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Real Estate
Real Estate

Overview

The Franklin County Auditor's Office maintains the most comprehensive set of real estate records available in Franklin County. The real estate division's employees oversee the appraisal of 432,388 parcels. Ohio law mandates a general reappraisal every six years, with an update at the three-year midpoint.

The most recent general appraisal was completed in 2017 and the next triennial update will be completed in 2020. While the appraisal department is charged with assigning fair market values, other departments are responsible for managing tax reduction programs; maintaining proper ownership records; ensuring the correct property taxes have been charged; and processing and distributing more than $2 billion in tax collections to more than 85 entities countywide.

Our property search site is annually visited by more 1.4 million unique devices making it one of the most popular websites in the county.

The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) in August 2017 honored the Franklin County Auditor’s Office with its Certificate of Excellence in Assessment Administration, the highest professional honor an assessment jurisdiction can obtain.  Franklin County became the first county in Ohio to attain this prestigious accolade and is one of just 36 counties or cities in the United States to now own this certificate. There are 88 counties in Ohio and more than 3,500 such assessment jurisdictions in the United States.

 

Departments

Additional information


Public Information

 

The Franklin County Auditor's Public Information Section handles requests for information via telephone, Internet, and walk-in inquiries. Available information includes property record cards, taxpayer information and parcel identification sheets.

A wide array of information, including maps, color aerial photography and ownership records, are available in the Public Information Section on the 19th floor of the Franklin County Courthouse, 373 S. High St., in Columbus.

A central telephone number has been established to handle all real estate inquiries. The number (614-525-4663) annually receives about 200,000 calls. The real estate office may also be reached by e-mailing [email protected].



Tax Incentives

 

The Tax Incentive Division handles the administration of charitable exemptions and abatement programs. These programs are used as a tool to encourage development and growth and to also create and preserve employment. There are currently around 40,000 parcels within Franklin County that receive some form of tax incentive. Listed below are the various types.

Charitable Exemptions (ORC 5709). Examples include (but are not limited to) churches, hospitals, park districts, colleges or academies and can be full or partial exemptions.

Tax Increment Finance - TIF (ORC 5709.40) A TIF parcel pays full tax, however a portion of the tax collected is sent to the municipality to pay for public infrastructure improvements made within the TIF area.

Community Reinvestment Area - CRA (ORC 3735.65) - An incentive used to encourage new construction and job growth.

Enterprise Zone - EZ (ORC 5709.62) - An incentive used to encourage new construction and job growth.

Foregone Tax - Foregone tax are revenues which would otherwise be payable if an abatement was not active.

The Auditor's Office is not involved in the approval of abatement programs, but does manage the parcels and maintains the abatement status. In addition, the Auditor is by law the Chair of the Tax Incentive Review Council for each area of the county that has been granted abatements. For further information, please call 614-525-6272.

The Tax Incentive Division also administers the Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV) program, which saves farmers tax dollars because farm land is assigned value based on soil type rather than standard real estate factors. The CAUV Application and CAUV Renewal Application deadline is the first Monday of March each year. For further information please call 614-525-6254.



Tax Accounting

The Tax Accounting section provides a service to Franklin County townships and municipalities by collecting surcharges for special services such as weed cutting and sidewalk installation, and special improvement districts.

In addition, annexations, real estate tax adjustments and refunds due to a change in a property's taxable value are administered in this section. For more information please call 614-525-3205.