Selling a graveyard and chapel

Helen_1980

Hello all,

Last November my mother died unexpectedly and in difficult circumstances. We were distraught.

We approached the Chapel where her parents were buried and requested that we bury her with them. The funeral director got permission from the Reverend. We also had the service at the chapel, having met with the Reverend in advance of the service.

Roll on the start of the summer and the chapel and graveyard have been put up for sale. The tenders for the sale have now been received and are being evaluated.

We were told by an interested third party who operated a separate church from the Chapel building that they had been discussing the sale of the church for about a year and the church had been asked to buy it. The Reverend therefore knew at the time of the request for burial that the Chapel and graveyard would be sold. We would not have buried our mother there had we have known. We paid for her service, opening up the grave and her burial.

We are devastated. The agent for the sale has advised that there is no automatic right to access the graveyard in the event of a sale and there need not be a covenant put on the deeds.

The Reverend is not answering any of our questions about who is responsible for the sale. Some of the trustees listed on the title deeds have since passed and another (a charity) is denying they are a trustee say they will not benefit financially from the sale. The Chapel is independent and it doesn't seem to operate within any normal rules or laws that would apply for churches.

We just don't know what to do. A solicitor we approached doesn't seem interested in pursuing and we are left unknowing whether we can visit my mother (which my sister does fortnightly) once the sale has gone through.

My sister wants to relocate my mother and grandparents but that will be a very costly process as well as distressing. The whole thing is very upsetting and further exacerbates our grief over her death. Our cousins have agreed to the relocation of our grandparents but it begs the questions of whether the Chapel needed their permission to open the grave in November.

Is there anything that we can do? Has anyone experienced anything like this before PLEASE?

Thank you

xylophone

https://www.tmcp.org.uk/property/sales/resources/guidenotes/gn-burial-ground-guidance

may be worth a look.

Undervalued

Helen_1980 wrote: »

Hello all,

Last November my mother died unexpectedly and in difficult circumstances. We were distraught.

We approached the Chapel where her parents were buried and requested that we bury her with them. The funeral director got permission from the Reverend. We also had the service at the chapel, having met with the Reverend in advance of the service.

Roll on the start of the summer and the chapel and graveyard have been put up for sale. The tenders for the sale have now been received and are being evaluated.

We were told by an interested third party who operated a separate church from the Chapel building that they had been discussing the sale of the church for about a year and the church had been asked to buy it. The Reverend therefore knew at the time of the request for burial that the Chapel and graveyard would be sold. We would not have buried our mother there had we have known. We paid for her service, opening up the grave and her burial.

We are devastated. The agent for the sale has advised that there is no automatic right to access the graveyard in the event of a sale and there need not be a covenant put on the deeds.

The Reverend is not answering any of our questions about who is responsible for the sale. Some of the trustees listed on the title deeds have since passed and another (a charity) is denying they are a trustee say they will not benefit financially from the sale. The Chapel is independent and it doesn't seem to operate within any normal rules or laws that would apply for churches.

We just don't know what to do. A solicitor we approached doesn't seem interested in pursuing and we are left unknowing whether we can visit my mother (which my sister does fortnightly) once the sale has gone through.

My sister wants to relocate my mother and grandparents but that will be a very costly process as well as distressing. The whole thing is very upsetting and further exacerbates our grief over her death. Our cousins have agreed to the relocation of our grandparents but it begs the questions of whether the Chapel needed their permission to open the grave in November.

Is there anything that we can do? Has anyone experienced anything like this before PLEASE?

Thank you

The names of the trustees of a charity can be found on the Charity Commission's website where you can also download the charity's annual reports and accounts for past years. Far more information is available publicly than would be from Companies House if it was a limited company.

That may give you some clues.....

Flugelhorn

Where I used to live there was an independent chapel which was sold, the chapel burial ground was kept by the church ( I think ) and certainly an access was created to it when the conversion of the chapel was done to enable people to visit. I went to a couple of funerals in the parish church of chapel worshippers who were ultimately interred in the chapel burial ground.

i think the link above may be helpful as there are likely to be covenants over the land

DigForVictory

Section D suggests they should be in touch with you - just make very sure the church has your contact name & address.