Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Ohio

I have a question retaining to my current lease of my town-home. I moved into this town-home at the end of this past October. Today my leasing office called and said that they were going to be doing construction and that this is going to involve digging to the footer. She went on to say that since you are one of the four units that are on the slope that they would dig about 20 feet deep and that the contractor said it is necessary that these four units be vacant. She then told me that they would relocate us to another unit in the complex. I asked when wills this need to be decided by and when will we need to be moved out by. Her response was that the construction crew is ready to go now and that they are just waiting for the weather to break to get started. I told her that I needed to talk to my girlfriend first and that I would call her back.

I know that they are breaking the lease agreement that my girlfriend and I signed by making use relocate to a new unit. What I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions on what I should do in this situation and some question I should ask them when I talk to them? If you could please help it would be greatly appreciated.


Asked on 2/27/14, 12:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Eric Willison Eric Eastman Willison

In Ohio, if you are under a lease agreement for a certain unit in the apartment complex, the landlord is going to have to honor that lease agreement until it ends, and cannot unilaterally change the terms of the lease agreement by requiring you to move to a different section of the complex.

They can try to evict you, but if they come to court and say that you have to move because they have decided to do rennovations, they aren't going to get anywhere. Any lawyer that they go to to file that eviction is going to spot that problem right away.

If they start doing the work and it interferes with your possession of the apartment, then you can sue them for breach of the lease and constructive and self help eviction. Ohio Revised Code Section 5321.15 permits you to recover attorneys fees if you can show that the landlord's action amounted to self-help eviction (an eviction without court process).

In the end though, your best bet is to be reasonable and move to another unit if they will pay your expenses and make it worth your trouble (perhaps a month of free rent).

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Answered on 3/08/14, 11:32 am


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