Landlord & management negligence in Columbus
Columbus logged about 2,700 landlord negligence reports in the last 19 months. That is about one of every 25 complaints filed with code enforcement. Most of them are scored severe or critical. Inspectors treat these as habitability problems, not nuisances. Reports are increasing, with 2026 so far running about 40% ahead of the same months last year. Landlord negligence reports peak in July at about one and a half times the volume of a typical month. Tenants file these reports at the highest rates in Blacklick / Brice and Westgate & Hilliard fringe. That maps where people report, not where the worst landlords are.
"Negligence" here is plain language, not a legal finding. Every number on this page is a complaint as someone filed it with Columbus 311 or code enforcement. A complaint is one side of a story. The city may confirm it, fix it, or close it as unfounded, and this page does not track outcomes. Nothing here is a judgment against any owner, manager, or company.
2,231 of the 2,706 reports describe the problem outright. The complaint itself says an owner or manager was told about a problem and did not act. The language in them looks like "reported to management, nothing has been done," "refuses to fix," "told me it was my job," "threatened to evict," or "painted over the mold."
The other 475 imply it, and we label them separately. These complaints never say "they won't fix it." They read as a tenant's own rental home with a habitability problem, plus a reason to believe the owner had time to act. A problem standing for weeks or months. A unit already infested or without heat on move-in day. Several systems failing at once. They are counted on this page and tagged as implied in our data.
What does not count. A single habitability complaint with no sign the owner had time to respond. Complaints about a neighbor's property or a neighbor's tenants. Duration alone, like a couch on a curb for months, with no rental context. Matching is automated reading of complaint narratives, so individual reports can land on the wrong side of these lines in both directions.
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These reports are the pattern behind every other problem on this site. The vocabulary in them is time. Several months. Ongoing. Nothing has been done.
Before you sign, check the address and the complex for negligence reports alongside mold, pest, and sewage reports. One repair ticket is life. A pattern is the landlord.
Check an address on the live map →Dealing with it right now?
Put every repair request in writing and keep copies. When the landlord does not act, report the underlying problem to 311 and say how long it has been open.
Retaliation for reporting is restricted under Ohio law. A 311 report is dated, public, and yours, which is exactly why it matters.
Landlord or property manager?
Responding to repair requests before they reach 311 keeps a property out of this dataset. Most of these reports describe silence, not disaster.
When it gets reported
Reports peak in July at about one and a half times the volume of a typical month. The quietest month is November. A quiet autumn does not mean the problem went away. Reporting drops citywide in cold months.
Where it's most reported
Tenants file these reports at the highest rates in Blacklick / Brice and Westgate & Hilliard fringe. That maps where people report, not where the worst landlords are.
For contrast, rates run lowest in Far South / Steelton among the busiest areas.
Often reported with
What people describe
Common questions
How do I report landlord and management negligence in Columbus?
Report the underlying problem to 311, and say how long it has been reported to management without action. Keep your own written requests. The city enforces the condition, and the record documents the pattern. The step-by-step reporting guide →
Are landlord negligence reports in Columbus going up?
Yes. Landlord negligence reports so far this year are running about 39% ahead of the same months last year.
Where are landlord negligence reports most common in Columbus?
Tenants file them at the highest rates in Blacklick / Brice, Westgate & Hilliard fringe and Hayden Run / Scioto Darby. That measures where people report, not where the worst landlords are. No neighborhood is entirely without them.
Who is responsible for fixing landlord and management negligence?
Ohio law requires landlords to make repairs within a reasonable time after notice, and restricts retaliation against tenants who complain to a government agency. Documented requests plus a 311 report are the escalation path.
Does a report here mean the landlord broke the law?
No. Each report is a complaint as someone filed it with Columbus code enforcement, and "negligence" on this page is plain language for what the complaints describe or imply. It is not a legal finding against anyone, and this page does not track how cases were resolved. Ohio law does set repair duties for landlords, so a pattern of these complaints is worth taking seriously. Treat it as a question to ask, not a verdict.
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Get the full Block Report, covering what's been reported at that exact address, the same building, and chronic neighbors within a third of a mile.
Search an address →What counts here. Complaints where the response is the problem. Most describe it outright: an owner or manager told about a problem and not acting, a brush-off, retaliation after a complaint, or problems painted over. A labeled minority imply it instead: a tenant's own rental home with a habitability problem left standing for weeks, already present at move-in, or spanning several failing systems at once. Complaints as filed, not legal findings, and this page says so in full in the "What this page counts" section above.
Data comes from official City of Columbus code enforcement records (Accela portal + ArcGIS REST API). Reports are categorized by keyword matching on complaint narratives and city record types, so counts are reports filed, not verified conditions, and automated matching can misfile individual records. The data window covers JAN 2025 – JUL 2026, so month-of-year patterns will sharpen as full years accrue. Geography on this page shows where tenants report negligence most, which also reflects who files complaints. It is not a map of where the worst landlords are.