Ohio's only HOA governing-document bill has sat still for 16 months
Ohio's only HOA governing-document bill has sat still for 16 months
2026-09-15 · Ohio · Legislation · Pending — not yet law
House Bill 16 is the only bill in Ohio's 136th General Assembly that would bind what an association's governing documents may say. It had three hearings in the spring of 2025 and has had no action of any kind since April 29, 2025 — roughly sixteen and a half months.1
HB 16 would amend R.C. 5301.072 “to prohibit certain restrictions on the display of political yard signs.” Its primary sponsors are Representatives Brian Lorenz (R, District 60) and Thomas Hall (R, District 46), with eight cosponsors.
It was introduced January 23, 2025 and referred to the House General Government Committee on January 28, 2025. Hearings followed on March 25, April 8 and April 29, 2025. It has never been voted on in committee, never reached the House floor, and has no Senate companion.
What it would do
The bill adds a new category to the list of displays an association may not prohibit:
“(5)(a) Except as otherwise provided in division (A)(5)(b) or (c) of this section, the display of political yard signs.”
It expressly preserves ordinary content-neutral regulation:
“Division (A)(5)(a) of this section does not prohibit a covenant, condition, or restriction set forth in a deed, or a rule, regulation, bylaw, or other governing document or agreement of a homeowners, neighborhood, civic, or other association, that reasonably restricts the time and location in which yard signs may be displayed; materials, size, and number of yard signs; or the manner in which yard signs are placed.”
But it sets two hard floors that such a rule may not breach:
“(i) Prohibit the display of political yard signs in the thirty days preceding the next election to be held in the territory in which the property is located;”
“(ii) Limit the size of political yard signs to less than twelve inches in height, or less than eighteen inches in width.”
The enforcement clause it rides on is already in R.C. 5301.072(B): a provision that violates the section “is against public policy and unenforceable in any court of this state to the extent it violates that division.”
Until something passes, existing law governs what a sign rule may do. Our Ohio political signs page sets out the current position.
Whether it can still pass
On the arithmetic, no. The 136th General Assembly runs through December 31, 2026, and everything still pending on that date dies and must be reintroduced in January 2027.
The Ohio Senate's published remaining 2026 floor schedule shows November 10, November 18, December 2 and December 9, with December 16 and December 17 marked “if needed.” That is four certain session days and two conditional ones after the November 3 election.
For HB 16 to become law in that window it would have to be reported out of House General Government, pass the House floor, be introduced and referred in the Senate, be heard in Senate committee, be reported, and pass the Senate. A bill that has had no committee action in sixteen months does not do six things in four days. Our Ohio political signs page covers the law as it actually stands.
The one association bill that does have a path
Senate Bill 202, the Chief Steven DiSario Act, passed the Senate 31-0 on May 13, 2026 and is the only HOA or condominium bill this General Assembly to clear a chamber.
Sponsored by Senator Tim Schaffer (R, District 20) with sixteen cosponsors, it would amend R.C. 4781.40, 5301.072, 5311.191 and 5321.131 to bar manufactured home park operators, condominium associations, neighbourhood associations and landlords from restricting display of the thin blue line flag.
For condominiums it adds to R.C. 5311.191 a prohibition on any declaration, bylaw, rule or board construction that prohibits
“The display of a thin blue line flag or emblem on a flag pole, through the use of a bracket, or in a window on or within the limited common areas and facilities of a unit owner, or on the immediately adjacent exterior of the building in which the unit of a unit owner is located, if the flag or emblem is displayed in accordance with any state law, local ordinance or resolution, or a proclamation by the governor of the state.”
It also adds the flag to the existing flagpole clause at R.C. 5301.072(A)(1), and defines the flag in detail in a new R.C. 4781.40(C)(10).
SB 202 was introduced in the House on May 19, 2026 and referred to House Government Oversight on May 20. It has had zero House hearings in the four months since. It needs one committee report and one floor vote. That is a realistic lame-duck path in a way HB 16's is not.
Where a board stands
Read your sign rule against both bills. If HB 16's floors ever become law, a rule that bans yard signs outright, or caps them below 12 by 18 inches, becomes unenforceable in any Ohio court. Many Ohio sign rules do exactly one of those things.
Do not wait for the statute to fix an overbroad rule. Political-sign restrictions attract constitutional argument, selective-enforcement complaints and election-season anger regardless of what the Revised Code says. A rule that regulates time, place, size and number — and says nothing about content — is defensible now and would survive HB 16 unchanged.
Track SB 202, not HB 16. If an Ohio association's display rules are going to change by statute this year, that is the vehicle, and a House floor vote in November or December is the moment.
Note what neither bill touches. Assessments, reserves, fines, elections, records, foreclosure. Ohio's entire 136th General Assembly record on association governance is a yard-sign bill that never moved and a flag bill.
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