OK, you have a plot of land in a city. You start filling it with dead people. It cannot grow beyond its borders.
I can see how charging a fee in the beginning for this is appropriate. But what about the future? What happens when the one person footing the monthly landscaping fees stops? Do they dig up the deceased and re-sell the space? How much do these things cost, anyways?
-Tcat
In many places, you don’t buy a plot, you lease it; after 99 (or some other other number of) years, the remains are moved to an ossuary or burial pit (or the existing grave is sug deeper, with the remains being reinterred at the bottom, and the plot is re-used.
Things work differently in different countries. It would be helpful if you clarify to us whether you’re asking about a specific country/continent, or if you’re looking for comparative information. Under the presumption you’re looking for comparative information, I submit the following:
In the U.S., cemeteries are mostly the property of a local government, which pays for maintenance. Some may be owned by a church, however. As you no doubt deduce, cemeteries owned by governments or churches don’t have the problem you note.
There are private cemeteries in some rural areas, but they’re increasingly rare, and generally long since closed, with modern burials in them being prohibited, or subject to tight restrictions. Unless such cemeteries are deeded over to a governmental authority, their maintenance is the responsibility of the property owner. Since the kind of private cemetery I’m talking about would usually contain largely or entirely ancestors of the family owning the property, one presumes that they have a personal interest in/dedication to maintenance.
I can’t speak to how modern private cemeteries are operated, in states where they exist. I have a vague notion that California (and perhaps some other western states) might have different laws. My comments are relevant only to (some) states east of the Mississippi River.
In any case, burials in the U.S. are considered to be a permanent use of the land. The only exception can be if the property is taken by a governmental authority. In that case, the government authority is responsible for relocation of the … “residents” to a new “permanent” location.
I’m not sure how things are handled if, in the course of development of property in which no cemetery is known to exist, a disused cemetery is discovered. I suspect that states may have differing laws about that. The governing laws may also have varying rules for prehistoric, i.e., Indian, sites versus cemeteries established since the establishment of white sovereignty. I also can recall reading about special circumstances and rules when unrecorded slave cemeteries have been similarly discovered in areas of this country where slave-holding was once legal.
In many places, the money paid for the plot goes into a trust. Here in Florida, the statutes require cemetery operators to establish a trust for maintenance and care of the cemetery.
Cemeteries land can be sold and used for other purposes, so long as it is done so in accordance with statute.
Nice work with the statutes XJETGIRLX:
For the sake of completeness, I’ll add that the statute requires consent of the next of kin:
The other statute (497.384) requires supervision of the move by a licensed funeral director, permits regulation of the activity, and requires notice to the licensing authority, and has a slightly different spin on permission to move:
The local water authority had a parcel (I think it was about 17 acres) on which it decided to build a cemetary. The idea is that it can sell burial plots over a period of years. As others said, some of the money paid for the burial plot goes into trust for maintenance but certainly not all of it, so the remaining money is returned to the water authority as income.
How to Put Aside Enough Now To Cover Cemetery Costs Later written by an expert in cemetery accounting and economics.
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Thanks!
This is not true in New York State, where many if not most cemeteries are indeed private enterprises. However there is an encompassing cemetery law that applies to both private and municipal cemeteries.
Although nothing you say, therefore, is applicable in New York State. You should say exactly where you live so people can see if your statements are even applicable there.
Maintenance is called perpetual care.
Cemeteries all over the country are increasing turning to columbaria or vaults with niches for cremated remains. Think of it as high rises for the dead. 
From what I’ve seen, in the U.S. permanent graves, or crypts, are the rule. In my home town of Los Angeles, of all places, there is a cemetery that was founded in 1877 and, I’m sure, contains the graves of some who were born before 1800. It’s a little sad to think of a mausoleum or grave that’s so old there aren’t any descendants anymore to pay their respects, or that said descendants have forgotten.
Sometimes graves do have to be moved, but they are still preserved in the new location. There are a few early cemeteries in L.A. that were moved to new sites to make way for development.
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A good place to start is the quintessential treatise on burial law, The Law of Cadavers by Percival Jackson (1936). Mr. Jackson gives us the basic rule of U.S. burial law:
The cumulative effect of primitive fears of the spirit, apprehensions or hopes of resurrection, modern concepts of morals and habits of devotion, respect, and sentiment–all these presently produce an undeniable recognition of the rights of the dead and the living to have respected the peaceful and unviolated sanctity of the grave. It may be generally said that once a person is buried, the law, having a proper respect for the dead, a just regard for the sensibilities of the living, and a care for the due preservation of the public health, jealously guards the grave against ruthless or unjustifiable intrusion.
Essentially, once you’re in the ground, anybody who wants to haul you back out, move you, or move your tombstone needs official approval.
When you buy a lot in a cemetery, you generally get the right to choose whose body goes in there. If someone gets put in your lot by mistake, you can have them moved. Once the body goes in, it’s pretty hard for somebody else to move it. But it does happen. Cemeteries are subject to condemnation. Natural disasters sometimes disinter graves. An inactive cemetery can become a nuisance subject to abatement. Under some circumstances, a person can purchase an abandoned cemetery and get government permission to move the graves to another cemetery or even remove the tombstones and build over it (although this is pretty rare). Even if you were buried in your backyard, the property could be condemned, or your heirs could sell it, and the new owner could try to develop the land. The dead can’t defend themselves–the fate of their remains is in the hands of the living.
The preceding applies to the U.S., you understand–practices elsewhere vary, as we’ll see in a moment.
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I’d like to point out that I did say:
And I also suggested that the OP tell us for what location(s) they wanted the information.
Sorry to bring it back up like this, but my last logon was the 16th. To the best of my recollection, ignoring some of the information in a post in order to find fault with other parts is unlike you.
Just how rare is this? :eek: I’ve never heard of that happening outside of horror films? Can anyone give real-life examples of the government giving permission for a developer to build over graves instead of moving them? :dubious:
We trust don’t we. A few years ago in Michigan a co worker of mine heard a loud noise at 5 in the am. He walked to the cemetery across the street and they were bulldozing caskets into a large pit they had excavated. It was a major news story after he called the cops.