Clearing an Estate House in Columbus: No Occupant, No Collection

Of the cities in this series, Columbus is the one that answers the estate cleanout question outright. It does not leave it to a definition that happens not to fit, or to a volume cap the job happens to exceed. Title 13 of the Columbus City Codes states three times, in three different places, that city refuse service belongs to properties with somebody living in them — and attaches a published civil penalty to each.

The Occupant Test, Stated Three Times

Start with the scope provision. Section 1303.013: "The division of refuse collection will only collect acceptable waste generated at residential units with an occupant. Other than bulk, compost, and yard waste, all acceptable waste must be contained in collection containers."

The definition behind it points the same way. Section 1301.02 defines acceptable waste as "that portion of the residential waste stream that is regularly disposed of by occupants of residential dwelling units including yard waste, recyclables, compost, and bulk." Regularly disposed of by occupants — not the accumulated contents of a house whose occupant has died.

And the containers themselves are restricted. Section 1303.021(C)(4)(a): "The use of single dwelling unit collection containers is limited to the occupants." A representative filling the city cart at a house nobody lives in is outside that subsection, which carries a $250 civil penalty.

Bulk Collection Is Closed Too, and Priced

Section 1303.021(F) opens with a duty on any owner or occupant to notify the division to schedule a date for bulk collection, then sets seven conditions. The director may assess civil fines for violations by issuing a notice of violation under section 1307.02, and the code publishes the amounts.

Subsection (F)(3) is the one that decides an estate job. There is no volume to calculate and no threshold to stay under: bulk may only be scheduled at a dwelling unit with an occupant, and an empty house has none.

And Boxes Are Not Bulk Anyway

Even if occupancy were satisfied, the category would not hold most of what comes out of a house. Section 1301.04: "Bulk consists of items which are acceptable waste, with the exclusion of yard waste, that require special collection arrangements due to size, weight or shape including but not limited to carpet, white goods, furniture, mattresses and box springs. Bagged items or boxed items are not classified as bulk."

Bagged or boxed items are not bulk. That is the same exclusion Cincinnati reaches by a different route, and it removes the great majority of a cleared house — the packed cartons, the bagged linen, the forty years of kitchen — from the only category that would have carried it.

Abandoned Property, and Who Owns the Problem

Columbus has a provision most cities do not, and it lands squarely on estates. Section 1303.021(F)(5): "The owner of the property is responsible for any abandoned property located on that property and shall use an authorized waste hauler for the proper disposal of any abandoned property located on that property." Subsection (F)(6) adds that abandoned property shall not be placed in the public right-of-way for collection without the director's permission.

Section 1301.01 defines abandoned property as "personal property, as defined under section 4501.271(b), that a reasonable person concludes is permanently surrendered." Whether the belongings of someone who has died, in a house their heirs have not entered for months, meet that description is a question of fact rather than something to assume either way. What is not in doubt is the consequence if they do: the duty falls on the owner of the property, and the statute names the method — an authorized waste hauler, defined in section 1301.03 as a private hauler approved by the Director and holding the necessary government authorisation.

The Trap on a Neglected House

Subsection (F)(7) is the one to check before scheduling anything, because an estate property often arrives already carrying a file: "If for any reason a notice of violation of waste has been issued on a property, scheduled bulk collection shall not be permitted until the violation(s) has been resolved unless otherwise approved by an investigator. Otherwise, the owner shall utilize an authorized waste hauler and provide documentation for proper disposal."

Two things follow. A house that drew a violation during the months before the representative was appointed cannot use scheduled bulk collection until that violation is cleared. And the alternative is not merely hiring a hauler — it is hiring one and producing documentation of proper disposal. That documentation requirement is a reason to keep disposal receipts with the estate file rather than with the contractor.

The Eviction Parallel

Columbus treats a court-supervised set-out the same way, and prices it higher. Section 1303.021(G) places a duty on the owner of any residential unit where a court supervised set-out is performed because of an eviction action to arrange collection and disposal of the resulting acceptable and unacceptable waste "through an authorized waste hauler", and not to allow that waste to be placed in the public right-of-way. Subsection (G)(3) prohibits any person from placing such waste in the right-of-way. Each of the three carries a $1,000 civil penalty.

The pattern across (F) and (G) is consistent: where the waste is not a household's ordinary weekly output, Columbus routes it to a private hauler and keeps it off the kerb. The eviction side of that work is covered in the eviction property cleanout process.

Then Ohio Probate, Which Puts a Court in Front of the Money

Columbus requires an authorized waste hauler. An authorized waste hauler costs money. And in Ohio, estate money cannot simply be spent on a house.

R.C. 2113.311 does not impose a duty to maintain estate real property. It creates authority the executor or administrator applies to the probate court for, available where within a reasonable time after appointment "no one in authority has taken over the management and rental" of real property of which the decedent died seized. Until that order exists there is no statutory management authority at all.

Once it does, division (E)(2)(b) permits repairs "when necessary to preserve the real property from waste, provided that an order of the court shall first be obtained if the cost of repairs exceeds one hundred dollars", and division (E)(3) requires a prior order before money is advanced for repairs, taxes, insurance and usual operating expenses — an advance that becomes a charge on the real property.

Put the two together and the sequence on a Columbus estate runs backwards from the way most people assume. The city will not take the material, so a hauler is required; the hauler exceeds one hundred dollars, so an order is likely required; and the property produces no rents to draw on, so the money is an advance against the house. The probate court is the first stop, not the last. The full section, and how differently the other six states answer the same question, is in an Ohio executor and estate real property.

While the house sits empty the registration clock runs independently of all of it — see the Columbus vacant property registration requirement and vacant property registration ordinances in Ohio. Where the building has deteriorated into a nuisance, R.C. 3767.41 puts a receiver in possession instead: a receiver's property duties in Ohio.

Planning the Job Backwards

• Treat city collection as unavailable from the outset; occupancy is the test and an estate house fails it in three separate provisions
• Check whether a notice of violation of waste already exists on the property before scheduling anything, because subsection (F)(7) blocks scheduled bulk collection until it is resolved
• Engage an authorized waste hauler - one approved by the Director, not merely any contractor with a truck
• Keep documentation of proper disposal in the estate file, not with the contractor; the code asks the owner to provide it
• Put nothing in the public right-of-way, including anything that might be characterised as abandoned property
• Get the probate authority and any required order in place before the spend, and photograph contents and condition before anything moves

For the clearing work itself see what a trash-out is. The same job runs on quite different rules elsewhere: Cincinnati, where a pile of small items is excluded from bulk refuse by definition; Pittsburgh, which takes the overflow and publishes an hourly charge; and Philadelphia, where a street dumpster is unlicensable across much of Center City. The statutory duties by state are collected at estates, probate and fiduciary.