[Landlord - US - OH] I need advice on how to proceed with a possible eviction.

I’m just looking for some advice on a tenant situation I am currently having. I want to preface that I am a new Ohio residential landlord, currently living in one of proprities, the one I live in I am currently renting the top unit of a duplex, it does have a third floor unit but due to my zoning code it is currently vacant.

I’ve been having issues with a tenant since they moved in. She has not lived on the property long, her move in date was the end of March 2026. We did do a background and credit check on her prior to move in. Even though her credit was lower than we wanted and there were dismissed cases on her background check, we decided to give her a chance after talking to her. Within the first week of move in we’ve had police presence on our unit in the middle of the night, I won’t get into the details but later we realized there were parts of her story that were not matching up. Since then we’ve had police come to the property 2 more times either for a noise disturbance or because she falsified information and involved me in her scenario to the police. Not only that but we have addressed multiple noise complaints and lease violations, such as smoking on the premises. We did file a formal warning regarding safety concern and noise disturbance due to one of her guests coming to the property in the middle of the night and trying to look through my unit windows which escalated to an altercation between her and two men in the shared stairwell that woke my husband up in the middle of the night. Every time we bring something to her attention she feels like we are attacking her and most recently she made it seem like we are monitoring her (but everything we noticed are events we experienced in person or have documented on our security cameras). We’ve also caught her in multiple lies in the past.

I am currently pregnant and she has been causing us more stress than her rent is worth. My husband and I finally decided to evict her for nonpayment on rent. Since move in date she has not paid rent on time, most of the time she gives an excuse or pays it using our online portal (which has a 3-5 day processing time) but then her payment fails and it’s a constant cycle of messaging her to get her to submit another payment and then play the game waiting game again. She has yet to pay June’s rent. Long story short, the day we were going to give her the 3 day notice to quit, we had a major plumbing issue which was caused by a large amount of toilet paper on her unit. The sewage overflow was so bad it caused water damage into our lower unit (my home) and basement. She is now claiming the unit is unsafe even though the water restoration company has stated it is safe to stay in the home while water remediation is being done. During this time I have been completely transparent on the process and she never mentioned any concern or inconvenience. The day of the repairs she starts bringing up other concerns of the unit regarding new moisture concern that according to her has been ongoing in other rooms of the unit, these concerns have never been brought to my attention until that day. We acknowledge her concern and took appropriate steps to get the unit reivestigated by the water remediation company.

Even though the unit was stated to be safe and we are providing access to the third floor unit bathroom while her bathroom, the area that took the most water damage is being repaired. She voluntarily chose to leave and is making it seem like my husband and I are not concerned she had to vacate her home and did not offer compensation right away. To make matters worse her son trespassed onto my unit during the water remediation and stole legos off my bookshelf that were the last gift my father in law gave my husband and I before passing away. When I called addressing the situation she countinued the conversation making it seem like I don’t care what she is going through and all I care about is the fact that my Lego’s were returned incomplete and broken. At the end of the phone call she agreed to shorten her lease and leave in July. She has yet to sign the lease addendum. Since she is yet to pay her June rent and I’m expecting her to use the repair job as reasoning to not pay July’s rent, I’m delaying weather it’s worth filing the 3 day notice to quit so I have the ability to start eviction right away if needed. I’m concerned she’ll escalate the situation and make it seem like retaliation on my part. Also I should mention as good faith my husband and I are offering a small daily rent credit for July until the reinvestigation occurs to address her concern regarding unit safety.

I know this is a lengthy message and I know I shouldn’t have given her so many chances. I appreciate any advice.