Cleveland Heights woman without roof after city grants permit, then stops project 1 day later

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - An 82-year-old woman is wondering when she’ll have a new roof over her head. This after the City of Cleveland Heights Building Department initially granted a permit for the project, but, just one day later ordered that the work be stopped.

Kathy Teamor is the daughter of 82-year-old Beverly Thomas, “The open roof, it started to leak after the recent rain we had, and it just doesn’t make sense, it’s utterly absurd.”

Teamor is now raising the roof, frustrated that her elderly mother is living in a home where the City of Cleveland Heights pushed the pause button on the new roof install that was only halfway done leaving the homeowner and the contractor in limbo. Teamor tells 19 News, “When the contractor started to put new shingles on, he had to rip those off.”

At issue, the type of building material that was being used. The family believes someone complained to the Home Owner’s Association and now the homeowner is forced to wait nearly one month for a hearing, “Normally when you go to get a permit, it should be flagged in the system if it’s a HOA area, because you have to get approval and find out what type of material they allow.”

Teamor says the new roof was already at a cost of $24,000 on the home that dates back to the 50′s and now her mother is paying the price, an additional $17,000 in materials, even though Teamor says the Cleveland Heights Building Department admitted it was their mistake, “As they looked at the permit they said, we didn’t ask, we assumed it would be the same material, and then they said we made a mistake. Okay, so you made the mistake, what can you do to fix it,” Teamor asked.

The family says their mother’s health and safety should be the priority, especially now that we’re in the coldest months of the year, and she shouldn’t have to worry about when she’ll have a new roof over her head.

The contractor on the roof project was able to get the hearing date on the building material moved up from February to January 19.

19 News reached out to Cleveland Heights for their side of the story, but it was after hours and we will follow-up until we get answers.

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