Residential Property Disclosure Form (Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing), required under ORC 5302.30; form format governed by Ohio Administrative Code Rule 1301:5-6-10 — Ohio Revised Code 5302.30 ("Property disclosure form"). Ohio is a mandatory statutory disclosure state for most residential resales, not a caveat emptor state - though caveat emptor and "as-is"/inspection-waiver clauses remain a real backstop for anything outside the form's scope or outside the seller's actual knowledge.
Ohio requires sellers of residential real property with 1-4 dwelling units to complete the state-prescribed Residential Property Disclosure Form and deliver a signed, dated copy to the buyer before the buyer signs the purchase contract (ORC 5302.30). This is a real, currently-in-force mandatory disclosure regime - Ohio is NOT a pure caveat emptor state for these transactions, contrary to a common misconception. However, the seller's duty is limited strictly to defects within their actual knowledge; Ohio imposes no duty to inspect, investigate, or discover unknown defects, so caveat emptor effectively still governs anything the seller doesn't actually know about or that falls outside the form's listed categories. The Ohio Supreme Court's July 2025 decision in Ashmus v. Coughlin (2025-Ohio-2412) reinforced this narrow scope, holding sellers must disclose only conditions that would interfere with an ordinary buyer's use of the property (a recorded, functioning sewer easement was held not to be a disclosable "material defect," and the specific buyer's redevelopment plans were irrelevant to the seller's disclosure duty). Separately, and distinct from traditional seller disclosure, a genuinely new 2026 change is Ohio's real estate wholesaler disclosure law (Senate Bill 155, codified at ORC 5301.95, effective March 2, 2026), which requires wholesalers - not ordinary home sellers - to give property owners a mandatory, standalone, bold 12-point-font written disclosure before entering a binding contract to acquire 1-4 unit residential property, with a right for owners to cancel without penalty any time before closing if the disclosure was not properly given.
The core seller disclosure statute (ORC 5302.30) itself was not substantively rewritten in 2026, but two developments are notable: (1) the Ohio Supreme Court's July 2025 ruling in Ashmus v. Coughlin, 2025-Ohio-2412, narrowed and clarified what counts as a disclosable "material defect" (recorded/functioning easements and utility lines generally do not qualify, and the test is impact on an ordinary buyer, not the specific buyer's plans); and (2) effective March 2, 2026, Senate Bill 155 created a new and separate disclosure regime for real estate wholesalers (ORC 5301.95), requiring wholesalers to give sellers a mandatory bold-font written disclosure before a purchase contract becomes binding, with violations subject to Ohio Division of Real Estate disciplinary action and a seller right to cancel without penalty before closing. This wholesaler law is a new consumer-protection layer distinct from, and in addition to, the traditional ORC 5302.30 seller disclosure obligation.
Facts on this page reflect research current as of 2026-07-05. Programs, rates, and laws change — confirm current figures with the relevant state agency before relying on them.