Pay rent into escrow if you have a dispute with a landlord

Dale Emch

Contributor

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Tenants who can't get their landlords to make repairs often threaten to withhold their rent payments.

But tenants should be careful with this approach. In my Toledo Blade column on Sunday a reader asked what she could do if her landlord wouldn't make repairs. In Ohio, tenants have the right to pay their rent into an escrow account through a municipal or county court. That way, they can get a landlord's attention because the money stops flowing, but it's done in a legal way.

In Toledo, a case is opened and if the complaint doesn't have anything to do with a health or safety code issue, it's referred to the citizen dispute program. If the matter can be worked out, the case is closed. If it can't, it proceeds through the housing court.

Though it can be tempting to stop paying rent to an absentee landlord, you're only given the landlord ammunition to evict you.