Diggin For Answers 4/8/2010

Renting a burial plot?
by Randy Seaver

Welcome to the Digging for Answers column on the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal.

This column will depend on your submission of questions about cemeteries, gravestones, burial practices, and other topics that concern a Graveyard Rabbit (other than where his next carrot is coming from!). So please send some questions to the editor, who will pass them along and keep the columnist hopping.

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Question: Jasia asks:

"I know in that in Europe they have an entirely different approach to burying the dead in cemeteries. Essentially, they "rent" out burial plots rather than allowing families to actually buy and own one. So how long does a typical rental period last? What are typical rental fees for a grave? If the rental fee goes unpaid, what happens to the remains of the person buried in the grave? Is there another re-burying ceremony or some such thing? They have much more elaborate gravestones in Europe. So what happens to the gravestone if the grave rental fee goes unpaid and the persons remains are removed to somewhere else?"

Answer:

These questions may keep this Graveyard Rabbit hopping for months on end. After a wonderfully inspirational time Googling various keywords and checking Wikipedia, I found some helpful articles online that shed some light (and quite a bit of puzzlement) to the question about the length of a plot rental and the cost. for instance:

* Germany: Funerals: "You Can't Afford to Die" indicates that "Plots are usually rented for a certain period of time, usually 20 to 30 years, with the possibility of an extension. Eventually, though, the plot will be used for another burial, once the mourners themselves have passed away." This article doesn't provide a rental cost, which probably varies from area to area.

* England: Purchasing a Burial Plot provides a general summary of English burial practices. The article Survey of the UK funeral trade provides a summary of funeral and burial costs, but doesn't address plot rental fees. The Dacorum Borough Council web page has some Q&A about Buying a Grave. A list of costs for cremation, burial, monuments and other services in 2010 and 2011 is provided on the Northumberland County Council site here. The fee for a 50-year exclusive right to be buried, and to erect a memorial, must be obtained and there are charges for the cremation of remains (if desired) and burial of remains. The fee for an adult single-depth 50-year exclusive right is £383 and the fee for a weekday burial is £362 (£725 for a weekend or bank holiday burial). Practices and prices for these services may vary from county to county, and probably depend on availability of plots in a specific area.

* France: The Paris Cemeteries FAQ page says: "Like anywhere else in France, people are buried in coffins which are placed in family or individual graves. Plots can be bought in perpetuity, for 50, 30 or 10 years, the latter being the least expensive option." It also notes that "If a grave has not been tended in a while, it is declared abandoned. The Conservation puts a tag on the grave and tries to contact the family but if they can’t reach them (which is often the case after a hundred years), they just take over the plot, clean it and resell it. This procedure usually takes between 2 and 4 years."

Rather than cover every country in Europe (or the world), suffice it to say that each country has burial practices that are unique to the country, and an online search for a specific country using keywords like "country name" (or city or county name) "burial" "rental" "cost" "practices" may provide more useful information. Perhaps some of our European readers can shed more light on answers to these questions.

Thank you, Jasia, for the challenging question. I know that I didn't answer the questions completely or even explicitly, but hopefully the examples above are useful for all Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal readers.