What Ohio Revised Code 4722 puts on your contract

The $25,000 line on a home-construction contract

Ohio Revised Code 4722 covers home-construction contracts over $25,000. Above that figure the agreement is written, not spoken. That threshold is why the first serious document on a remodel is an itemized estimate rather than a number quoted at the curb: the contract is built from the estimate. The Residential Code of Ohio governs the work itself, and the city where the house sits enforces that code and sends the inspector.

Whether a job clears $25,000 is answered by the estimate, not by a guess, and the answer changes the paperwork rather than the work. Read the contract value and the scope together. A job that reorganizes several rooms at once carries a longer trade list and a longer inspection list, and both of those belong in the same document as the price.

Ten percent before anyone opens a wall

The down payment on a contract over $25,000 is capped at ten percent before work starts, and on a remodel that phrase has a concrete order behind it. Registration in the city of the house comes first, then the permit, then demolition. On a kitchen there is no demolition date until the estimate is signed. On a whole-home renovation nothing opens until the estimate is signed and the city has stamped the first permit.

Then look at what the rest of the money is attached to. A remodel that opens walls runs on the holds the city sets: rough plumbing, rough electrical, framing where a wall moves, insulation where an exterior wall is opened, and a final. The building department names that list, not the contractor. Ask which hold each figure on the payment schedule sits behind.

Notice before extras that total more than $5,000

Code 4722 also asks for notice before extras that total more than $5,000. Total is the word doing the work: three small discoveries reach that threshold as surely as one large one. Extras on a residential job come from predictable places. Rot, mold or unpermitted wiring found after kitchen walls are opened. Sheathing that turns out to be rotten once the siding skin comes off. Water in a basement that has to be handled before any framing goes up.

None of that sits inside the scope of the original estimate, and none of it should be built before a change order is signed. The written change order does two jobs at once. It carries the notice the code asks for, and it keeps the punch list at the end measured against the signed estimate rather than against a conversation in a driveway.

The certificate of insurance in the file

NIR Solutions carries $1,000,000 in general liability plus contractors errors and omissions, and the certificate is attached to the contract. Ohio's written-contract floor for this coverage is $250,000, which is a floor rather than a target. Cities on this list set their own limits on their own forms, and several of them require the city itself to be named on the certificate.

Those differences are the reason a certificate is written to one city's requirement rather than copied from a website line. Ask to see the certificate that names the city your house is in, and check the expiration date on it before demolition rather than after.

• Solon requires general liability of $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate with the City of Solon as additional insured, a sealed $25,000 registration bond, and a $100 fee.
• Pepper Pike requires an original signed $25,000 surety bond and an original certificate of insurance naming the City of Pepper Pike, originals only, not copies or faxes.
• Cleveland Heights requires a $10,000 surety bond on the city's own form plus liability insurance with the city as additional insured, typically $100,000/$300,000 bodily injury and $50,000 property damage.
• Shaker Heights requires the certificate to list the City with bodily injury of at least $500,000/$1,000,000 or $2,000,000 aggregate and property damage of $50,000 per occurrence.
• Beachwood charges $100 for contractor registration and expires it one year from issuance rather than on a calendar date.

The name and the number on the contract

Ohio issues no statewide license for residential general contractors, so the credential a homeowner can actually check is municipal. NIR Solutions holds Orange Village Contractor Registration #4235, General, current through December 31, 2026. In every other city, NIR registers in the city of the house before pulling the permit there. Owner Roman Ivakhnenko writes every estimate, and plumbing, electrical, HVAC and other mechanical work is done by licensed trade partners. One name is on the contract.

A registration number means little without the date beside it, and the clocks are not the same from city to city. The Orange Village registration runs through December 31, 2026. Beachwood registration expires one year from the day it was issued rather than at the end of a calendar year, so a stamp dated last February can already be dead in March.

What to look for on any contractor's paper

Most of this reads the same on anyone's contract. You are checking four things: that the paper exists at the value the law asks for, that the money up front is inside the cap, that extras have a written path, and that the insurance and the registration match the city where your house stands.

• A written contract when the job is over $25,000, with scope described by room and by trade.
• A down payment no larger than ten percent of the contract before work starts.
• Language saying extras totaling more than $5,000 are noticed in writing before they are built.
• A certificate of insurance attached, unexpired, and naming the city when that city requires it.
• The contractor's registration for the city where the house sits, with the date it expires.
• A named answer to who applies for each permit and who schedules each inspection.
• An exclusions list, so that what is missing from the price is missing on purpose.