Exuming the deceased, cremating them, then selling their grave plots

JoeyPeeps

Is this unheard of?

MarkR

Any background to this, or are you just idly wondering?

the_syco

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/death/sudden_or_unexplained_death/exhumation_of_the_remains_of_a_deceased_person.html

The appropriate fee
The completed application form that is available from your local authority
A copy of the death certificate of the deceased person
A completed certificate from the director of public health at your Local Health Office.
A completed form of consent from the cemetery management.

The cemetery management may not play ball.

nuac

In many cases Councils etc only issue a licence to bury in a particular plot.

May not be transferable

yammagamma

if your soul heir to there estate would that not include there grave plot ?? and so gives you the right to do it,its normal practise in some highly populated cities that your get exhumed after a few years and grave gets reused but there more vault like graves instead of 6 feet down,

OU812

JoeyPeeps wrote: »

Exuming the deceased, cremating them, then selling their grave plots

I guess the boom is about to get boomier

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

infogiver

JoeyPeeps wrote: »

Is this unheard of?

Someone paid money for a cemetery plot so dead family could rest in peace in dignity and descendants would be able to have a place to pay their respects and think about dead loved ones.
A few years pass and some money hungry parasite wants to dig up the remains, get rid of them and make a good deal on the empty hole.
And the rest of the family won't notice.
Can't see how that would go wrong!

ED E

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Pretty sure its the same in Poland too.

Peregrinus

Exhumation is rare, but grave plots are often reused (though not as often as used to be the case in the past, when people wanted to be buried in churchyards and space was limited).

You do have cases - more in Britain than in Ireland, I think - where cemeteries are filled, closed to new burials and then, after a long time, closed entirely and redeveloped. Usually there's very little by way of identifiable human remains to be found at this point, and the conditions of the development will usually stipulate that any remains recovered from the site must be appropriately disposed of, usually by reburial in a nearby, open cemetery (though typically in a common grave). If there are grave markers, headstones, etc on the site being redeveloped the conditions will also stipulate what is to be done with them.

Typically in Ireland when you "buy" a grave plot you haven't in fact bought a bit of land outright. What you have bought is a licence entitling you to exclusive burial rights for a long period (but not indefinitely) in a particular plot on land which remains owned by the cemetery company. When the licence expires you usually have first right of renewal but if you, or your descendants, don't renew the cemetery company has the right to re-let the plot to someone else. Cemetery companies generally don't don this as long as they have vacant plots available.