General Chat

My dad purchased a grave before he died and was followed therin by my mother some years later. He did not leave a will and now I,m having the Dickens of a job to having ownership transferred to someone living. This is costly and terribly red-tapish. The office is full of people having the same trouble as the Local Authority insist that ownership has to be someone they can contact. Thay have locally been turning a lot of gravestones over in case they are dangerous - which is a rubbish argument, and very distressful and annoying to relatives. I assume there is some connection between the two paragraphs - they need to know who to contact to pay for putting them upright again - but maybe it,s something to do with Europe - or am I just old and cynical.? Happy days.

I am a funeral arranger and have never had any problems with transferring grave ownership. If your dad died first it becomes your mums property, then it will be yours just by signing a form to say you are next of kin. What was the problem?

How expensive is that to repen a grave. In coventry it is under £400.00. A new grave is £900 plus.

Thanks to you all for your interest. Margaret, that IS the problem. Dad didn,t leave a will. Mother was buried in the grave later and left all property in her will to her children. As I said, this is terribly red-tapish. Th e local authority would not accept this and said I had to PROVE that it belonged to my mother. I paid for a solicitor who wrote to them explaining, but they wouldn,t accept that either. I contacted the Probate office in york and they confirmed that there was no will or probate and the Local Authority then agreed to the transfer - £40 plus a possible fee from a solicitor or magistrate to confirm my signature. Outrageous in my opinion. Happy days

Harry You may be interested in a past posting of mine with the title Warning about burial plots. In my friend's family it was assumed that with no Will, the rights passed to the spouse yet in your case that is the very thing the authorities won't accept..... Strange.

HI I don't know where you live but one of my Aunts who live in mid devon who is in in her seventies had a huge panic trying to find the ownwership details of her parents grave who both died in the sixties because the council was wanting proof of ownership whilst tidying up the cemetary, so this is happening in a lot of places Linda P

Gwynneth, They sent me a leaflet outlining policy. two things on it. "when a grave is purchased ... this gives right of burial in a grave space and NOT purchase of the land itself. Secondly, under the heading "when there is no will". "if the owner dies without a will, we will require 1. Grant of the exclusive right of burial; the grant of letters of administr - tion; assent from the administrators giving the grant of exclusive right of burial to you." The last two, I didn,t have. and they wern,t there for me to obtain. Best wishes.

Linda, I live much nearer to you. I understand the panic and to me it is all un-necessary. I have spoken to a number of other people trying to change ownership. One chap told me it arose because they had no-one to inform when they started to turn headstones over as potentially unsafe (our cemetery is a fairly new one). The man claimed that they had actually to use machinery to pull some of the bigger ones down at an older nearby cemetery. In all my long life I have never heard of a gravestone falling on anyone although I do remember a teenager hurting himself when rampaging through a grave-yard. In this day and age, he could probably have a claim against the local authority.

Hi Harry, Here is one case and I know there has been at least one other - "A CHILD was crushed to death by a falling gravestone in a North Yorkshire cemetery. The tragedy happened while the six-year-old local boy, who has not yet been named, was playing with friends. at the time. He was pronounced dead at the scene in Grove Road cemetery off Skipton Road in Harrogate. The accident happened just before 7pm yesterday. Sergeant Paul Wren said: "Officers attended the scene but unfortunately a six-year-old local boy was pronounced dead at the scene." An ambulance took the body to Harrogate District Hospital, and police notified the parents. The death comes after Harrogate Borough Council carried out a safety survey on the cemetery in the last year as part of a memorial safety audit on all ten council-run cemetery sites in Harrogate. Kevin Douglas, director of leisure and amenities services at the council, attended the scene last night. He said: "We will be launching an investigation into the incident on Monday after we have been informed of all the information from the police. "I can confirm that a safety audit has been carried out on Grove Road cemetery and work has been undertaken to lay memorials down. It is quite an old cemetery." Sergeant Wren added: "It is believed the boy was playing with friends at the time." First published on Saturday 08 July 2000 by York News " I read somewhere that someone had claimed compensation for damages when a grave stone fell and injured him/her so insurers are insisting that tests be carried out. Gwynne

Gwynne, I appreciate what you are saying and it is a terrible tragedy. If I were to play devil,s advocate do we ban knives and forks; motor cars from the road? There is nothingaround which doesn,t constitute a danger if mis-used. The turning over of such a large number of grave-stones has caused much offence locally, most of it thought to be over-kill. Please don,t judge me to harshly on this one, although I couldn,t justify my comments to a bereaved parent. Thanks for your interest. the turningover of such a large number of gravestones has caused much offence, most of it thought to be over-kill.

Where I live the council have a record of all grave owners so you wouldnt have to prove who owned the grave. If mum died first and then dad whoever signed the paperwork then is the new owner and nobody else can have the grave reopened.

Hi Harry, I wasn't saying it was right just explaining why they were doing it. There are cases of children being injured and people have claimed compensaation so the insurers insist that it's done. My feeling is that no one seems to accept that there are accidents any more and always look for someone to blame and claim from. I broke my leg very badly nearly 2 years ago. I slipped on some loose gravel on a pavement. If hadn't been in such a hurry I would probably have noticed it. It was an accident. But I lost track of the number of people who said I should sue the council. Accidents happen but people seem more and more reluctant to accept that. Gweynne

Girls, Many thanks for your interest. Would that our council used common sense. As i I said earlier people were queuing up to transfer and pay their £25 plus. The irony of all this, is that none of my family want to be buried anyway. best wishes.