A guide from Forms for Landlords. Ohio figures below are taken from the Ohio Revised Code, Chapters 1923 and 5321, as published by the State of Ohio (codes.ohio.gov) in October 2026.

Ohio separates the jobs that other states combine into one form. Before any eviction filing there is a short statutory notice to leave the premises, with a statement the statute requires word for word. Before that, some grounds require their own earlier notice — most importantly a cure notice whose termination date sits a full thirty days out. And at the end of the tenancy, Ohio's deposit statute does something unusual: instead of capping the deposit, it charges the landlord interest on the part above a threshold. This guide walks through each piece, the clocks attached to it, and the local-ordinance layer that sits on top of all of it.

Before you file: the notice to leave the premises

Under O.R.C. § 1923.04(A), before beginning an eviction action under Chapter 1923, the party seeking possession must notify the adverse party to leave the premises three or more days before beginning the action. The grounds for the action are listed in § 1923.02(A) — holdover, default in rent under an oral tenancy, breach of an obligation of a written rental agreement, breach of a § 5321.05 health-and-safety duty after the cure notice described below, and controlled-substance activity, among others.

The notice must carry a statement the statute prescribes, printed or written in a conspicuous manner, reproduced here exactly as § 1923.04(A) gives it: “You are being asked to leave the premises. If you do not leave, an eviction action may be initiated against you. If you are in doubt regarding your legal rights and obligations as a tenant, it is recommended that you seek legal assistance.” A notice that paraphrases this, shrinks it, or buries it is not tracking the statute.

Service is exactly the three methods the statute lists: certified mail, return receipt requested; handing a written copy to the defendant in person; or leaving it at the defendant's usual place of abode or at the premises. Ordinary mail, e-mail, text message, and posting alone are not listed methods — a delivery record built on one of them is a record of the wrong thing. One counting caution: § 1923.04 states the three-day floor but does not state a counting method in its text. Excluding the delivery day and counting three full days is conservative practice, not a rule this guide can cite as law; local court practice may differ, and when the count is close, give more time, not less.

One shortcut exists and one does not. Under § 1923.04(B), service of the § 5321.17(C) drug-termination notice also satisfies § 1923.04(A) — no second notice is needed on that ground. An ordinary § 5321.17 termination notice, by contrast, is not listed in (B) as a substitute: after a periodic tenancy is terminated, the § 1923.04 notice still has to precede the filing.

Health-and-safety violations: the cure notice with a 30-day fuse

For a tenant's failure to fulfill an obligation under § 5321.05 that materially affects health and safety — other than the (A)(9) controlled-substance obligation, which follows a different track — § 5321.11 gives the landlord a notice mechanism of its own. The written notice must specify the act or omission constituting the noncompliance and specify that the rental agreement will terminate on a date in the notice not less than thirty days after receipt. If the tenant remedies the condition within that period, the agreement does not terminate under the notice; the cure right is part of the statute's structure, and the notice has to say so.

Two practical points. First, the clock runs from receipt, not from mailing — so the delivery method matters as much as the document: use a method that proves the receipt date. Second, compliance with § 5321.11 is a prerequisite to an eviction for a health-and-safety duty breach under § 1923.02(A)(8): skip the cure notice and that ground is unavailable, however clear the violation. Section 5321.05(C)(1) separately gives the landlord a damages remedy — actual damages plus reasonable attorney's fees — for these violations; it runs alongside the termination track, not instead of it.

Ending a periodic tenancy: 7 days and 30 days, measured differently

Section 5321.17 sets the periods for ending a periodic tenancy without cause, and the two periods are measured from different anchors. A week-to-week tenancy takes notice at least seven days prior to the termination date specified in the notice — § 5321.17(A). A month-to-month tenancy takes notice at least thirty days prior to the periodic rental date — § 5321.17(B). That anchor is the timing trap: the thirty days run to the periodic rental date, not to a move-out date of the landlord's choosing, so a notice timed thirty days before the wrong date is short.

The section has edges. Under § 5321.17(D) it does not apply to terminations based on breach of a rental-agreement condition or of a legal duty — for-cause endings route through the cure notice and the § 1923.04 notice instead — except the § 5321.05(A)(9) drug obligation, which § 5321.17(C) terminates on three days' notice. And § 5321.17 states no notice period for a year-to-year tenancy: none is printed here, because none was verified; for a year-to-year tenancy, the rental agreement and counsel are where the answer lives.

The deposit: no cap, but interest on the excess

Ohio's deposit statute, § 5321.16, regulates the deposit's return and its carrying cost rather than its size:

No cap. No section of Chapter 5321 limits the deposit amount. Section 5321.16(A) presupposes deposits above one month's rent and imposes interest on the excess instead of capping it. Do not import another state's cap into an Ohio tenancy.
Interest. A deposit in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, bears interest on the excess at five per cent per annum if the tenant remains in possession six months or more, computed and paid annually by the landlord to the tenant — § 5321.16(A). This is the rule most often missed: it accrues during the tenancy, not just at move-out, and it is reconciled annually.
Permitted applications. The deposit may be applied to past-due rent, and to damages suffered by reason of the tenant's noncompliance with § 5321.05 or the rental agreement — § 5321.16(B). Those two categories are the whole list.
Return and itemization. Deductions must be itemized and identified in a written notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession — § 5321.16(B). Both events have to have happened before the clock runs.
Forwarding address. The tenant must provide a forwarding or new address in writing. A tenant who fails to do so is not entitled to damages or attorney's fees under § 5321.16(C) — § 5321.16(B) — which makes asking for the address, in writing, part of the landlord's move-out paperwork.
Penalty exposure. Fail to comply with (B) and the tenant may recover the property and money due together with damages in an amount equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees — § 5321.16(C). In practical effect, a wrongfully withheld amount can be owed twice, plus fees.

Two cautions that shape the paperwork

Retaliation. Under § 5321.02(A), a landlord may not bring or threaten a possession action in retaliation for a tenant's protected activity — complaining to a governmental agency about a code violation, complaining to the landlord about a failure of the landlord's § 5321.04 duties, or joining a tenant union or organization. Section 5321.02(B) arms the tenant with a defense, recovery of possession, termination of the agreement, and actual damages plus reasonable attorney's fees. As everywhere, timing is evidence.

Local ordinances. Ohio cities legislate on top of Chapter 5321, and those ordinances were not surveyed for this guide. One example, verified from the city's own website: Reynoldsburg requires landlords controlling more than ten rental units in the city to offer one of three security-deposit alternatives — rental security insurance, payment in six monthly installments, or a reduced deposit of no more than 50 percent of one month's rent — and has a “pay to stay” ordinance letting tenants cure nonpayment before eviction. Other cities have their own deposit, registration, and cure rules. Check the law of the city the property sits in before relying on the state figures alone.

And the standing rule underneath all of it: possession is recovered only through the Chapter 1923 eviction process. The notices above are steps toward a court filing, not substitutes for one.

A note on currency: the sections above are stated from the current official text as read in October 2026 — § 1923.04 as amended by HB 56 (eff. October 18, 2007) and § 1923.02 as amended in 2023 among them. Statutes change, and Ohio municipal ordinances sit on top of state law. Verify the current text before acting, and have an Ohio landlord-tenant attorney review any completed notice before you rely on it. This guide is general information about Ohio's published rules — it is not legal advice, and Forms for Landlords is not a law firm.

The forms, with Ohio's numbers built in

The Ohio Landlord Forms Pack is our Ohio state edition: the notice to vacate built on § 1923.04 with the mandatory conspicuous statement reproduced word for word, the § 5321.11 cure notice, the termination/nonrenewal notice with the § 5321.17 periods built in, the deposit transmittal and itemized statement built around § 5321.16's 30-day clock and 5% interest rule, and a one-page Ohio quick-reference with the statute cited for every figure. Built from Ohio statutes as of October 2026; templates, not legal advice, and not reviewed by an Ohio attorney.

$89 See the Ohio Pack