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Cleveland Heights advocates urge preserving point-of-sale inspections and escrow requirements
Summary
Residents, housing advocates and city staff told the Housing & Building Committee they oppose removing the city's point-of-sale inspection and escrow rules, saying the measures protect buyers, stabilize neighborhoods and guard against investor-driven decline.
Cleveland Heights housing advocates told the City Council Housing and Building Committee on Feb. 11 that the city's long-standing point-of-sale inspection and escrow requirements should be preserved and, in some cases, strengthened rather than eliminated.
Mike Beyer, a longtime Cleveland Heights resident and housing professional who facilitated the presenters, told the committee the rules "are essential to preserving the quality, safety, and value of our housing stock." He described buying a deteriorated house in 2002 and relying on a seller-funded escrow of $25,000 to repair 37 code violations, saying, "The ordinance didn't make this purchase difficult, it made it possible." Beyer and other speakers said an Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors campaign to remove point-of-sale rules across the region is not tailored to Cleveland Heights' older housing stock and could harm modest-income buyers.
Housing advocates outlined why the ordinances matter to Cleveland Heights: they secure repair funds at transfer, give buyers reliable…
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