SitemapBanks filing expedited foreclosures on abandoned and vacant properties will no longer be able to use plywood to board up those houses.
All other properties, however, can still use plywood under a law signed Wednesday by Gov. John Kasich, a Republican. The law takes effect in 90 days.
Confusion over the bill had some believing the law banned the use of plywood on all vacant properties.
But the law specifically requires a plywood ban only on “a mortgagee who files a foreclosure action on a residential property [that files] a motion with the court to proceed in an expedited manner under this section on the basis that the property is vacant and abandoned” in “order to proceed in an expedited manner.”
State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, who co-sponsored the bill, said it’s designed only for banks with expedited foreclosures. The banks would be required to use clear boarding, a clear polycarbonate on windows and doors.
“There is nothing in the bill for any other organizations requiring them to not use plywood,” she said.
Plywood has been an industry standard for securing vacated housing for so many decades the very act of doing so is called “boarding up” the property.
Because of so many amendments added by the Republican majority to the original bill, it can be confusing as to what the it includes, said state Rep. John Boccieri of Poland, D-59th, who also co-sponsored the bill.
“By its passage, [the bill] was lit up like a Christmas tree,” he said. “But that amendment is only for expedited bank foreclosures.”
To require other entities to use clear board would be a financial disaster, said Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., which boards up vacant structures in the city.
“Clear plastic would cost $1,200 to $1,500 on a house that’s going to be demolished and isn’t worth the cost of the materials,” he said. “It’s 10 times the cost of plywood. It would be bad policy to require everyone to stop using plywood.”
Robert Klein, founder of Cleveland-based clear board maker SecureView, said the Ohio law makes a bold statement against urban decay.
“This is a significant advancement for those engaged in the battle against neighborhood blight in Ohio,” Klein said. “Plywood is an outdated solution to a growing modern-day problem.”
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