6 Fees an Ohio Landlord Can Charge That Surprise Renters

In 2024, Signal Cleveland reported that one Maple Heights renter’s fee for paying rent hit $58.72, up from $10.

You’d spot that on your statement.

These are the fees an Ohio landlord can charge that surprise many renters.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Rental rules and dollar amounts are subject to change.

1. Late Fees

Ohio’s landlord-tenant chapter has no section on late fees.

What it does say is that your lease can contain any terms the chapter or another rule of law doesn’t prohibit.

In 2017, the First District Court of Appeals, which covers Hamilton County, heard Drake Townhomes v. Woodberry, a dispute over a landlord’s $10-a-day late fee.

The appeals court rejected the idea that a late fee is always a penalty.

It could discern nothing in Ohio’s landlord-tenant law that forbids a valid liquidated-damages clause for late fees.

The tenant had moved out June 1, and the landlord re-rented the unit starting July 1.

The court called any June late fee unconscionable and trimmed the judgment against the tenant from $850 to $800.

2. Pet Fees

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland says a landlord may collect a pet fee at the start of a tenancy without it counting as a security deposit.

Legal Aid’s example is a fee to treat the carpet before move-in.

The condition is that the fee is nonrefundable and the landlord incurs an expense related to it.

In 2006, the Twelfth District Court of Appeals, which covers Butler County, heard Stauffer, a case where tenants argued a one-time, nonrefundable $150 pet fee was a security deposit.

The court rejected that argument and found no provision in Chapter 5321 or elsewhere that prohibits such a fee.

A “nonrefundable” label doesn’t settle it, though. In Pool v. Insignia Residential Group, a 2002 First District case, the court treated a $100 nonrefundable pet fee as part of the security deposit.

Legal Aid treats a refundable pet deposit as a security deposit.

The chapter defines a security deposit as any deposit of money or property to secure the tenant’s performance under a rental agreement.

The chapter has no section on pet fees, so a fee written into your lease stands unless the chapter or another rule of law prohibits it.

3. Application Fees

In 2024, the Dayton Daily News reported that Ohio has no cap on rental application fees.

A staff attorney with the legal aid group Advocates for Basic Legal Equality told the paper that no limit applies to what private-market landlords can charge.

The same year, Signal Cleveland reported application processing fees as high as $100 to $150.

It added that application fees typically aren’t refundable if the renter doesn’t get the unit.

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland lists the fee you pay to process your application among the start-of-tenancy fees that aren’t security deposits.

The chapter has no section on application fees, and under section 5321.06 a lease term stands unless the chapter or another rule of law prohibits it.

4. Administrative Fees

Signal Cleveland reported in 2024 that if you land the unit, you can be charged an administrative fee.

Those fees typically run $100 or more, the report said.

Kris Keniray of the Fair Housing Center told Signal she hasn’t seen the fees clearly defined, so she doesn’t know for certain what they cover.

Matthew Vincel of Legal Aid told Signal that landlords can’t legally charge a junk fee that isn’t in the written lease.

The chapter has no section on administrative fees either, so the same section 5321.06 rule applies to a lease term for one.

5. Payment-Processing Fees

As of 2024, Signal Cleveland reported, one Maple Heights renter’s payment-processing fee had gone from $10 to $58.72.

The property manager, Realty Trust Services, said the new fee was based on 4% of a tenant’s total monthly rent.

Legal Aid’s Matthew Vincel gave Signal another example, a $40 charge if you pay online through the payment portal.

Without any Ohio rental junk fee laws, Signal wrote, such fees are usually legal.

The chapter has no section on payment-processing fees either, so a lease term for one stands under the same rule.

6. Re-Rental Fees

A landlord charged a fee of one month’s rent for ending a lease early in Oldendick v. Crocker, a 2016 Cuyahoga County case.

The fee came on top of the regular rent.

The Eighth District Court of Appeals found that the fee operated as a penalty on those facts.

The landlord couldn’t deduct it from the security deposit.

The court did let the landlord recover its actual costs of re-renting the unit.

Those came to $220: $120 for showing the apartment and a $100 commission on the new lease.

If you break a lease, the chapter lets a landlord apply your security deposit to the damages it has suffered because you didn’t comply with the rental agreement.

Tighter Local Rules

Signal Cleveland lists five Cuyahoga County cities with ordinances limiting late fees: Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Lakewood and Warrensville Heights.

If you rent in Cleveland, the city’s code limits a monthly late fee to the larger of $25 or 5% of the monthly contract rent.

It also caps the fee at 25% of the part of the rent that the tenant is obligated to pay.

On $1,000 rent, the first limit works out to $50.

Euclid’s Reasonable Late Fees section bars a landlord from charging late fees that aren’t reasonable.

It treats a fee as reasonable only if the month’s total stays at or below the larger of $25 or 5% of the contracted monthly rent.

Warrensville Heights sets the same larger-of-$25-or-5% cap.

Limits on Lease Terms

Ohio’s landlord-tenant chapter says no agreement to pay the landlord’s or the tenant’s attorney’s fees will be recognized in a residential rental agreement.

A court can refuse to enforce a landlord’s fee that was unconscionable when you signed your lease.