Columbus Fire Damage Rules: Losing the House Without Selling It

What the Board of Revision Is

Worth establishing first, because the name suggests something harmless. A county board of revision ordinarily hears property valuation disputes. Sections 323.65 to 323.79 of the Revised Code also give it jurisdiction to adjudicate foreclosure of abandoned land.

Under section 323.66 it may adopt rules to administer those cases, limited to hearing procedure, the scheduling and location of proceedings, case management and practice forms. On any adjudication of foreclosure it may prepare final orders of sale and deeds, and may create its own order of sale and deed forms, which the sheriff or clerk of court then executes and delivers.

The clerk of court provides summons and notice of hearings in the same manner as in civil actions, maintains the official case file and dockets the proceedings. The board files its orders and adjudications with the clerk, who journalizes them.

So This Is a Foreclosure Without a Judge?

In substance, yes, where the board rather than a court takes the case. The clerk's office still handles summons, notice and the docket, and the board's orders are journalized in the ordinary way. What is absent is a judge hearing it, and what follows from a journalized adjudication is the same either way.

The Twenty-Eight Days

Section 323.65 defines the alternative redemption period, in any action to foreclose the state's lien for unpaid delinquent taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs, as twenty-eight days after an adjudication of foreclosure is journalized by the court or board of revision having jurisdiction.

On expiry of that period, the right and equity of redemption of any owner or party terminates without further order of the court or board.

The period was longer once. An earlier version of the section set it at forty-five days. It is worth working from the current figure rather than from anything remembered or read some years ago.

Does the Alternative Period Always Apply?

No. Under section 323.78 the county treasurer may elect to invoke it in a petition for foreclosure of abandoned lands. It is a choice made by the treasurer rather than an automatic feature of every case, which is one reason owners in comparable situations report very different timelines.

Where the Property Goes

Two outcomes follow from that election, and section 323.78 sets them out plainly.

Where somebody has asked for it. If a municipal corporation, township, county, school district, community development organisation or county land reutilization corporation has requested title to the parcel, then on adjudication of foreclosure the court or board shall order that the equity of redemption and any statutory or common law right of redemption is forever terminated after the alternative redemption period, and that the parcel be transferred by deed directly to the requesting body.

Where nobody has. The property is ordered sold as otherwise provided under Chapters 323 and 5721, and failing any bid at that sale, forfeited to the state and disposed of under Chapter 5723.

Can I Get Anything out of the Property in Either Case?

Not in the direct transfer route, where the parcel is deeded away rather than sold. That is why the twenty-eight days matter so much. It is the last point at which an owner still has a property to sell to somebody who would pay for it.

The Receivership Route

The second mechanism is independent of taxes. Section 3767.41 governs buildings found to be a public nuisance, and allows a court to appoint a receiver over one.

The definitions are the important part. Abate and abatement, in connection with a building, mean the removal or correction of any conditions that constitute a public nuisance and the making of any other improvements needed to effect a rehabilitation of the building consistent with maintaining safe and habitable conditions over its remaining useful life.

And the section states that abatement does not include the closing or boarding up of any building found to be a public nuisance.

Why Does That Definition Matter So Much?

Because it decides the scale of the spend. If abatement meant securing a building, the cost would be modest. Defined as rehabilitation over the remaining useful life, it can approach the cost of the works themselves, and that whole figure attaches to the property.

The Lien That Outranks Everything

Under division (C)(2)(a), and expressly pursuant to the police powers vested in the state, all expenditures of a mortgagee, lienholder or other interested party selected to undertake the work and furnish the materials necessary to abate the nuisance, and any expenditures in connection with foreclosure of the lien so created, are a first lien upon the building and the property on which it is located, superior to all prior and subsequent liens or other encumbrances associated with it, including those for taxes and assessments.

That is subject to conditions, including prior approval of the expenditures and the entry of a judgment to that effect.

An interested party for these purposes means any owner, mortgagee, lienholder, tenant or person possessing an interest of record, and any applicant for the appointment of a receiver.

What Happens to My Mortgage?

It is outranked rather than extinguished by the lien itself, and where a property is eventually sold the order of distribution matters enormously. Section 5721.17 puts notes issued by the receiver first, then unreimbursed expenses and the receiver's approved fees, with anything remaining distributed afterwards. Interest holders can find very little left.

We publish no assessment of whether a particular property would be found a public nuisance, whether a treasurer would invoke the alternative redemption period, or what any receiver's costs might be. Those are matters for the county, the court and your own counsel, and they turn on facts specific to your property.

What Actually Stops Each Route

The tax route. It runs on delinquency. Keeping the taxes current removes the trigger entirely, whatever condition the building is in.

The nuisance route. It runs on condition. Boarding up is expressly not enough, so what answers it is either repairing the building or transferring it to somebody who will.

Both. A sale ends both, because the property stops being a vacant liability in your name. That is not a reason to sell to us and it is a reason not to leave the question open indefinitely.

Two Related Provisions Worth Knowing

Section 3767.50 provides for an action to foreclose a lien on a blighted parcel, blighted parcel taking its meaning from section 1.08 of the Revised Code. And section 323.67 provides for the compilation of an abandoned land list by the county, which is the administrative starting point for the expedited route.

Across Columbus and the County

Vacancy pressure and building age vary considerably. The west side is covered under Franklinton and the Hilltop, the near east under Olde Towne East and the near east side, and the south under the south side and Merion Village. Further pages deal with Linden and north Columbus, Clintonville and the northwest and the Franklin County suburbs and townships.

Those suburbs include Whitehall, Reynoldsburg, Bexley, Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, Worthington, Westerville, Gahanna, Dublin, Hilliard, Grove City, Canal Winchester and Groveport, alongside townships including Prairie, Madison, Franklin, Clinton, Mifflin, Truro and Jefferson. The county processes described above reach all of them.

The full index is on our service area index.

Rules Questions

How Would I Know If a Case Had Started?

The clerk of court provides summons and notice of hearings in the same manner as in civil actions, so notice comes by post. Unopened mail is the commonest reason owners find out late.

Is Twenty-Eight Days Really All I Get?

After adjudication is journalized, yes, where the alternative period has been invoked. The time to act is well before that point, not after it.

Does the Nuisance Route Need Me to Be Behind on Tax?

No. It turns on the condition of the building rather than on delinquency, so a fully paid-up owner with a burned house can face it.

Primary Sources

Ohio Revised Code section 323.65 — definitions and the alternative redemption period
Ohio Revised Code sections 323.66, 323.67, 323.73 and 323.78
Ohio Revised Code section 3767.41 — public nuisance buildings, receivers and liens
Ohio Revised Code sections 3767.50 and 1.08 — blighted parcels
Ohio Revised Code sections 5721.17, 5721.18 and 5723.18 — distribution and forfeiture