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Ohio landlord · tenant screening
Download the Ohio residential rental application — screens prospective tenants with application-money elections, a standalone screening-report authorization, and the disclosures federal and Ohio law require — in fillable Word and fillable PDF, with the Ohio Completion & Use Guide.
Renting out property in more than one state? This page is the Ohio application — each state's edition is built to its own screening and application-money law.
Bundle & save $19.97
Handle tenant screening, the lease, move-in condition records, and an Ohio nonpayment notice workflow if you need it.
Use each document only when appropriate. The notice packet is not a move-in document and should be used only when the facts and current law support it.
Every file below is included: the fillable Word application, a fillable PDF, the Ohio Completion and Use Guide, and the federal FCRA Summary of Your Rights.
The real document — not a mockup. Page 1 of the form included in your download.
Every part of the form, in order — the application summary, 17 sections, and the office-use panel.
About this form
A residential rental application is the landlord's first line of protection: it collects the applicant's identity, household composition, rental history, employment and income, and references, and it carries the disclosures and signed authorizations that make lawful tenant screening possible before a lease is signed.
Ohio law shapes three things this edition builds in. First, money discipline: Ohio sets no cap, cost-basis rule, or refund duty for a rental application fee, so this edition authorizes only a nonrefundable application fee — never a holding deposit or earnest money, because money taken to hold or secure a unit is treated as a deposit with deposit-handling duties under Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5321. Second, protected-class breadth: the Ohio Civil Rights Act (Ohio Rev. Code ch. 4112) adds ancestry and military status to the federal fair-housing classes, which is why this form never asks for dates of birth, ages, or adult/minor classifications. Third, local source-of-income rules: Ohio has no statewide source-of-income protection and does not preempt local fair-housing ordinances, and more than a dozen municipalities — including Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Akron — prohibit refusing applicants because of lawful income sources such as housing vouchers; the Completion & Use Guide lists them and explains Columbus’s income-threshold calculation rule.
The Ohio Completion & Use Guide covers the money election and fee uniformity, the local source-of-income landscape (with the Columbus voucher-adjusted income test), written screening criteria as a fair-housing defense, voluntary reusable-report practice, adverse-action notices, and recordkeeping — plus the statute watch on pending HB 135 (statewide source-of-income protection). The kit includes the federal FCRA Summary of Your Rights as a package insert.
ILRG provides self-help legal forms and download support. PublicLegal landlord forms are provided for you to complete with your own property and screening information. Screening rules vary by state and change frequently — the Completion & Use Guide explains the rules in your state and the steps that keep this application within them. If you are not 100 percent satisfied after purchasing from us, contact us for a refund.
The Ohio residential rental application in fillable Word (.docx) with a fillable PDF, the Ohio Completion & Use Guide (money election, local source-of-income ordinances, screening workflow, adverse action, and recordkeeping), and the federal FCRA Summary of Your Rights. A completed sample is available as an optional add-on.
No. Ohio sets no maximum, no cost-basis rule, and no refund duty for a rental application fee. Charge a uniform fee to every applicant, keep it separate from rent and deposit money, and never label money taken to hold a unit as a fee: money that secures the property is treated as a deposit with deposit-handling duties under Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5321.
Ohio has no statewide source-of-income protection, but more than a dozen municipalities prohibit refusing applicants because of lawful income, including housing vouchers — among them Akron, Athens, Bexley, Cincinnati, Cleveland Heights, Columbus, Linndale, Reynoldsburg, South Euclid, Toledo, University Heights, Warrensville Heights, Whitehall, Wickliffe, Worthington, and Yellow Springs. Columbus additionally requires that any rent voucher or subsidy be subtracted from the monthly rent before applying a minimum-income criterion, and requires written receipts for rent and deposit payments. The Completion & Use Guide covers the landscape.
Ohio does not require acceptance and does not regulate the associated fees — acceptance is voluntary. If you accept an applicant’s report, verify it directly with the consumer reporting agency that prepared it and consider waiving the application fee.
If a consumer report contributed in whole or in part to the denial or to a conditional approval such as a higher deposit, federal law requires an adverse-action notice identifying the reporting agency, stating that the agency did not make the decision, and explaining the applicant’s free-report and dispute rights — the office-use panel checklist tracks each element. Ohio has no state denial-notice statute for rental applications, but a denial that turns on the applicant’s source of income is unlawful in the municipalities with source-of-income ordinances.