"Ohioans facing issues with cemeteries can seek help from Department of Commerce"

Sharing a link to a news story that has been published in various Ohio newspapers in the past few days with the title.: 

"Ohioans Facing Issues with Cemeteries can seek help from Department of Commerce".  
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BUT, please keep in mind the fact that a cemetery has to be REGISTERED for the Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission (of the Department of Commerce; Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing) to accept the complaint! 

"Ohioans facing issues with cemeteries can seek help from Department of Commerce"

Registered Cemetery Complaint Form
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***Thus, ONLY REGISTERED CEMETERIES in Ohio qualify for any complaints against their owners to be accepted by the Department of Commerce's Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission. This is important to remember! 

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Cemeteries that DO NOT have burials within the past twenty-five years DO NOT qualify and are NOT registered.*** 

***See more specifics below***:

"Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4767 provides the Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission with responsibility over registered cemeteries."

"(C) Sections 4767.02 to 4767.04 of the Revised Code do not apply to or affect a family cemetery or a cemetery in which there have been no interments during the previous twenty-five calendar years. As used in this division, "family cemetery" means a cemetery containing the human remains of persons, at least three-fourths of whom have a common ancestor or who are the spouse or adopted child of that common ancestor." 

A Brief Look at Ohio Revised Code - Title V - Chapter 517 - Cemeteries

The Ohio Revised Codes contain laws that affect the Buckeye State's Cemeteries whether they be active, inactive, or abandoned.  

Townships in Ohio have a significant number of cemeteries; some are active and registered while many cemeteries fall into the categories of inactive (and thus not registered) or abandoned.  

Title V - Townships - Chapter 517 - Cemeteries of the Ohio Revised Codes  (ORC) contains the codes that affect township cemeteries in various ways, including some new provisions that have gone into effect on September 28, 2016:

517.03 [Effective 9/28/2016] Levy and taxes for expenses.

"To defray the expenses of the purchase or appropriation, and the enclosing, care, supervision, repair, and improving of lands for cemetery purposes, and of maintaining and improving entombments, including mausoleums, columbariums, and other interment rights, the board of township trustees may levy a tax sufficient for that purpose."

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 413, §1, eff. 9/28/2016.

Effective Date: 11-21-1973

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517.07 Sale of Cemetery Lots updated September 28, 2016

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517.073 Authority for Reentry for Unused Plots or Rights updated September 28, 2016

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517.03 Expenditures of Proceeds - Exception updated September 28, 2016

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517.11 Care of Cemetery updated September 28, 2016

"The board of township trustees shall provide for the protection and preservation of cemeteries under its jurisdiction, and shall prohibit interments therein when new grounds have been procured for township cemeteries or burial grounds. Where such old cemeteries are in or near village plats, and the public health is liable to be injured by further interments therein, the board shall institute suits to recover possession thereof, remove trespassers therefrom, and may recover damages for injuries thereto or any part thereof, or to any fence or hedge enclosing them, or to any tomb or monument therein.

The board may enclose cemeteries under its jurisdiction with a substantial fence or hedge, and shall keep any such fence or hedge in good repair. It may re-erect any fallen tombstones, regardless of the cause of the falling, in such cemeteries. The board, as it considers necessary, may purchase, maintain, and improve entombments, including mausoleums, columbariums, and other interment rights. The board may levy a tax to meet any costs incurred for these purposes, not to exceed one-half mill in any one year, upon all the taxable property of the township."

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 413, §1, eff. 9/28/2016.

Effective Date: 07-24-1986

Update on the Dept. of Commerce - Div. of Real Estate - Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission's Cemetery Complaint Form.

I have updated the link to the Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission's Cemetery Complaint Form COM 3660 (11/2010) that is in the permanent link on the right-hand side bar of the blog under the general heading:  

"Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission"  

Excerpted from the Form:

"Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4767 provides the Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission with responsibility over registered cemeteries operated by a person, church, religious society, established fraternal organization, or political subdivision. The Commission is vested with the authority to assist in resolving complaints by the use of informal techniques of mediation, conciliation, and persuasion. The Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, provides administrative services to the Commission regarding the registration of active cemeteries and processing of complaints filed against any cemetery owner or operator for dispute resolution."

     "Furnish the full names, addresses and phone numbers of all parties to the complaint, including witnesses."
 
     "Print the form. Sign and date the form at the bottom. Attach copies (not originals) of all pertinent documents, and send the package ......."
 

     Mail To: 

Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing

77 S. High Street, 20th Floor

Columbus, OH 43215.

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Please keep in mind that this form is for filing a complaint on a "registered" cemetery which normally means an active cemetery in the state of Ohio.

Long time cemetery investigator, Mr. Ted Hornyak, has left his position since the job was re-located to Columbus.  

The cemetery investigation work has been turned over to:

Laura A. Monick
Staff Attorney
Ohio Department of Commerce
Ohio Division of Real Estate & Professional Licensing
77 South High Street, 20^th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
614-466-5384
www.com.ohio.gov

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     A useful on-line resource for reviewing the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) where the information regarding Ohio's cemetery legislation details are found, is the "LAWriter Ohio Laws and Rules" website.  

     In the upper right-hand corner on this website, there is a "Search ORC" box where you can type in a word and do a global search. (Click on "LAWriter Ohio Laws and Rules shown above.)

      The results provided following a global search for the word "cemeteries" produced 49 separate items that appear on screen on a total of 4 pages. 

Ohio Cemetery Laws and the Ohio Revised Code

Below are some facts to remember which are detailed in the Ohio Revised Code. 

Those featured below are courtesy of the Medina Ohio Cemetery Preservation Society's website under the heading: "Ohio Cemetery Laws".

(Their main link is shown above.)

"Ohio Cemetery Laws"

"Preserving cemeteries, in Ohio, is indeed the law!

See the following Ohio Revised Code sections:

#517.21 Abandonment - When a public or private cemetery has been "abandoned," a cemetery board or the Township Trustees may decide to remove the remains buried in that cemetery, but they must provide for the removal of all remains buried in that cemetery, for the removal of all stones and monuments marking the graves, for the re-interment of the remains, and for the re-erection of those stones or monuments in suitable public ground in the near vicinity, all of which shall be paid for from the township treasury.

#2909.05 Vandalism - No person, without privilege to do so, shall knowingly cause serious physical harm to any tomb, monument, gravestone, or other similar structure that is used as a memorial for the dead; to any fence, railing, curb, or other property that is used to protect, enclose or ornament any cemetery; or to a cemetery. Whoever violates this section is guilty of vandalism. "Cemetery" means any place of burial."

#2927.11 Desecration - No person, without privilege to do so, shall purposely deface, damage, pollute, or otherwise physically mistreat any of the following: Any historical or commemorative marker or any structure, Indian mound or earthwork, cemetery or site of great or historical or archaeological interest. "Cemetery" means any place of burial.