Many Ohioans will be decorating graves of loved ones this Memorial Day weekend, and they might discover problems. Sometimes, those problems are resolved immediately by the manager of the cemetery, but if they aren't, the state can step in to help.
There are more than 4,100 cemeteries registered with the state of Ohio. If you visit one of those and discover overgrown grass or weeds, litter, or problems with muddy gravesites, you should report those to the cemetery manager. But if that doesn't resolve the problem, Daphne Hawk, superintendent of the Ohio Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, said you should file a complaint with the Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Committee.
“We have great success in resolving a lot of those complaints so we work with the family and with the operators to try to come to an adequate resolution," Hawk said.
Hawk said the committee got 54 complaints last year and there are some pretty common themes.
“Things like, is the grass cut and trimmed around the marker, has trash been removed, are the funeral flowers being removed on a regular basis, does there need to be sodding and seeding around graves — things like that," Hawk said.
Hawk said sometimes there are costly repairs that need to happen and a nonprofit cemetery struggles to pay for those. Hawk said there is a cemetery grant program available to help nonprofit cemeteries that need to make those big-ticket repairs.
“We are able to often times help with some of these projects, like to replace doors on a mausoleum or to repair fencing around the cemetery or trim back overgrown trees. All of these are very expensive projects.”
Ohio has a consumer guide that includes information about how to file a complaint, tips for buying cemetery lots and what to do if you want to set up a trust for future use. You can find that by visiting the Ohio Department of Commerce's website.
