Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Ohio

In Ohio, if a tenant abandons property at the apartment, then that property becomes the property of the landlord, and the landlord does not have to even credit the value of it against what is owed. However, this can be a bit risky because the tenant may later claim that he or she had not left yet and was in the process of moving out and that the landlord engaged in a self help eviction to remove the belongings.

So the best thing is to video tape the inside of the premises so that what was left behind can be recorded and so that you can show a court later that clearly this person was long gone and had abandoned the property. If there is any doubt, then it is best to go through the statutory eviction process and set the items out via a writ of restitution.