Bowling Green + BGSU student-rental landlord playbook (Wood County)

Usually yes. Bowling Green requires owners to register each residential rental unit in the city rental system before using the annual self-inspection process. Registration stays valid unless ownership, use, or contact information changes. If the owner or manager does not live within 35 miles of Bowling Green, the city requires an authorized agent within 35 miles who can accept service and respond 24/7. Even exempt properties are expected to submit proof of exemption through the portal.

The city requires annual interior and exterior rental inspections, generally through owner or agent self-certification filed by December 31. The city can verify compliance with onsite inspections. Violations identified in the process are expected to be corrected within 30 days. If a property does not qualify for self-certification, a city-approved home inspector must complete the inspection and the owner pays for that service.

BGSU still runs a two-year live-on-campus residency requirement for most first- and second-year students unless an exemption or housing appeal is approved. BGSU tells students not to sign an off-campus lease until they know they meet an exception or have official approval. That means landlords should avoid assuming every freshman or sophomore prospect is actually eligible to live off campus. BGSU also points students to Off-Campus Student Services for local rental listings and resources.

At a high level, ORC 5321 says the landlord must keep the property code-compliant, habitable, and safe, while the tenant must pay rent, keep the unit sanitary, use systems properly, and avoid damage. A tenant who has a real health or safety issue must give written notice and may be able to use rent escrow through court if the landlord does not fix the problem in a reasonable time; the tenant cannot simply stop paying rent on their own. On move-out, the security-deposit rules and anti-retaliation rules in the same chapter matter just as much as the lease language.

If the home was built before 1978, federal lead-disclosure rules usually apply before leasing. Landlords must provide the EPA-approved lead pamphlet and disclose any known lead-based paint or lead hazards before the tenant signs the lease. This is disclosure, not a blanket mandate to test every house, but skipping the disclosure on older Wood County housing stock is a preventable compliance mistake. Separate EPA renovation rules may also apply if repair or painting work disturbs lead-based paint.

In Bowling Green's student market, the low-occupancy summer period is the cleanest time to do invasive work: document move-out condition, collect forwarding addresses, settle deposit accounting, complete code or safety repairs, and schedule any permit-required work before August leasing and move-in. It is also the best time to complete city self-inspection paperwork, fix violations inside the 30-day correction window, and handle exterior issues like grass, trash storage, sidewalks, and parking areas before neighbors or code enforcement complain.

Event demand is real, but it is episodic rather than a substitute for a normal student lease. BGSU's official 2025 football slate included six home games in Bowling Green, which is enough to create visitor spikes around weekends such as rivalry or homecoming traffic. The business question is separate from the compliance question: before converting a student rental or spare unit to short-term use, verify your lease rights, insurance, taxes, occupancy limits, and city zoning with Bowling Green Planning because the city pages surfaced here do not show a simple, stand-alone short-term-rental program for residential landlords.

Wood County Building Inspection is the office to call when turnover work crosses into permit territory such as structural changes, additions, significant remodels, or building, plumbing, heating, and electrical work. Once permitted work starts, the department lists mandatory inspections including footing, foundation, structural, rough and final plumbing, rough and final electrical, rough and final heating, and final building. They ask permit holders to schedule inspections 48 to 72 hours ahead, and occupancy after major work should not happen before a certificate of occupancy is issued.

The St. Thomas More University Parish Newman Catholic Living Community is a real housing node across from campus at 433 Thurstin Street. It is an intentional student community with published expectations around prayer, community, intellectual growth, and hospitality, and current pages show it filling early enough to run waitlists. For nearby owners, that matters less as regulation and more as demand segmentation: some BGSU renters are looking for a quieter, values-driven community near campus rather than the loudest party cluster.

Treat those landmarks as screening clues, not as a parcel-level answer. Wintergarden is explicitly described by the city as including wetland habitat, and Bowling Green's climate planning treats flood and stormwater resilience as an active local issue. The right workflow is to check the exact address in FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, then confirm insurance and underwriting consequences for that parcel; being near Carter Park or Wintergarden does not automatically mean a property is inside or outside a special flood hazard area.

For most residential evictions in Ohio, the landlord must first serve a written three-day notice to leave the premises before filing the court action. Ohio law requires that notice to include the statutory warning telling the tenant they are being asked to leave and that an eviction action may be filed if they do not. Bowling Green Municipal Court's local rules say a forcible-entry-and-detainer complaint must state the reason for eviction and include a copy of the required 1923.04 notice and any written lease instrument the claim is based on.