Columbus, IN Rental Property Rules: Rental Registration (2026)

Section 15.24.011 of the Columbus Municipal Code bars an owner of real estate within the corporate boundaries from using it to erect or maintain a residential rental unit after May 1, 2018 without first registering each unit with the City. Registration follows Indiana Code 36-1-20-5 and falls due on the earliest of an annual deadline listed when notification is received, thirty days after a change of ownership, or thirty days after obtaining title to any residential rental unit.

Section 15.24.012 requires a complete and accurate City of Columbus Residential Rental Registration application, signed by the owner, submitted to the Department of Community Development with a registration fee not to exceed the maximum allowed by Indiana Code 36-1-20-5(c). The fee is imposed one time on initial registration and on change of ownership, for each separate parcel on which a rental unit sits. An owner who does not live in Bartholomew County or a contiguous county must name an agent, and Section 15.24.013 requires that agent to reside or keep a permanent office in Bartholomew County and be authorized to receive notice of complaints, damages, emergencies and substandard conditions. Section 15.24.016 gives owners thirty days to report a change of contact information in writing.

Section 15.24.010 defines what is covered and what is not. Excluded from Residential Rental Unit are travel trailers, recreational vehicles, transient hotel or motel occupancy, a single-family owner occupied dwelling unit, group homes and institutional residential homes, federally subsidized and owned complexes, scattered site Section 8 units administered solely by the local housing authority, and transient multi-tenant student housing at the Columbus Airpark.

Section 15.24.018 limits use of the registration records to administrative enforcement, fire safety and law enforcement purposes, though the department can disclose on written request whether a parcel is registered. Section 15.24.017 makes retaliatory eviction a violation once a court so determines.