New Ohio Law Increases Public Bidding Transparency by Requiring Clear Disclosure of Changes to Industry-Standard Form Contracts

Those who spend time reviewing and negotiating construction contracts are typically very familiar with the use of the various industry-standard form contracts. Whether the forms are prepared by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ConsensusDocs, the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), or the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), the use of form documents has distinct advantages for the construction industry.

Benefits of Industry-Standard Forms

1. Most parties who enter into such contracts are at least generally familiar with the basic structure and provisions of such documents without having to read each document from cover to cover.

2. Form documents can save significant reviewing time, as familiar parties may need to review only the variations from the standard language to understand the unique requirements of the documents.

3. The repeated use of the same language means that thousands of courts across the country have reviewed the contract language, so the meaning and legal impact of the standard language are often well settled.

Tracking the Changes from the Standard Forms

When negotiating form construction contracts, many practitioners find it advantageous to trade “redline” versions of the standard forms that clearly show the intended deviations from the standard language by highlighting newly inserted language (such as in red font and/or underlined) and deleted language shown as struck out. For example, the AIA software generates an “additions and deletions” report clearly showing all changes. This practice allows parties to immediately focus on the deviations from the standard language in an effort to determine if the changes are merely fact- or project-specific, if the intended changes are advantageous or burdensome, and if they are acceptable or not.

When a party is presented with a highly modified form document that does not call any attention to significant changes that have been made, it can feel like the other party is trying to hide certain deviations from the norm in the hope that the revisions are not necessarily caught by the reviewing party. In other words, the initial delivery of what appears at first to be an industry-standard form—but upon deeper review reveals significant undisclosed changes that are to the drafter’s advantage—can feel less than transparent and slightly deceptive.

Ohio Public Entities Now Must Track Changes, Effective September 17, 2026

Recognizing the need to maintain fairness and transparency in public construction contracting, the Ohio legislature recently passed Amended Senate Bill 262, which requires that when public authorities in Ohio issue bid packages that include an industry-standard public construction contract form, the form contract shall be provided to bidders “in a manner that indicates any alteration to the standard form by striking through and underlining any changes to the original language of the standard form, by cross-referencing conditions that are supplemental to the standard form, or by including conditions that are supplemental to the standard form that cross-reference the section or sections of the standard form being altered.”

In other words, public authorities in Ohio must now clearly show all intended deviations from standard contract language so bidders can easily and quickly determine all changes from the expected terms. Importantly, the failure of a public owner to show changes to their intended form’s standard language renders the unshown deviations void and unenforceable, and the original, unaltered provisions will prevail, despite the intended but unshown change.

The new requirements apply to construction management forms issued by all public owners other than the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). The intent of the new requirement is to benefit both parties to the contracting process—the public owner and the bidders—by increasing transparency, which streamlines the review and bidding process for both sides. This also increases the fairness of the bidding process by allowing all bidders the opportunity to see the changes immediately, rather than having to hunt through the document and potentially miss revisions.

This disclosure also benefits the public owner in that they will likely spend less time answering questions from bidders and can be assured that bidders have had a better opportunity to more accurately understand what is being requested of them. These new transparency requirements will hopefully be a universally welcomed improvement that will immediately start to improve the accuracy of public contract bidding when they become effective this September.

Senator Louis Blessing III from Hamilton County introduced the bill, and it enjoyed broad bipartisan support. Governor DeWine signed the bill into law Thursday, June 18, 2026, and it becomes effective on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

For more information on the new law or other construction issues, contact Mark J. Stockman or any member of the firm’s Construction group.