Injured in Your Apartment? A Landlord's Duties Under R.C. 5321.04

Published June 10, 2021 · Injury Law Basics

The stair railing in your building has been loose since winter. You told the property manager twice. Then one evening it gives way under your hand, and you fall down half a flight of concrete steps.

Many tenants assume that whatever the lease says, the landlord is protected, and that renters simply take apartments as they find them. In Ohio, that is not the law. A specific statute, R.C. 5321.04, lists duties every residential landlord owes, and the Supreme Court of Ohio has held that breaking several of those duties is negligence as a matter of law. Whether you can use that statute often comes down to one thing: the paper trail.

Who the statute covers

Ohio's Landlord-Tenant Act, R.C. Chapter 5321, applies to "residential premises," which R.C. 5321.01(C) defines broadly. It includes the apartment itself, the building it is part of, and "the grounds, areas, and facilities for the use of tenants generally." Stairways, hallways, parking lots, sidewalks, laundry rooms, and pools are all part of the premises.

A "landlord" under R.C. 5321.01(B) includes not just the owner but also the owner's agent and anyone authorized to manage the premises or collect rent. Property management companies are within the definition.

The Act does not apply to hotels, motels, and other transient lodging. Those injuries are governed by ordinary premises-liability law, which I covered in a post on hotel, motel, and short-term rental injuries.

What R.C. 5321.04 requires

Under R.C. 5321.04(A), a landlord who is a party to a rental agreement must, among other things:

• Comply with codes. Follow all applicable building, housing, health, and safety codes that materially affect health and safety. This is where requirements such as working smoke detectors, proper railings, safe electrical systems, and adequate exits usually come from.
• Make repairs. Make all repairs and do whatever is reasonably necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition.
• Keep common areas safe. Keep all common areas in a safe and sanitary condition.
• Maintain fixtures and systems. Keep electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning fixtures and appliances, and elevators, in good and safe working order.

Why a code violation can win the liability question

In Sikora v. Wenzel, 88 Ohio St.3d 493, 2000-Ohio-406, a case that came out of Greene County, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that a landlord's violation of the code-compliance duty in R.C. 5321.04(A)(1), or the repair duty in (A)(2), is negligence per se. That means the injured person does not have to convince a jury that a reasonable landlord would have acted differently; the statute itself sets the standard of care. The tenant still has to prove that the violation caused the injury and the resulting damages.

There is one important limit. The Court held that the violation is excused if the landlord "neither knew nor should have known" of the condition that caused it. In Sikora, the code violation was a defect in a deck that the city had approved without reinspecting, before the landlord was involved. Because he had no way of knowing about the hidden defect, he was not liable.

That limit is why notice matters so much.

Notice: put it in writing

The landlord's knowledge can be actual (you told them) or constructive (the condition existed long enough, or was obvious enough, that they should have known). Both can be proven. But nothing proves knowledge like a dated, written repair request.

Ohio's statute already contemplates written notice. Under R.C. 5321.07(A), a tenant may give the landlord written notice specifying the conditions that violate the landlord's obligations, sent to the place where rent is normally paid. If the landlord does not fix the problem within a reasonable time, or within 30 days, whichever is sooner, a tenant who is current on rent may deposit rent with the court, ask the court to order repairs, or terminate the lease. (Landlords of three or fewer units can opt out of that remedy by giving tenants written notice, but a written repair request is still the best evidence of what the landlord knew.)

Practical tips:

• Use the landlord's online portal or email, and keep copies or screenshots.
• Describe the hazard specifically: "the railing on the east stairwell between floors 2 and 3 is loose and pulls away from the wall."
• Photograph the condition with the date visible.
• Follow up in writing if a phone call or text is your landlord's preferred method.

Common apartment injuries

The cases we see most often include:

• Stairways and railings: loose or missing handrails, broken treads, uneven steps.
• Lighting: burned-out bulbs in hallways, stairwells, and parking areas.
• Ice and snow: Ohio law on natural accumulations is complicated, and we explained it in our post on ice and snow falls. A landlord who creates an unnatural accumulation, such as a leaking gutter that freezes over a walkway, stands in a different position.
• Security doors and locks: broken entry doors and locks that let intruders in. Those cases overlap with the negligent-security claims I described in an earlier post.
• Fire and smoke: missing or dead smoke detectors, blocked exits, and faulty wiring.

What the lease can and cannot do

Many leases contain language saying the landlord is not responsible for injuries, or that the tenant will hold the landlord harmless. Ohio law limits that language. R.C. 5321.13(A) provides that no provision of the Landlord-Tenant Act may be modified or waived by an oral or written agreement, except as the statute itself allows. And under R.C. 5321.13(D), an agreement by a tenant to excuse or limit the landlord's liability arising under law, or to indemnify the landlord for it, "shall not be recognized" in any rental agreement.

In other words, the lease cannot sign away the duties in R.C. 5321.04.

A records checklist for injured tenants

If you are hurt at your apartment, gather and keep:

• Your lease and any addenda or community rules
• Every repair request, email, portal message, and text about the hazard
• Photographs and video of the condition, before and after any repair
• Any notices from the landlord about the condition or repairs
• Names of neighbors who complained about the same problem or saw your fall
• City or county code inspection reports, if any exist
• Your medical records, bills, and proof of time missed from work

Our guide chapter on preserving documents and records explains how to organize these papers and why they matter.

What this means for you

Ohio's Landlord-Tenant Act puts real duties on landlords, and a lease cannot erase them. What makes those duties enforceable is proof: proof of the code violation or disrepair, and proof that the landlord knew or should have known. If you were injured in an apartment, a common area, or a rental home, our premises liability practice can investigate and preserve that proof before repairs erase it.