Does a bathroom remodel raise your property taxes in Central Ohio?

A new bathroom can change what a house is worth, and in Ohio the county auditor, not the tax bill, is where that shows up first. This page sets out, from the statutes, the state's rules and the auditors' own pages as read in September 2026, how a Central Ohio house is valued, when each county revalues, what a building permit has to do with it, why a higher value is not the same rise in tax, and how to dispute a value.

Last updated September 2026 · For tax year 2026, from the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Administrative Code, the Ohio Department of Taxation and the Franklin County Auditor, each read September 25, 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

Who sets the value, and when

In Ohio the county auditor is the assessor. Revised Code section 5713.01 has the auditor view and appraise every parcel at least once in each six-year period, and the state's rules set the value at true value in money, which is market value, with taxable value at 35 percent of it. Every house is revalued together twice in each six years: a full reappraisal, and a market update in the third year after it, on a schedule the state tax commissioner sets. The commissioner may extend a reappraisal by up to a year, and the current schedule puts Franklin's and Delaware's next full reappraisal in 2030, seven years after their last. Values are fixed as of January 1.

So 2026 is a revaluation year in five of the seven counties: Franklin, Delaware, Licking and Pickaway are in a market update and Madison in a full reappraisal. In those years every parcel is revalued whether or not anything was done to the house. The Franklin County Auditor's release of June 9, 2026 put the county's tentative residential values up an average of about 10 percent, with most school districts between about 5 and 15 percent, and said that a property value increase "does not result in the same percentage increase in property taxes."

How one house's value changes between cycles

The statute also lets the auditor revalue a parcel "at any time" when its value has changed, although another section says the auditor is not required to change a value outside a reappraisal or update year. The Franklin County Auditor's answers to common questions say a value "may be adjusted due to started or completed construction on your property as determined by permits issued to you by your locality," and list bathroom count among the property details the office corrects when they are wrong. The auditor has to notify an owner of an individual change in value at least 30 days before the tax bills go out.

What the appraiser weighs is set out in the state's rules for the cost approach: each building is measured and graded for quality of construction, and its construction features, physical condition and depreciation are noted. The Franklin County Auditor names bathroom count among the details on its records. No state statute, rule or auditor page read for this page separates a repair from an improvement in words, so no page, contractor or blog can say how a particular bathroom project will be treated; the auditor values the house as it stands on January 1.

Value is not the tax bill

The auditor sets the value; the tax rate comes from the levies in each taxing district, most of them approved by voters, and from the state's reduction factors, which is why a value increase is not the same percentage increase in tax. Two reductions sit on top. The homestead reduction is for owners 65 or older, owners who are permanently and totally disabled, and some surviving spouses, with an income limit for new applicants and an enhanced version for totally disabled veterans. The owner-occupancy reduction is for the one home an owner lives in, and it changed in 2026: House Bill 186, effective March 20, 2026, raises it each year from tax year 2026 while the general reduction for residential property steps down to nothing.

Both percentages are taken off the same part of the bill, the taxes from qualifying levies, and an owner-occupied home receives both. The difference is who gets them: the general rollback applies to every residential property, rentals included, while the owner-occupancy reduction applies only to the one home an owner lives in, and only after the owner applies. A board of county commissioners may also adopt an extra owner-occupancy reduction of up to two and one-half percent by resolution; this page did not check which of the seven counties have. Some county pages still describe the older fixed 2.5 percent owner-occupancy credit, which the 2026 law replaced, and the amounts for any house are on the county auditor's own site.

If the new value looks wrong

The first place to look is the auditor's record for the house, where a wrong square footage or bathroom count can be corrected. A disagreement over value goes to the county Board of Revision. Revised Code section 5715.19 sets the filing deadline at March 31 of the following tax year, or the close of the first-half tax collection if that is later, and the Franklin County Auditor gives March 31, 2027 for the 2026 values. An owner may file one complaint per parcel between revaluations, with exceptions that include a substantial improvement added to the property since. How the house itself was built, era by era, is on the page on which building code a Central Ohio house was built under, and what a remodel does to resale on the page on a walk-in shower, a tub and resale.

Scope, plainly. This page explains the mechanism from the statutes, rules and auditors' pages as read in September 2026 for tax year 2026. It does not say whether any house's taxes will rise or fall, and it is not tax advice; the county auditor has each house's value, and an owner's questions about it.

Sources

Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.

• Ohio Revised Code, sections 5713.01, 5713.03, 5715.19, 5715.24, 5715.33 and 323.11; read September 25, 2026.
• Ohio Revised Code, section 323.152 (current and prior versions) and section 319.302, as amended by Sub. House Bill 186 of the 136th General Assembly, effective March 20, 2026, section 3(B), and, for section 323.152, by Am. Sub. House Bill 479, effective September 23, 2026, which left the owner-occupancy percentages unchanged; read September 25, 2026.
• Ohio Administrative Code, rules 5703-25-05, 5703-25-06, 5703-25-07 and 5703-25-12; read September 25, 2026.
• Ohio Department of Taxation, Year of sexennial reappraisal and update, 2026 to 2031, revised February 4, 2026, and the 2023 to 2028 schedule; read September 25, 2026.
• Franklin County Auditor, Frequently Asked Questions and Property Value Update, June 9, 2026; read September 25, 2026.

Common questions