Ohio's submetering bill passed both chambers and was vetoed
Ohio's submetering bill passed both chambers and was vetoed
2026-09-15 · Ohio · Legislation · Did not pass
A bill regulating submetering — the practice of reselling water or electricity to occupants at a markup — passed both chambers of the Ohio legislature in June 2026 and did not become law. The record shows a veto receipt and no override.1
House Bill 173, primary sponsor Representative David Thomas, would have amended R.C. 4905.02, 4905.10 and 5321.04 and enacted a new set of sections at R.C. 4933.51 through 4933.65 covering submetering and the resale of utility service.
Its path was complete. The House passed it March 18, 2026. The Senate passed it June 10, 2026. The House concurred the same day. It was sent to the Governor on June 12, 2026.
The status history then records a single line: “6/25/2026 | House | Veto receipt.” No override action appears, and there is no signing entry.
What it means for the landlord-obligations statute
Because HB 173 did not take effect, R.C. 5321.04 is unchanged. The section still reads as enacted by House Bill 490 of the 129th General Assembly, effective September 28, 2012.
That also means the 136th General Assembly made zero changes to chapter 5321, Ohio's landlord-tenant chapter.
Why submetering matters to an association
Submetering is one of the most frequently asked questions in Ohio common-interest communities, and it sits in an awkward place.
Many Ohio condominium buildings are master-metered for water, and the association allocates the cost among units — by unit, by square footage, by a submeter reading, or by a formula in the declaration. Some associations engage a third-party billing company to read submeters and bill owners directly.
The question that keeps arising is whether that arrangement makes the association, or its billing vendor, a public utility subject to regulation. HB 173 would have set out a framework. Without it, the answer rests on existing utility law and on how the arrangement is structured.
Any material suggesting Ohio now regulates submetering is wrong.
Water allocation is the commonest form this takes in Ohio communities. Our Ohio water conservation page covers it.
Where a board stands in the absence of a framework
Read the declaration first. If the declaration allocates a master-metered utility among units by a stated formula, that is a common expense assessment, and it is the association collecting an assessment rather than selling a utility. That is the cleanest structure and the one most Ohio declarations actually establish.
Be careful with markups. The characterisation problem sharpens when the amount billed to an owner exceeds the association's cost of the service for that unit. A cost allocation is an assessment. A charge above cost starts to look like a sale, and a sale is what utility regulation is about.
Look hard at third-party billing arrangements. Where a vendor bills owners directly, adds its own service charge, and pursues collection in its own name, the association has interposed a commercial actor between itself and its members on a charge the declaration treats as a common expense. That raises questions about the association's collection remedies as well as the vendor's status.
Do not assume a lapse of regulation is a grant of permission. A vetoed bill leaves the prior law standing; it does not create a safe harbour. Our Ohio assessment limits page covers how utility allocations sit within the assessment power.
Where the other 2026 utility bill landed
Senate Bill 106, the EV charging measure our coverage has tracked, went the other way. It was signed June 24, 2026 and took effect September 23, 2026.
It amends sections of chapters 4909 and 4928 and adds a definition worth knowing: “'Electric vehicle charging station' means behind the meter electric equipment by which electric current is transferred to the power system of an electric vehicle.”
“Behind the meter” is the phrase that matters to an association installing chargers in a shared garage, because it is the line between buying equipment and reselling electricity — the same question submetering raises.
But note what SB 106 is not. It amends no section of title 53. It does not create an EV-charging right against an association or a condominium board. An owner who wants a charger in an Ohio community still asks the association, under the declaration and the architectural review process, exactly as before. We have not read the ratemaking sections where an association's own status as a host would be resolved, and a board planning an installation should have counsel look at them rather than rely on a summary.
Two accuracy notes
The veto is established from the bill's own status history. The Governor's office announcements for that period were unreachable, so we have not read a veto message. The legislature can still act before the General Assembly ends on December 31, 2026, so anyone relying on this after the lame-duck session should confirm no override occurred.
Separately, the only recent change to Ohio's eviction chapter came from the previous General Assembly. R.C. 1923.01 and 1923.05 carry an effective date of April 9, 2025, from Senate Bill 237 of the 135th General Assembly. Nothing in chapter 1923 has changed since. An association pursuing an occupant through that chapter — rare, but it happens in manufactured-home park communities and through a tenant's landlord — should be reading the post-April-2025 text.
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