Property management in Upper Arlington, Ohio
RL Property Management manages single-family and small multifamily rentals in Upper Arlington for a flat $117 to $184 per unit per month, with a $0 leasing fee. The median home here was built in 1959.
Upper Arlington, at a glance
- Flat $117 to $184 per unit per month, not a percentage of rent
- $0 leasing fee every time an Upper Arlington unit turns
- Median home built in 1959 (US Census, ACS 2024 5-year estimates), the oldest stock we work
- Most Upper Arlington rentals are pre-1978, so federal lead paint disclosure applies at every lease
- Median gross rent $1,588 (US Census, ACS 2024 5-year estimates), not our figure
- Entirely in Franklin County, so evictions are heard at 375 S. High St., Columbus
What changes when you rent out a house built before 1978?
Two federal rules attach to the property, and Upper Arlington is where they bite hardest. The median home here was built in 1959, according to US Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates, older than Worthington and more than twenty years older than Westerville, so the typical Upper Arlington rental is pre-1978 target housing. That is not a warning about the city. It is two obligations most owners here have never had explained to them.
Rule one: disclosure, at every single lease
Section 1018 of Title X, implemented at 24 CFR Part 35 subpart A and 40 CFR Part 745 subpart F, requires the owner of pre-1978 target housing to do four things before a resident signs. Give them the EPA-approved lead hazard information pamphlet. Disclose any known lead-based paint and any known lead-based paint hazards in the unit. Hand over any records or reports about lead-based paint that you actually have. And attach a Lead Warning Statement to the lease, signed by the resident.
Notice what is not on that list. You do not have to test, and you do not have to remove anything. The rule is about what you disclose, not what you own, which makes the failure mode particularly frustrating: an owner with nothing to hide loses because there is no signed form in the file. A knowing failure to disclose can expose an owner to damages well beyond the actual harm. We attach the disclosure to every pre-1978 lease we write and keep the signed copy.
Rule two: who is allowed to touch the paint
The EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, at 40 CFR Part 745 subpart E, governs the work itself. In pre-1978 housing, any renovation, repair or painting that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface inside a room, more than 20 square feet outside, or that replaces a window or demolishes part of the structure, has to be performed by an EPA-certified firm, using certified renovators and lead-safe work practices. Ohio's programme is administered by the US EPA rather than by the state, while the Ohio Department of Health approves the renovator training courses and licenses lead abatement professionals under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3742.
| Turn work | Inside the rule on a pre-1978 house? |
|---|---|
| Replacing a window | Yes, regardless of size |
| Repainting a bedroom after scraping and sanding | Yes, once more than 6 square feet of painted surface is disturbed |
| Exterior siding or trim repair | Yes, once more than 20 square feet is disturbed |
| Taking out a wall | Yes, demolition is covered at any size |
| Patching a small nail hole and touching up | Below the threshold, as minor repair and maintenance |
What that does to a budget: a certified firm has to contain the work area, use HEPA equipment and pass a cleaning verification before it leaves. That is labour and time, and it lands on the same turn where you also wanted the walls painted. The identical job on a 1995 house costs less and finishes sooner. Plan the Upper Arlington turn around it rather than discovering it on day four.
What breaks on a 1959 house, and what should a reserve look like?
The systems, not the structure. Houses of this age in Upper Arlington were generally built well, and the shell is usually the least of your problems. What ages out is everything running through it: galvanized supply lines that close up from the inside, cast iron drain stacks, clay sewer laterals with tree roots in them, electrical panels sized for a household that did not own a dishwasher, plaster that cracks rather than dents, and single-pane windows that are both a heating complaint and, as above, a lead-rule trigger the moment you replace one. Mid-century houses also commonly contain asbestos-bearing floor tile, mastic and pipe insulation, which is a reason to identify a material before a contractor disturbs it rather than a reason to panic.
The practical answer is a reserve that reflects the age of the asset. Ours run $350 to $1,500 per unit depending on plan, and on an Upper Arlington house we would rather sit at the top of it. In-house maintenance is $84 per hour with a $15 trip charge and no minimum, materials at cost. Vendor projects carry a 15% project management fee up to $3,000, capped at $450. After hours it is 2 times the rate on weekday evenings and Saturdays and 3 times on Sundays, which is the real price of the 11pm call about a sixty-year-old boiler nobody scheduled a service on.
Which court hears an eviction in Upper Arlington, and what has to be registered?
Franklin County Municipal Court, at 375 S. High St., 3rd floor, Columbus, OH 43215. Upper Arlington is entirely inside Franklin County, so every address in the city files in the same court. Jurisdiction follows the county under Ohio Revised Code 1901.02, which is why Dublin and Westerville owners have a harder question to answer and Upper Arlington owners do not. Before a filing, Ohio requires a three-day notice to leave the premises under R.C. 1923.04, carrying specific statutory language. Wrong wording gets the case dismissed and the clock restarts.
The hard cost of an eviction is $273, being $123 to the county and $150 to the eviction attorney for the filing and up to two appearances. We charge $199 to run the process, so a typical case totals $472 before any setout. The sequence is set out on the evictions page.
On registration: Ohio Revised Code 5323.02 requires every owner of residential rental property to file their name, address and telephone number, plus the street address and permanent parcel number, with the Franklin County Auditor, within 60 days of acquiring it and of any change. There is no fee. Miss it and the auditor can place a special assessment under R.C. 5323.99, stated by the Franklin County Auditor as $150 per tax year. Owners holding title through an LLC or a trust must also name the responsible officer, member or trustee.
Where a city runs its own registration, licence or inspection programme, it stacks on top of the county auditor filing rather than replacing it. Columbus added a citywide registry in April 2026 under City Code Chapter 4515. Keeping track of which programme applies to your address, and filing on time, is work we absorb rather than work we hand you.
Who provides utilities in Upper Arlington, and who pays them?
Water and sanitary sewer come from the City of Columbus Division of Water, with Upper Arlington maintaining the local sanitary sewer and stormwater lines. On our standard lease the resident holds every account in their own name.
| Service | Provider | Who customarily pays |
|---|---|---|
| Water and sewer | City of Columbus Division of Water | Resident, in their own name, on our standard lease |
| Refuse and recycling | Local Waste Services, under City of Upper Arlington contract | Per the city arrangement, not a separate resident account |
| Electricity | AEP Ohio, with a city opt-out aggregation programme since January 2024 | Resident |
| Natural gas | Columbia Gas of Ohio | Resident |
Two things catch owners here. The city has run an opt-out Electric Aggregation Programme since January 2024, so a resident who assumes they picked their own supplier may find the aggregation supplier on the bill, and the call about it comes to you. And unpaid water and sewer in Ohio can attach to the parcel rather than to the person who ran up the balance, so we check the water account at move-out before a deposit is settled, every time.
What does an Upper Arlington rental earn, and what does management cost?
The US Census ACS 2024 5-year estimate puts median gross rent in Upper Arlington at $1,588. That is a Census figure, not ours, and it covers every rented dwelling in the city including apartments and older small units, so a three or four bedroom single-family house typically rents well above it.
We are not publishing a rent median of our own for Upper Arlington, and the reason is worth stating plainly: we do not manage enough units here for one to be honest. A portfolio median gets published only where at least five of our own units sit behind it at that bedroom count, and no bedroom count in Upper Arlington reaches five. Plenty of local pages solve that by quoting a public index and letting the reader assume it is their own book. We would rather show the gap.
$1,500 per-item repair approval limit
$750 per-item repair approval limit
$350 per-item repair approval limit
The flat fee does more work in Upper Arlington than in most places, because the houses rent high. On the Census median gross rent of $1,588, a manager charging 10% of collected rent takes about $1,908 a year plus roughly $794 again every time the unit turns. Our middle plan is $1,644 a year and the placement is $0. On a single-family house renting above that median, which most do here, the gap is wider still, because our number does not move when your rent does.
Percentage figures describe common Columbus market rates and are not a quote from any named company. Photography is not included in the $0 leasing fee and is billed separately at $250 to $450.
Where in Upper Arlington do we work?
Across the city, from the pre-war streets in the south near Tremont and Northwest Boulevard to the post-war and mid-century sections north toward Henderson Road and Reed Road. The Lane Avenue and Kenny Road corridors, Arlington Ridge, Golfview, Barrington, the streets around Northam Park, and the older blocks close to the Scioto. Houses across the city feed the Upper Arlington City School District. Proximity to Ohio State and the medical campuses puts faculty, resident physicians and relocating professionals in the applicant pool, so you get fewer applications than a mid-market suburb, stronger ones, and a longer tenancy when you get it right. It also means a vacancy here is expensive. Our portfolio-wide lease renewal rate is 72%, and renewal is where the money in an Upper Arlington rental actually is.
Upper Arlington property management questions
Upper Arlington property management questions
Does my Upper Arlington rental need a lead-based paint disclosure?
Almost certainly yes. The median Upper Arlington home was built in 1959 according to US Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates, so the typical rental here is pre-1978 target housing. Federal law requires the owner to give every prospective resident the EPA-approved pamphlet, disclose any known lead-based paint and any known lead-based paint hazards, hand over any available records or reports, and attach a signed Lead Warning Statement to the lease. That is Section 1018 of Title X, at 24 CFR Part 35 subpart A and 40 CFR Part 745 subpart F.
Does that mean I have to test for lead paint or remove it?
No. The federal disclosure rule requires you to disclose what you know and hand over what you have. It does not require you to test, and it does not require you to abate anything. The exposure is in the paperwork, not the paint: a knowing failure to disclose can expose an owner to damages beyond the actual harm, and the defence is a signed disclosure sitting in a file. We keep one on every pre-1978 unit we manage.
How does pre-1978 housing change what a turn costs in Upper Arlington?
It narrows who is allowed to do the work. Under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule at 40 CFR Part 745 subpart E, work in pre-1978 housing that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface inside a room, more than 20 square feet outside, or that replaces a window or demolishes part of a structure, has to be done by an EPA-certified firm using certified renovators and lead-safe work practices. Containment, HEPA vacuuming and cleaning verification take time and cost money, and a window replacement on a 1950s house is squarely inside the rule.
Which court hears an eviction in Upper Arlington, Ohio?
Franklin County Municipal Court, at 375 S. High St., 3rd floor, Columbus, OH 43215. Upper Arlington sits entirely inside Franklin County, so every address in the city files in the same place. Jurisdiction follows the county under Ohio Revised Code 1901.02. Before a filing, Ohio requires a three-day notice to leave the premises under R.C. 1923.04, with specific statutory language.
What does a rental in Upper Arlington rent for, and why is that not your number?
The US Census ACS 2024 5-year estimate puts median gross rent in Upper Arlington at $1,588. That is a Census figure covering all rented housing in the city, so a three or four bedroom house typically rents well above it. We publish a portfolio median of our own only where at least five of our units sit behind it at that bedroom count, and no bedroom count in Upper Arlington reaches five, so we show the Census figure and label it rather than dress a public index up as our book.
Who provides utilities in Upper Arlington?
Water and sanitary sewer come from the City of Columbus Division of Water, with Upper Arlington maintaining the local sanitary sewer and stormwater lines. Refuse and recycling are collected by Local Waste Services under a city contract. Electricity is distributed by AEP Ohio, and since January 2024 the city has run an opt-out Electric Aggregation Program, so the default supplier on a new account may not be the one a resident expects. Natural gas is Columbia Gas of Ohio.
Do I have to register my Upper Arlington rental property with anyone?
Yes, with the Franklin County Auditor, not with the city. Ohio Revised Code 5323.02 requires the owner of residential rental property to file the owner name, address and telephone number and the parcel number with the county auditor, and to update it within 60 days of any change. There is no filing fee. Failing to file draws a special assessment under R.C. 5323.99, which the Franklin County Auditor states as $150 per tax year. A manager can file as the owner designated agent, and we do.
Rent is due on the 1st and late fees are assessed after the 5th. Owner funds go out on the 10th. Another forty answers sit on the owner FAQs page.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. Lead-based paint obligations are federal and they attach to the property, so confirm your own position with counsel before you rely on a summary.
Last verified September 2026. Reviewed by Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker and CEO.
Nearby markets and what to read next
- Worthington property managementNorth, older stock and a design review district.
- Dublin property managementNorthwest, larger lots and a three-county eviction problem.
- Westerville property managementNortheast, newer stock and a municipal electric utility.
- Columbus property managementThe anchor page, with every neighbourhood we work.
- Pricing and the full fee scheduleEvery charge that can appear on an owner statement.
Find out what your Upper Arlington rental should earn
Tell us the address and we will price it against comparable listings live right now, and tell you what the pre-1978 rules mean for your turn. No charge, and no obligation to hire us.