{"id":6746,"date":"2014-10-14T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hammerle.wpengine.com\/?p=6746"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T22:39:22","slug":"perpetual-care-cemetery-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/legal-talk\/perpetual-care-cemetery-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Perpetual Care Cemetery Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most big cemeteries are classified as a \u201cPerpetual Care Cemetery. \u201d That means it has a perpetual care trust fund behind it. A Perpetual Care Cemetery actually operates under rules established by statute and by the Texas Department of Banking. Cemeteries sell plots, they don\u2019t lease them. A Cemetery has to keep a record of each interment which includes the date the remains are received, the<br \/>\ndate the remains are interred, the name and age of the person interred (if those facts can be conveniently obtained), and the identity of the plot in which the remains are interred.<\/p>\n<p>There are all sorts of rules governing cemeteries. Most can be found in the Texas Health and Safety Code, and in the Texas Administrative Code, both available online. Complaints about a Perpetual Care Cemetery can be sent to the Texas Department of Banking, 2601 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78705; 1-877\/276-5554 (toll free); www.dob.texas.gov.\u00a0Among the least known rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person who purchases a plot from a nonprofit cemetery corporation is a shareholder\u00a0of the corporation and can vote on corporate matters.<\/li>\n<li>A cemetery organization cannot discriminate by race, color or national origin of a\u00a0decedent.<\/li>\n<li>A murderer cannot be buried in the same cemetery as his or her victim.<\/li>\n<li>A cemetery organization may not make more than one interment in a plot unless each owner of the plot consents to the interment.<\/li>\n<li>Any person has a right to visit the cemetery or private burial grounds. The person has to\u00a0provide at least a 14 day written notice to the owner of the lands surrounding the\u00a0cemetery or private burial ground.<\/li>\n<li>Once a plot owner has the exclusive right of sepulture, that right is not affected by the\u00a0dissolution of the cemetery organization, nonuse by the cemetery organization,\u00a0alienation, encumbrance or forced sale of the property.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Hammerle Morris \u2013 give us a call \u2013 we can help.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Virginia Hammerle is a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and an Accredited Estate Planner by the National Association of Estate Planners &amp; Councils. She can be contacted at legaltalktexas@hammerle.com. The information contained in this article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most big cemeteries are classified as a \u201cPerpetual Care Cemetery. \u201d That means it has a perpetual care trust fund behind it. A Perpetual Care Cemetery actually operates under rules established by statute and by the Texas Department of Banking. Cemeteries sell plots, they don\u2019t lease them. A Cemetery has to keep a record of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-legal-talk"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Perpetual Care Cemetery Explained - Hammerle Morris Law Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/legal-talk\/perpetual-care-cemetery-explained\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perpetual Care Cemetery Explained - Hammerle Morris Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most big cemeteries are classified as a \u201cPerpetual Care Cemetery. \u201d That means it has a perpetual care trust fund behind it. A Perpetual Care Cemetery actually operates under rules established by statute and by the Texas Department of Banking. Cemeteries sell plots, they don\u2019t lease them. 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