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 1/2025
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.
Stay up to date with the latest legislative news and our "calls to action" by joining our Constant Contact list.
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. Will be re-introduced by our sponsors.
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.
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.
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.
Short Term Rentals: Bill aims to pre-empt cities and townships from banning short term rentals, limit registration requirements and fees.
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.
previous updates listed below: