FAQ

Do landlords have to test for radon?

Direct answer

Ohio does not require landlords to test rental housing for radon. Once you know of an elevated result, the calculus changes, because a known hazard you did not address is a different position than one you never measured.

More detail

There is no Ohio statute requiring a landlord to test a residential rental for radon before leasing, and no general obligation to provide a result a tenant has not asked for. Some states have testing or disclosure requirements for rentals; Ohio is not currently one of them. That is the legal floor rather than the practical answer. Two things shift the analysis. The first is knowledge: once a test has been run and shows an elevated result, an owner is in possession of information about a known health hazard in a unit they are renting out, and doing nothing with it is a materially different position than never having measured. The second is that tenants increasingly ask, particularly in a region where elevated results are common, and an owner who can answer the question with a documented result and a system has an easier conversation than one who cannot. For multi-unit buildings the technical picture also changes. Ground-contact units carry the exposure, upper floors generally do not, and shared HVAC or stairwells can move soil gas between units in ways single-family testing does not account for. Buildings large enough to fall under ANSI/AARST CC-1000 for large-building mitigation need a different scope than a house. The pragmatic position most owners land on: test the ground-contact units, keep the results, and mitigate what comes back high. A system costs roughly one month of rent in this market and it removes the question permanently.

Authoritative sources

  • US EPA

    Columbus and surrounding counties sit in EPA Radon Zone 1, the highest-risk classification.

  • EPA Citizen's Guide to Radon

    EPA recommends mitigation above 4.0 pCi/L and consideration of mitigation between 2.0 and 4.0 pCi/L.

  • Ohio Department of Health

    Ohio Radon Program guidance on testing, mitigation, and contractor licensure.

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