Renter Guides · Cleveland, OH

No Heat in a Cleveland Rental: What the Law Requires and What to Do Tonight

Ohio requires the landlord to "[s]upply running water, reasonable amounts of hot water, and reasonable heat at all times" under ORC 5321.04(A)(6), and to keep heating fixtures in good and safe working order under (A)(4). Tonight, in order: rule out a gas emergency (smell gas → call 911), check the thermostat and breaker, photograph the thermostat, call the landlord and then confirm in writing, and file a No Heat request with the City at 3-1-1 or (216) 664-2000. If the utility is shut off, PUCO's Special Reconnect Order and HEAP's Winter Crisis Program are the two doors that open fastest.

What Ohio law requires: heat and hot water under ORC 5321.04(A)(6)

The obligation is written into the landlord's duties in ORC 5321.04, and the full text of (A)(6) matters because of what comes after the comma:

"Supply running water, reasonable amounts of hot water, and reasonable heat at all times, except where the building that includes the dwelling unit is not required by law to be equipped for that purpose, or the dwelling unit is so constructed that heat or hot water is generated by an installation within the exclusive control of the tenant and supplied by a direct public utility connection."

That second exception is the one that decides most Cleveland cases. In a great many houses and doubles here, the furnace sits inside your unit, the gas meter is in your name, and you pay Dominion or the electric company directly. That is "an installation within the exclusive control of the tenant and supplied by a direct public utility connection" — and in that setup, the landlord's supply duty under (A)(6) is not what carries your claim.

What carries it instead is (A)(4), and this one also has to be read to the end: the landlord must "[m]aintain in good and safe working order and condition all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning fixtures and appliances, and elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord." The closing clause is the test. The duty attaches to equipment the landlord supplied, or that the law requires the landlord to supply — which is what a furnace bolted into the basement of the house you rent is, whatever name is on the gas meter. Paying the gas bill does not make the furnace yours. A space heater you bought and carried in is a different question. And (A)(2) — "[m]ake all repairs and do whatever is reasonably necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition" — and (A)(1), compliance with all applicable building, housing, health and safety codes, back it up.

So the diagnostic question on a no-heat night is: is the equipment broken, or is the service off? Broken equipment is the landlord's under (A)(4). Service off for nonpayment on an account in your name is yours — and the utility programs further down are the fix.

Cleveland's housing code and the minimum-temperature question

You will find a specific degree figure quoted all over the internet for Cleveland. We are not going to repeat one, because the City does not publish a minimum indoor temperature on its own public pages. What the City publishes is a process: Building & Housing takes a dedicated "No Heat" service request whose stated purpose is to "[r]eport a broken heating system or gas is shut off," and whose stated function is that it "makes sure buildings meet code." The temperature standard lives in the Cleveland Codified Ordinances; if someone quotes you a number, ask which section it comes from and read the section before relying on it in a filing.

Here is a Cleveland-specific fact you can rely on, and it is more useful than a number. Before a registered rental unit in a building of four or more residential units can be rented, Cleveland Codified Ordinances 365.02(d)(1) requires documentation that a licensed heating, ventilating and air conditioning contractor has examined the unit and found its HVAC systems well maintained and in working order. The City collects that on a System Certification of Rental Unit Heating System form filed with the Department of Building and Housing along with the property registration, submitted online or to Room 517 at Cleveland City Hall; its inspection-status block has three checkboxes — Safe Condition, Not Operating / No Heat, and Unsafe / Imminent Danger. And it is not a one-time filing: the City's own rental properties page states that HVAC certification is required annually, that owners of multi-unit buildings must have the property's HVAC system inspected each year by a licensed HVAC contractor, and that the form must be returned each year with the annual registration. The form itself is built around that cycle — it asks the professional to confirm the inspections required under ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180 and asks the owner to certify that items flagged in the previous cycle's report were corrected.

What that gives you in a four-suite or larger building is a paper trail that is supposed to be refreshed every year: a licensed HVAC contractor signed something about your heating system. Asking your landlord for a copy of the most recent certification on file, and its inspection date, is a reasonable, specific, documentable request — and one that puts the conversation on a very different footing than "it's cold in here."

First hour: what to check and what to document before you call

Safety first, always. The City of Cleveland's instruction is unambiguous: "To report the smell of gas call 911." Do not troubleshoot a gas smell. Leave, then call.

If there is no gas odor, spend ten minutes on the things you control, because finding one of them saves you a night:

• Thermostat — set point above room temperature, mode on Heat, fresh batteries. A dead thermostat battery is the single most common false alarm.
• The furnace switch — it looks like an ordinary light switch on or near the furnace, usually at the top of the basement stairs in a Cleveland house. It gets flipped by accident constantly.
• Breaker or fuse — a gas furnace still needs electricity for the blower and controls.
• Pilot or ignition — look, do not intervene.
• Filter — a filter clogged solid can trip a limit switch and shut the unit down.
• Your utility account — is service actually on? Check the account or the meter before you report a broken furnace that is simply unfueled.

Then document, because documentation is what converts a complaint into a case. Photograph the thermostat so the frame shows both the set point and the actual room temperature, and make sure the photo carries a timestamp. Repeat it morning and night for every day the outage lasts. Add photographs of the furnace, the outdoor temperature on your phone, and anything you had to buy. Keep a plain log: date, time, who you called, what they said, what they promised.

Reporting it: the maintenance line, then the city, in that order

Call the landlord or the maintenance line first. Then — this is the step people skip — put it in writing the same day. Under ORC 5321.07(A), the notice that arms your legal remedies is written notice "specifying the acts, omissions, or code violations that constitute noncompliance." A phone call at 9 p.m. and a text at 9:05 p.m. cost the same and are worth very different amounts three weeks later.

Then the City. Cleveland routes building and housing complaints through 311, including the No Heat request described above. The number is the City's 311 line, not a direct line into Building & Housing: the City's 311 page says "[t]o speak to one of our Citizen Support Specialists, call 311 or 216-664-2000." What the City says happens next is deliberately brief: an inspector looks into complaints and takes action if needed, and the service request exists to make sure buildings meet code. It does not publish a response time for a no-heat call, so ask for the service request number and write it down.

Code enforcement carries weight in Cleveland. The Cleveland Housing Court states that a housing code violation charged as a first-degree misdemeanor can carry a "$1,000 fine and 180 days in jail," while the maximum for a minor misdemeanor — a ticketed offense — is a $100 fine. The court also notes that each day a property is found to be in noncompliance is a separate offense.

Why a no-heat call is not on the ordinary 30-day repair clock

The number everyone repeats is thirty days, and it is real — but it is a ceiling, not a schedule. ORC 5321.07(B) opens the tenant's remedies when the landlord, after receiving the written notice, fails to remedy the condition "within a reasonable time … or within thirty days, whichever is sooner."

"Whichever is sooner" is the entire argument. A reasonable time to replace a cracked heat exchanger in January is not thirty days, and no one seriously contends otherwise. When you write your notice, say so explicitly: state the outside temperature, the indoor temperature, who is in the household, and that you regard a reasonable time for this condition as measured in hours. You are not being dramatic; you are creating the record that establishes which branch of the statute applies.

The full mechanics of the notice, the clock, and what comes after are in our companion guide on Ohio tenant rights when repairs are ignored.

If the gas or electricity is shut off for nonpayment: HEAP Winter Crisis and PIPP Plus

When the furnace works but the fuel does not, you are in a different system — the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the Ohio Department of Development's energy assistance programs. Three tools, in the order most people need them:

1. The Special Reconnect Order. PUCO issues it "on an annual basis typically mid October through mid April." In PUCO's words: "Any residential customer who is served by a regulated electric and or natural gas utility company, regardless of income, may pay $175 to use the Special Reconnect Order to establish, maintain, or restore service." It may be used once per winter heating season, and customers with multiple residential accounts may only use it at their primary residence. All regulated natural gas and electric companies must comply with it. This is the fastest lever in the toolbox and it does not require an income determination.

2. HEAP Winter Crisis. The Winter Crisis Program is a component of the Home Energy Assistance Program, administered by community action agencies across Ohio. PUCO states that "[h]eating assistance for income eligible Ohioans is available November 1 through March 31," and Ohio.gov describes the program as helping "eligible Ohioans who are facing utility disconnection, have been disconnected, or have less than a 25 percent supply of bulk fuel in your tank," running "from November 1 until March 31 each year." (PUCO's electricity-side page gives the window as November 1 through May 1, so confirm the current season's end date with your local provider rather than assuming.)

Eligibility is a household income at or below 175 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, for households "facing disconnection, have been disconnected, need to establish new services, need to pay to transfer service, have PIPP default, need to pay first PIPP, or have less than a 25 percent supply of bulk fuel in their tank." PUCO publishes the 2026–2027 winter heating season income guidelines by household size:

The table continues for larger households — check PUCO's current figure for yours.

3. PIPP Plus. The Percentage of Income Payment Plan is the long-game fix, not the tonight fix. PUCO describes it this way: "When a customer pays their monthly PIPP Plus amount on time and in full, a portion of their past-due balance, and the remaining amount of that month's bill, is forgiven as a credit on their utility account." If your winters keep ending in a shutoff notice, this is the program that breaks the cycle. Apply through your energy assistance provider.

One more, for households where the cold is a medical problem: PUCO's 30-day medical certificate lets residential customers of regulated electric, natural gas and water utilities who are facing disconnection for nonpayment avoid it for up to 30 days where disconnection would pose a serious risk to the health of a permanent resident, or would make the use of necessary medical or life-support equipment impossible or impractical. Two limits PUCO states plainly: the form may be used no more than three times in a rolling 12-month period, and it has to be completed by a licensed physician, physician assistant, clinical nurse specialist, certified nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife or local board of health physician and sent to your utility. The PUCO Call Center is (800) 686-7826.

Setting all of this up correctly at move-in prevents most of it. See setting up utilities as a Cleveland renter and which utilities are usually included in Cleveland rent. For broader assistance, our low-income housing help directory is the place to start.

Space heaters, carbon monoxide and what not to do

Two rules, and we are stating only what we can stand behind.

Never heat a home with an appliance not designed to heat a home. An oven, a range, a grill, a generator indoors, or any fuel-burning appliance operated in an unvented space produces carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no color. If you have a CO alarm, test it now, tonight, while you are thinking about it; if the alarm sounds, get everyone outside first and call from outside.

Electric space heaters are a bridge, not a solution. Plug them directly into a wall outlet — not into a power strip or an extension cord — keep them clear of bedding, curtains and furniture, and do not run them unattended overnight. Two of them running around the clock will also do something you will notice on the next bill; our Cleveland winter heating cost guide puts that in context. Keep the receipts: ORC 5321.12 lets any party in a Chapter 5321 action recover damages for a breach of the contract or of a duty imposed by law, and space heaters bought during a landlord's failure to repair are the kind of out-of-pocket loss you would be trying to prove.

And do not stop paying rent to force the issue. Ohio's remedy is to deposit rent with the court, not to withhold it — ORC 5321.07(B) opens the remedies only "if the tenant is current in rent payments due under the rental agreement."

Escrow, termination and damages if the landlord still does nothing

After written notice and the reasonable-time-or-thirty-days period, ORC 5321.07(B) gives exactly three remedies:

• (B)(1) — "Deposit all rent that is due and thereafter becomes due the landlord with the clerk of the municipal or county court." The Cleveland Housing Court confirms the procedure exists and directs tenants to its Housing Court Specialists; it does not publish fees or deadlines for it, so call (216) 664-4295 before depositing anything. Details in our rent escrow guide.
• (B)(2) — "Apply to the court for an order directing the landlord to remedy the condition." The remedy that produces heat rather than money.
• (B)(3) — terminate the rental agreement.

Three conditions gate all three remedies. First, 5321.07(B) opens the remedies only to a tenant who "is current in rent payments due under the rental agreement." Second, 5321.07(C): "This section does not apply to any landlord who is a party to rental agreements that cover three or fewer dwelling units and who provides notice of that fact in a written rental agreement or, in the case of an oral tenancy, delivers written notice of that fact to the tenant at the time of initial occupancy by the tenant." Read that as written — the test is rental agreements the landlord is a party to, not units owned. Someone who owns forty houses but rents out only three is inside the exception; someone who owns three and rents all three is too. And the exception only works if the landlord actually gave you that notice, in the written lease or in writing at move-in. Check your lease for the clause. Third, division (D) of the same section excludes a dwelling unit occupied by a student tenant — which ORC 5321.01 defines narrowly as someone living in a unit owned or operated by the college or university where they are a student, under a rental agreement contingent on that student status. Ordinary off-campus housing rented from a private landlord is not covered by that exclusion just because the tenant is enrolled somewhere.

ORC 5321.02 also protects you from retaliation: a landlord may not raise rent, cut services due to the tenant, or bring or threaten an action for possession because you complained to an appropriate governmental agency about a building, housing, health or safety code violation that materially affects health and safety, or because you complained to the landlord about a 5321.04 violation. That protection has limits — division (A) is made subject to ORC 5321.03, which still lets a landlord bring an eviction where the tenant is in default in the payment of rent, where the tenant or the tenant's household or a guest primarily caused the violation complained of, where compliance would require alteration, remodeling or demolition that would effectively deprive the tenant of the unit, or where the tenant is holding over.

Section 8 units: how a no-heat failure triggers an inspection and abatement

If you hold a Housing Choice Voucher, a second and much faster set of rules applies on top of Ohio law — federal ones, and they hit the landlord in the checkbook.

HUD rewrote this rule effective June 6, 2024, and the current text is what follows. It is worth knowing that the old version is still all over the internet, and that 24 CFR 982.404(f) keeps the old version alive for HAP contracts that were neither executed nor renewed after that date, so a long-running tenancy may still sit under the prior rule.

Under 982.404(a)(1), "[t]he owner must maintain the unit in accordance with HQS," and a unit is out of compliance once the PHA or an authorized inspector finds deficiencies, notifies the owner in writing, and the deficiencies go unfixed in time. If the owner fails to maintain the unit, 982.404(a)(2): "the PHA must take enforcement action in accordance with this section."

The clock is in 982.404(a)(3), and the last two words are the ones people get wrong: "If a deficiency is life-threatening, the owner must correct the deficiency within 24 hours of notification. For other deficiencies, the owner must correct the deficiency within 30 calendar days of notification (or any reasonable PHA-approved extension)." The 24 hours does not start when the furnace dies. It starts when the PHA notifies the owner after inspecting.

Which is why the call to your housing authority is the move that actually starts a clock. 24 CFR 982.405(d)(1) binds the PHA to the other end of it: "If the reported deficiency is life-threatening, the PHA must, within 24 hours of notification, both inspect the housing unit and notify the owner if the life-threatening deficiency is confirmed. The owner must then make the repairs within 24 hours of PHA notification." So the realistic worst case on a confirmed life-threatening defect is inspection inside a day, then repair inside a day after that. One carve-out to know about in a Cleveland winter: 982.405(d)(3) lets HUD approve an exception to that 24-hour inspection deadline in extraordinary circumstances, such as a unit inside a presidentially declared disaster area, until an inspection is feasible.

If the owner misses the cure period, the money stops. Under 982.404(d) a PHA may withhold assistance payments once it has notified the owner in writing, and it must abate them — including the withheld amounts — if the owner fails to repair within the applicable cure period. After abatement the PHA notifies the family and the owner that if the unit does not meet HQS within 60 days (or a reasonable longer period the PHA sets), it will terminate the HAP contract and the family will have to move to keep its assistance, with the voucher issued at least 30 days before that termination. And 982.404(d)(3) is worth memorizing: the owner may not terminate a family's tenancy because assistance was withheld or abated under that provision (official text). Losing the subsidy over a broken furnace is the owner's problem, not grounds to put you out.

Call your housing authority (CMHA in Cuyahoga County, HACM in Milwaukee) as well as the landlord, and say plainly that the unit has no heat and that you are reporting it as a life-threatening deficiency. The same regulation cuts the other way, so be accurate: under 982.404(b), if the breach was caused by the family — including failing to pay for utilities the tenant is responsible for — the family may be held responsible, and where the PHA has waived the owner's duty to fix it, the family must take all steps permissible under the lease and state and local law to get a life-threatening deficiency corrected within 24 hours of notification.

This article is general information about renting in the Cleveland area, not legal advice. Ohio landlord-tenant rules can change and individual situations vary — consult the cited sources or a qualified professional before acting. Rent Finder Cleveland is an equal housing opportunity provider. Rent Finder Cleveland is not a property manager, landlord, or broker — the homes we list are owned and managed by third parties.