What This License Is
The Ohio Property line of authority is ORC 3905.06(B)(3). It covers insurance against loss of or damage to real and personal property — homeowners, dwelling fire, commercial property, business owners policies, inland marine and crop — but not the liability that usually rides alongside it. Liability is Casualty, a separate line at (B)(4).
That split is why property-only is a deliberate choice rather than a default. It fits a producer working a niche — farm property, commercial property placed alongside another agency's casualty, or a book fed by mortgage originations. It does not fit a personal-lines agent writing homeowners and auto, because auto liability is casualty business.
PSI offers Series 11-46, "Ohio Property Insurance Agent" — 100 questions in 2 hours — and the combined Series 11-36 Property and Casualty exam at 150 questions in 2.5 hours. Both are $49. The combined paper needs two pre-licensing certificates, 40 hours in total, and the test center will check for both. One more route deserves a look before you decide: Personal Lines is its own line of authority in Ohio with its own exam, and for a producer writing homeowners and personal auto it is often the right target instead of property-only.
Exam Options & Format
Series 11-46 is 100 scored questions in 2 hours through PSI, with 1 to 10 unscored experimental items added on top — unscored, but they consume your clock. The passing standard is 70%, and Ohio reports a genuine percentage rather than a scaled score.
Testing is in person only. The bulletin's cover states that effective 3/13/2026 remote proctored examinations are no longer available.
Register at test-takers.psiexams.com/ohins at least 24 hours ahead, by phone on (855) 807-3995, or by fax with four business days' notice. Pay by credit card, company check, money order or cashier's check — personal checks are refused. The $49 is valid a year from payment; your pre-licensing certificate is only good 180 days, so the certificate governs your timeline.
Retakes are unlimited at $49 each, with no same-day rebooking. Fail Wednesday, call Thursday, sit Friday if there is a seat.
Most Tested Topics on the Ohio Property Exam
Ohio's property content sits in ORC Chapter 3929 (fire and other property insurance), the FAIR Plan rule at OAC 3901-1-18, the surplus lines sections of Chapter 3905, and the rate-filing and credit-scoring rules. Every row is verified against the section cited:
| Concept | The Ohio rule |
|---|---|
| Total fire or lightning loss on a building | Ohio is a valued policy state. Absent a change increasing the risk without the insurers' consent and absent intentional fraud, on total loss the whole amount stated in the policy — the amount the insurer took a premium on — must be paid (ORC 3929.25) |
| The agent's duty at issue | The agent must examine the building and fix its insurable value when the policy is written; the valued policy law is the consequence of having done so (ORC 3929.25) |
| The replacement-cost escape hatch | A policy that conditions replacement-cost settlement on actual repair or replacement is settled as the policy prescribes rather than under the valued policy rule (ORC 3929.25) |
| Cellar and foundation walls | Not considered part of the building in settling losses, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the application or policy (ORC 3929.25) |
| Two policies on the same property | Statutory pro rata contribution — each policy contributes to the whole or partial loss in proportion to the amount of insurance it carries. In Ohio this is the statute, not just a policy condition (ORC 3929.26) |
| Ohio FAIR Plan — statutory test | The risk must be insurable under reasonable underwriting standards and the applicant unable to procure the coverage through normal channels (ORC 3929.43) |
| Ohio FAIR Plan — the declination rule | At least two insurers authorized to do business in Ohio must have declined the coverage requested — this test is in the rule, not the statute (OAC 3901-1-18(H)(1)(a)) |
| Ohio FAIR Plan — limit | Maximum $2,000,000 per location for real and personal property (OAC 3901-1-18(F)(1)) |
| Resident surplus lines broker eligibility | You must hold both a property license and a casualty license — not a generic producer license (ORC 3905.30(B)) |
| Diligent effort before placing surplus lines | Contact at least five of the authorized insurers the agent represents that customarily write the kind of insurance required, or as many as the agent represents (ORC 3905.33(B)(1)) |
| When diligent effort is not required | Purchasing groups and risk retention groups under Chapter 3960, and exempt commercial purchasers where the disclosure is made and a written request received (ORC 3905.33(B)(3), (B)(4); ORC 3905.331) |
| Rate filings | File and wait: 30 days on file before a filing takes effect (ORC 3935.04(D)), with the superintendent to review it as soon as reasonably possible (ORC 3935.04(C)) |
| Credit history in underwriting | Credit may not be the sole factor; several inputs are prohibited outright, including non-consumer-initiated inquiries, insurance inquiries, disputed information under investigation, medical collection accounts, and multiple mortgage or auto lender inquiries within 30 days; an adverse-action notice is due within 30 days (OAC 3901-1-55(E), (F), (G)) |
| Standard fire policy form | Ohio has none. Chapter 3929 contains no standard-form statute and no section mandating an appraisal clause — the form is the insurer's, and the statutory content rules are 3929.25 and 3929.26 |
The row that decides the most questions is the valued policy law, because it inverts the answer national material teaches. Ask a candidate what a $200,000 dwelling policy pays on a total fire loss where the building was worth $160,000, and the trained reflex is "actual cash value, up to the limit." In Ohio the answer is the whole amount stated in the policy — the insurer took premium on that figure and the agent was required to fix the insurable value when it was written. Read the stem for the two conditions that switch it off: a change increasing the risk without the insurers' consent, or intentional fraud by the insured. And read it for a replacement-cost policy conditioned on actual repair, which escapes the rule entirely.
The second most-missed item is surplus lines eligibility, which candidates habitually get half right. It is not enough to be a licensed producer: ORC 3905.30(B) requires both property and casualty licenses, which is precisely why a property-only licensee cannot place surplus lines business alone. Pair it with the five insurers in the diligent-effort standard — a specific number that is easy to mark and easy to forget.
One more worth a line in your notes because the absence is itself a fact: Ohio publishes no standard fire policy and mandates no appraisal clause. Candidates who trained on a state with a 165-line standard form look for one here and answer from memory. What Ohio regulates instead is the settlement — the valued policy law and statutory pro rata contribution.
Where You Test in Ohio — Every Site and the Scheduling Rules
PSI runs nine Ohio test centers, and you may sit your exam at any of them regardless of where you live. The bulletin prints them with street addresses:
| Site as PSI names it | Address |
|---|---|
| Akron | 231 Springside Dr, Suite 125, Akron, OH 44333 |
| Cambridge | 1300 Clark Street, Suite #5, Cambridge, OH 43725 |
| Cincinnati | 2820 Bobmeyer Rd., Hangar C-7, Hamilton, OH 45015 |
| Cleveland | 7029 Pearl Rd, Suite 320, Middleburg Heights, OH 44130 |
| Columbus South | 6431 Alum Creek Dr, Suite I, Groveport, OH 43125 |
| Columbus North | 6397 Emerald Parkway, Suite 150, Dublin, OH 43016 |
| Macedonia | 8536 Crow Dr, Suite GL-55, Macedonia, OH — see the note below on the printed ZIP |
| Maumee/Toledo | 1446 S. Reynolds Road, Suite 201, Maumee, OH 43537 |
| Troy | 1100 Wayne Street, Suite 5200, Troy, OH 45373 |
Navigate by the address, never by the site name. Three of these names describe a metro area rather than the municipality you are driving to: "Cincinnati" is in Hamilton, "Cleveland" is in Middleburg Heights, and "Maumee/Toledo" is in Maumee. Candidates who put the site name into a maps app instead of the street address end up in the wrong city, and Ohio forfeits your fee for arriving after the start time.
A caution about the Macedonia ZIP. The bulletin prints Macedonia with ZIP 43537 — which is the ZIP in the Maumee row directly beneath it, on the far side of the state. Macedonia sits in Summit County. This has the signature of a copy-down error in PSI's own table, so we are not reprinting it as fact and we are not silently correcting it either. Confirm the postal code on PSI's live site locator when you book.
Booking. Online at test-takers.psiexams.com/ohins with at least 24 hours' notice; by phone on (855) 807-3995, Monday to Friday 7:30am–10:00pm ET and weekends 9:00am–5:30pm ET; by fax with four business days' notice; or by mail on PSI's registration form. Payment is credit card, company check, money order or cashier's check — personal checks are not accepted.
Changing your date. You may cancel and reschedule the same examination without losing the fee only if PSI receives your cancellation notice 2 days before the scheduled date. The $49 is forfeited if you cancel later than that, if you do not appear, or if you arrive after the examination start time. Plan to be there 30 minutes early; that is PSI's published arrival instruction, not a courtesy.
Testing outside Ohio. The bulletin allows additional US locations by alternative-arrangements request, and ODI confirms you may test at PSI locations nationwide — useful if you live near a border or are relocating into Ohio. It is a request, not a booking option, so start it early.
One thing no test center will do is bend on documentation. Your paper pre-licensing certificate — or ODI education waiver — has to be in your hand, signed and dated by both the provider and you. The Life & Health guide covers exam-day check-in, ID and security rules in full.
What It Costs
$49 for Series 11-46, up to $72.25 for the National WebCheck background check, $10 for the Property line of authority through NIPR — about $131 on a first-time pass. ODI's fee chart of 16 April 2026 and ORC 3905.40(C) both put the application at $10 per line.
The 20-hour pre-licensing course is a separate private cost. If you hold AAI, ARM, CIC, CPCU or an insurance degree, ODI's INS3276 waiver removes it — the Health guide covers how the waivers work and what disqualifies you from using them.
Renewal, two years later, is $25 by statute and waived for resident individual agents who have met their CE requirement.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18 (ORC 3905.06(A)(1)(a)); 20 hours of ODI-approved Property pre-licensing or an approved waiver; a passing score on Series 11-46; the ORC 3905.051 National WebCheck criminal records check; and the NIPR application filed within 180 calendar days of passing (OAC 3901-5-09).
The background check is good for 12 months and is reusable — so if you expect to add Casualty later, one check covers both applications as long as the second lands inside the year. The Casualty guide owns that process, including the reason code and agency code you must give the WebCheck vendor.
Moving to Ohio with a property license already in hand? Do not buy a course yet. ORC 3905.041(A) can waive both the education and the exam if you apply within 90 days of establishing residence here; the Property & Casualty guide covers it.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: 24 hours per two-year renewal period including 3 hours of ethics. Property producers who write flood business owe a one-time 3-hour NFIP course by the end of their first renewal period, and it counts inside the 24 rather than on top of it.
24 hours every two years including 3 ethics hours (ORC 3905.481), complete before the renewal is filed, which is due by the last day of your birth month. Holding several lines does not multiply the requirement.
The property-specific training to plan for is flood: a one-time 3-hour NFIP course approved by ODI, due by the end of your first renewal period. Like Ohio's other product trainings it counts inside the 24 hours, not on top of them.
Carryover is capped at 50% of the next period's requirement — 12 hours — and carried credits count only as general credit, never toward the ethics requirement. Credits are earned on the completion date, not the date your provider posts them, and providers have 15 days to report. Do not leave your last course to the final week of your birth month.
The Property & Casualty guide owns renewal in detail: the late-renewal and reinstatement tiers, suspension timing, inactive status and reactivation.
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