Help buying a grave plot

SevenOfNine

BoGoF said:

I'm not understanding either. Where I am you have to 'own' the plot before you can have a burial. The fact that 2 family members have already been interred there would suggest someone in the family has bought the plot at some point and title deeds should be held somewhere?

Not clear to me either! Where I live (& I've a feeling it's not unique), no-one owns the PLOTS, only the rights to be buried (or ashes) into that plot. There can be a time limit for owning those rights as well.

Where I live it's been drastically reduced over the years, currently it's 'only' 35 years. We can add a further 5 years on a rolling basis to rights we own on a plot we're not 'in' yet, it's a nice little earner for the local authority! Doesn't matter if the rights expire on plots where no-one else expects to 'go in' to join a deceased loved one. Our council don't remove the stones & re-use the plot, not at the moment anyway! 

I agree, if the nan & grandad are 'in' together already, that implies someone purchased the rights, especially as OP has referred to it as a "family plot".

Marcon

SevenOfNine said:

BoGoF said:

I'm not understanding either. Where I am you have to 'own' the plot before you can have a burial. The fact that 2 family members have already been interred there would suggest someone in the family has bought the plot at some point and title deeds should be held somewhere?

Not clear to me either! Where I live (& I've a feeling it's not unique), no-one owns the PLOTS, only the rights to be buried (or ashes) into that plot. There can be a time limit for owning those rights as well.

Where I live it's been drastically reduced over the years, currently it's 'only' 35 years. We can add a further 5 years on a rolling basis to rights we own on a plot we're not 'in' yet, it's a nice little earner for the local authority! Doesn't matter if the rights expire on plots where no-one else expects to 'go in' to join a deceased loved one. Our council don't remove the stones & re-use the plot, not at the moment anyway! 

I agree, if the nan & grandad are 'in' together already, that implies someone purchased the rights, especially as OP has referred to it as a "family plot".

As you say, you own 'rights' rather than 'plots'. 

OP - who owns the rights to this particular plot? The fact other family members have been buried there suggests your family members already do. I wonder if the charge you've been quoted is actually the cost of buying rights to burial in a completely new plot? Go back and ask again, stressing that this is a plot where other family members have already been buried and you are simply asking for the cost of adding a headstone in respect of your mother.

Without wishing to be indelicate, has your mother already been buried there, or do you just want to add the headstone? If it's just the headstone, then it does sound as if you've been quoted the 'wrong' amount.