OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 375 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 375’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Demetriou and Patton
Effective Date:
Carla Napolitano, Attorney
Andrew Little, Attorney
SUMMARY
Board of revision recusal for land bank matters
▪ Prohibits a member of a county’s board of revision who also serves on the board of a
county land reutilization corporation (CLRC), or who is also a member of the board of
county commissioners of a county that is an electing subdivision, from participating in any
case concerning the value of real property owned by the CLRC or electing subdivision.
▪ Requires such a member of the county’s board of revision to appoint a substitute official
to participate in the case concerning the property owned by the CLRC or electing
subdivision.
Executions Against Property Law
▪ Permits a county, in a tax foreclosure, to provide an affidavit to the court describing the
property, the charges due and unpaid, and stating that the amount has been certified to
the county prosecuting attorney as delinquent, in order to prove that the tax foreclosure
is warranted.
▪ Requires abandoned land to be forfeited to the state, and not a political subdivision,
school district, or a CLRC, if unsold through a specified number of foreclosure sales.
Expedited Foreclosure on Abandoned Land Law
▪ Eliminates a board of revision’s ability to bring an action on its own initiative and replaces
it with a requirement that the board pass a resolution expressing its intent to exercise
jurisdiction over such cases.
▪ Authorizes the county prosecuting attorney, or designated counsel hired by the
prosecuting attorney, representing the treasurer or a certificate holder to initiate
foreclosure proceedings before the board of revision.
December 13, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Changes the time at which land is presumed unoccupied and, thus, abandoned if it is also
tax delinquent, from the time the county auditor certifies the delinquent lands list, to,
instead, either the time the complaint is filed in the foreclosure action or the time an
affidavit is filed that provides evidence that the land is abandoned.
▪ Specifies that if an owner or lienholder files an appraisal of the property the relevant value
becomes the actual fair market value.
▪ Eliminates an existing presumption that the auditor’s valuation of the property is the fair
market value, regardless of whether an independent appraisal has been filed.
▪ Authorizes the board of revision to adopt rules necessary to administer its case that are
not irreconcilably inconsistent with the Tax Commissioner’s rules.
▪ Permits a county board of revision, the county prosecuting attorney or designated
counsel, or a lienholder or other person with a security interest in the land to transfer a
foreclosure action to a court if upon the preponderance of the evidence provided by the
parties the property is not abandoned.
▪ Eliminates the ability of a person with a security interest in a property subject to the
expedited foreclosure proceeding to file a pleading with the board of revision that in order
to preserve the person’s security interest, the property should not be disposed of and the
case should be transferred to a court.
▪ Requires that 10% of the total proceeds of a property sold at an auction to be deposited
into the county treasurer’s and county prosecutor’s Delinquent Tax and Assessment
Collection Funds and, if a CLRC is operating in the county, an additional 10% of the total
proceeds must be deposited into the county land reutilization corporation fund.
▪ Requires property not sold at the first public auction to be forfeited to the state and
disposed of as prescribed under the Forfeited Lands Law.
▪ Changes the timeframe within which an electing subdivision or CLRC may request title to
the abandoned land to any time prior to the adjudication of foreclosure.
▪ Allows a property owner or person with an interest in the property to demand the
property be disposed of by public auction instead of direct transfer.
▪ Requires a CLRC that receives an abandoned property, either through an auction or
transfer, to record its own deed with the county recorder, instead of the prosecuting
attorney, county treasurer, or officer recording the deed.
▪ Extends the date in which an aggrieved party to a proceeding before the county board of
revision under the Expedited Foreclosure on Abandoned Land Law may file an appeal in
the court of common pleas from 14 days to 30 days after a statutorily specified date.
▪ Adds that an aggrieved may appeal a board of revision’s decision within 30 days of “any
other final order.”
▪ Specifies under what circumstances a board of revision can vacate a final order of
foreclosure and forfeiture and any other order.
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As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Specifies that the filing of a complaint by a prosecuting attorney or certificate holder that
alleges the property is abandoned invokes the subject matter jurisdiction of the board of
revision to adjudicate the complaint.
Delinquent Land Law
▪ Allows a property owner or person with an interest in the property to demand the
property be disposed of by public auction instead of direct transfer.
▪ Requires property not sold pursuant to the original order of sale, to be forfeited to the
state.
▪ Revises the timeframe in which a person can enter into a delinquent tax contract with the
county treasurer to any time prior to an adjudication of foreclosure, instead of before the
filing of an entry of confirmation of sale or before the expiration of the alternative
redemption period.
Foreclosure and forfeiture of delinquent vacant lands
▪ Eliminates a proceeding under current law that permits both a foreclosure and forfeiture
as one procedure for delinquent vacant land and eliminates provisions related to the
delinquent vacant lands tax list.
Changes applicable to all tax foreclosure proceedings
▪ Eliminates a condition that in order to commence a tax foreclosure proceeding the
delinquent tax list must be published within a certain prescribed time.
▪ Specifies that the county auditor can, at any time, correct any errors on a delinquent tax
list that is published electronically.
▪ Permits a CLRC, county, municipality, or township to enter a property subject to a tax
foreclosure proceeding in which the property is determined to be nonproductive land or
abandoned land to inspect for environmental, health, or safety purposes, or for the
presence of nuisance conditions.
▪ Authorizes electronic publication as an alternative to newspaper publication for tax
foreclosure proceedings and tax delinquency notices, as well as proceedings under the
Forfeited Lands Law, and sets standards and conditions for such publications.
▪ Eliminates a provision of law allowing the second publication of the delinquent tax list to
be published electronically if the first is published in a newspaper.
▪ Reduces the duration the county treasurer must hold on to excess funds for an owner
that are remaining from a tax foreclosure sale, from three years to two years.
Lien clearing and proceeds in nontax foreclosure actions
▪ Revises a provision relating to who pays taxes, penalties, assessments, and interest then
due and payable in tax lien certificate foreclosure proceeding initiated by a certificate
holder and a foreclosure of a receiver’s lien initiated by a receiver.
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As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
County Land Reutilization Program Law
▪ Expands the scope of the land reutilization program to include real property otherwise
acquired by an electing subdivision, including a CLRC.
▪ Removes the priority right of acquisition of a municipal corporation and a township when
a CLRC acquires property in a transaction other than a tax foreclosure proceeding.
▪ Specifies that a provision of law protecting the validity of an electing subdivision’s title to
nonproductive property when it is sold under the CLRP Law to an electing subdivision,
also applies to transfers and sales to an electing subdivision under the Expedited
Foreclosure on Abandoned Land Law, the Forfeited Lands Law, and transfers under the
CLRP Law.
▪ Eliminates the recording fee for an electing subdivision that is a CLRC that buys or acquires
nonproductive property under the CLRP Law or the Expedited Foreclosure on Abandoned
Land Law.
▪ Eliminates a requirement that political subdivisions with a land reutilization program,
other than a CLRC, study, analyze, and evaluate potential uses for property acquired as
part of the program to effectively reutilize it.
▪ Eliminates the requirement that the property an electing subdivision acquires pursuant
to its program be sold for at least the fair market value and that approval be obtained
before the property is sold for less than fair market value, and instead permits sales that
promote the property’s effective reutilization.
▪ Eliminates a requirement that property held for 15 years be offered for sale at public
auction.
▪ Revises how the proceeds of the sale must be applied and distributed when an electing
subdivision, other than a CLRC, sells any land reutilization program property.
▪ Removes the authority of an electing subdivision to establish taxing district committees
and neighborhood advisory committees.
▪ Eliminates the requirement that an electing subdivision keep taxing districts having an
interest in the taxes and related amounts on the real property it acquires as part of the
land reutilization program, informed concerning the program’s administration.
▪ Specifies that an electing subdivision may accept a conveyance in lieu of foreclosure of
tax delinquent property from the property owners, regardless of whether a tax
foreclosure proceeding has been filed against the property.
▪ Requires counties or their land reutilization corporations accepting property in lieu of
foreclosure to pay the costs of any foreclosure proceeding instituted against the property,
eliminating authority to make the property owner pay those costs.
▪ Expands a CLRC’s ability to acquire tax delinquent property for redevelopment free and
clear of tax liens by eliminating a requirement that they obtain consent from taxing
districts with an interest in the taxes.
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As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Expands and revises funding sources for the County Land Reutilization Fund, such as from
the proceeds from the forfeited land sales, sales under the Expedited Foreclosure on
Abandoned Land Law, and real property taxes.
Allows county commissioners to declare a portion of property conveyed by CLRCs exempt
from taxation and direct the amount of reduced taxes back to the CLRC through payments
made in the same amount by the property’s new owner.
▪ Specifies that CLRC’s and their wholly owned subsidiaries retain sovereign immunity.
Forfeited Lands Law
▪ Eliminates a provision specifying that, after receiving the certification, the court must
notify the political subdivision and school district in which the property is located, and
any CLRC in the county, and offer to forfeit the property to the political subdivision, school
district, or corporation, or to an electing subdivision, and instead requires that the court
or board of revision order the property forfeited to the state.
▪ Provides that counties and their officers or employees are not liable for damages, or
subject to equitable remedies, for violation of a variety of environmental laws, in
connection with property forfeited to the state under the Forfeited Land Law.
▪ Specifies that forfeiting land to the state after it has failed to sell at one or more tax
foreclosure sales, vests all right, title, claim, and interest in the land in the state and must
be disposed of in accordance with the Forfeited Lands Law.
Nuisance buildings
▪ Authorizes a board of township trustees to contract with a CLRC to act as the board’s
agent in connection with the removal, repair, or securing of buildings that have been
declared insecure, unsafe, or structurally defective by a fire department or a building
department, or buildings that have been declared to be nuisance properties.
▪ Revises provisions relating to how a municipal corporation or its agent CLRC can collect
the costs related to the abatement of the nuisance property.
▪ Extends the redemption period to prior to the journalization of the confirmation of sale,
instead of within ten days after the entry of the decree of foreclosure, when a municipal
corporation pursues a foreclosure action to recover costs for the nuisance abatement.
▪ Allows a community improvement corporation (CIC) to bring a civil action to abate a
public nuisance.
▪ Authorizes a CIC, including a CIC that commenced the civil action to abate the nuisance,
to act as the receiver to abate the nuisance on the property.
▪ Authorizes the judge in a nuisance abatement civil action to permit the receiver to
(1) open and maintain deposit accounts in the receiver’s name, (2) bring and defend
actions in the receiver’s own name as a receiver, and (3) any other acts the judge
authorizes.
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As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Specifies that when the property in which the receiver abated the nuisance is sold, the
property is sold free and clear of all liens and encumbrances except for federal tax liens.
EPA asbestos demolition or renovation project fees
▪ Prohibits the state, a municipality, or other political subdivision from charging an owner
or operator fees other than the schedule fees in statute in connection with the
notification of an asbestos demolition or renovation project.
The Gus Frangos Act
▪ Names the bill the Gus Frangos Act
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Gus Frangos Act...................................................................................................................... 6
Overview – tax foreclosures and forfeitures ................................................................................. 8
Board of revision recusal for land bank matters ......................................................................... 10
Executions against Property Law................................................................................................. 10
Expedited Foreclosure on Abandoned Land Law ........................................................................ 11
Overview ................................................................................................................................. 11
Board of revision jurisdiction ................................................................................................... 11
Status as unoccupied ............................................................................................................... 12
County board of revision rules ................................................................................................ 12
Filing the complaint ................................................................................................................. 12
Transfer to court...................................................................................................................... 13
Subpoenas ............................................................................................................................... 13
Hearing procedure – pleadings ................................................................................................ 13
Disposit