Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Ohio

In Ohio, relations between landlords and tenants are governed by the terms of the lease agreement and by Ohio Revised Code Section 5321.01 to .18. If your written lease expired but you kept on living there and paying rent under the same agreement, then you are on a month to month tenancy with terms identical to that of the written lease agreement.

If the landlord is wanting to change the terms of that agreement by insisting upon getting an extra $1,100.00, that is fine, but she needs to adhere to Ohio Revised Code Section 5321.17 which deals with the termination of periodic tenancies (month to month lease agreements).

Any time the landlord or the tenant wants to change the terms of a month to month lease agreement, what that really is is a termination of the old month to month lease agreement and an offer to the tenant to enter into a new month to month lease agreement on the altered terms.

The problem for your landlord is that while she is free to insist that you pay an extra $1,100.00 (or an extra $11,000.00 if she thinks she can get it from you), she has to first give you proper notice that the old month to month tenancy between you is over. R.C. 5321.17 states that either the landlord or the tenant can terminate the tenancy by giving 30 days notice to the other side. But there is a timing catch. The 30 days does not begin to run until the start of the next rental period. Thus is your landlord gave you notice that she was terminating the old tenancy and offering a new one on February 10, 2013, that 30 day notice would not start to be calculated until March 1, 2013. So you would still pay the same amount as you have been all along for February and all of March.

At the end of March, you would have to make a decision as to whether or not you wanted to continue to rent there or find some new place.

If you think that she won't give you back your security deposit, then you will want to go to http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/faq40.html to find out how to put yourself in the best position for recovering it.