Legislative Updates
OREIA's main purpose is to advocate for legislative change for the benefit of its members. OREIA employs a Legislative Director, Dan Acton, and a professional lobbying firm, Governmental Policy Group, to actively monitor and engage at the state level.
Current Legislative Update 3/2025
Visit the Ohio Legislature website to search any bill's status and full language.
The 136th General Assembly started off with many familiar faces in new positions. We welcome OREIA allies Matt Huffman as new Speaker of the House and Rob McColley as the new Senate President. Representatives Manning, Plummer, John, Bird, McClain, Demetriou, Santucci and Williams round out the leadership with Speaker Huffman. President McColley has help from Senators Reineke, Gavarone, and Lang. OREIA has been building relationships with these legislators for years and looks forward to a productive year.
Many of the bills introduced last year will be re-introduced early this session and see significant backing. We expect to see movement by early February on our Water Bill, Short Term Rentals, Property Tax Reform, Anti-Squatter Bills, and Wholesaling Reforms.
Sign up for our Real Estate Advocacy List and customize the alerts you want! We need your help in our grassroots efforts to stop costly legislation.
How a Bill Moves
HB92/SB118 Municipal Liens "Water Bill": Changes the rules for municipalities to collect on delinquent utility services to force action against those who contracted with the service before holding property owners responsible. OREIA has pushed for this all year and are hoping to finish this fall. Introduced to both chambers to speed the process along. Assigned to Local Government Committees. Heard sponsor testimony.
SB28 High Volume Landlord Tax: This ridiculous bill was reintroduced by Senator Blessing in an effort to curb the influence and ownership of institutional investors (they currently own btw 1-3% of SFH, not much influence). If enacted, it would charge those who own more than 50 properties in any one county $2,000 PER month PER house! OREIA fought this back last year and we will vehemently oppose it again this year. The way to curb institutional investors' interest in an area is to increase their competition by adding to the housing supply and lowering rental prices.
SB22 Property Tax Credit: Offering a property tax credit to certain homeowners and renters if their tax liability is greater than 5% of their income.
Real Estate Wholesaling: There have been no new hearings on this issue. Our legislative team is confident Sen. Brenner will remove the licensure requirements and simplify the required disclosures to make sure all parties are aware of and agreeable to the full process of a wholesale transaction. OREIA is working closely with the Ohio Association of Realtors and the bill’s sponsors to address concerns and pass legislation that stops bad actors, while protecting wholesaling consumers and investors.
SB5 Anti-Squatter Bills: Look to make squatting a criminal offense able to be addressed directly by law enforcement instead of a civil matter requiring eviction court. OREIA fully supports these common sense bills to protect property owners and neighboring properties from criminal elements. Introduced to Senate committee and hearing proponent testimony. OREIA NEEDS squatting stories to help put a face on this legislation! Please contact us if you are willing to share your story.
Supply Side Housing: Aims to incentivize municipalities to adopt favorable policies to increase housing supply by offering funds to local governments when certain housing reforms are implemented. However, in order to generate the revenue needed to fund the bill, it would raise taxes on real estate investors by eliminating the 10% non-business tax credit on rental housing! Almost 780,000 properties would be affected! On top of that, those funds could be used for a list of options that include counterintuitive policies that frequently deter development.
SB 104 Short Term Rentals: Bill aims to pre-empt cities and townships from banning short term rentals, limit registration requirements and fees. Has had committee hearings for sponsor and proponent testimony. OREIA is in discussions about caps or stacking of local taxes to make sure it is not prohibitive. OREIA collecting testimony.
SB 83 Revise Housing Laws: The senate has created a permanent Housing Committee this GA. Senator Reynolds will chair this committee again and likely take up the recommendations from the report put together last year. OREIA engaged in a number of the committee hearings around the state and has had numerous discussions with Sen. Reynolds. We will continue to monitor eviction rule changes and LLC privacy changes from this committee. This version has eviction records being automatically sealed until a plaintiff has won the case. It offers legal representation to renters, talks about non-binding mediation and LLC disclosures.
HB69 Tax Deduction Changes: Allows taxpayers to deduct the full bonus depreciation in a single year and enhance expensing allowances. OREIA is very supportive of this bill and will provide direct testimony on it to help our members maximize their deductions and simplify their tax returns.
SB135 Speed up Foreclosure Process: Shortens the timing and notices needed in the foreclosure process, requires professional appraisers to determine value, making the second auction no minimum. OREIA is concerned these changes will bump lender's lien positions in estate sales, increase the costs to homeowners in the foreclosure process, make it harder for homeowners to catch up, increase tax foreclosures on relatively small amounts.
SB143 Prohibits Criminal checks on employee applicants: OREIA is concerned about members who hire property managers and service contractors who enter homes on a regular basis. The potential for theft, assault, or other criminal behavior is a concern. OREIA takes safety seriously and worries how this will impact residents.