Transfer of grave ownership

Exclusive rights of burial will need to be transferred upon the death of a registered owner, or you may wish to transfer the ownership to another person.

It is important in the interests of the family to resolve ownership issues as soon as possible rather than wait until you need to arrange a funeral/further funeral, as the process may take some time.

Ownership is the families’ responsibility and we cannot accept a funeral booking or authorise a memorial application until ownership has been sorted out.

Transfer of ownership from deceased registered owner

If the owner of the exclusive rights of burial dies, they have the automatic right to be buried or have their ashes interred in the grave.

After this the rights become part of the deceased’s estate and may be left in a will, or assigned by their executors to someone else.

If the rights are not specifically mentioned in the will, they will form part of the 'residue' of the will, usually worded as 'and all my other worldly goods' at the end of the will.

Whoever inherits the rights will need to contact the Bereavement Officer to arrange a transfer of ownership before the grave can be re-opened again.

It is not possible to place a new memorial or alter an existing memorial without the instruction and permission of a new owner (even if the memorial relates to the previous registered owner), as someone must be responsible for the memorial.

We do ask for a copy of the will and/or grant of probate where granted as legal proof of transfer.

Transfer of ownership from a registered owner who is still living to another person

If the owner of the exclusive rights of burial wishes to transfer ownership from themselves into another persons name, they will need to contact the Bereavement Officer direct.

Transfer process

Once all necessary documents have been received, our records will be amended and the remaining years of the original deed of grant will be transferred to the new registered owner. A new revised deed of grant will then be issued.

Exclusive rights of burial were sold for different lengths of period in the past and which we are obliged to honour. These different lengths of period are as follows:

Legally there can be many owners of the exclusive rights of burial. However this makes things very complicated, as we would not be able to permit the opening of the grave, interment of ashes or the installation of/alteration to an existing memorial without all the owners' permissions.

We would also need to transfer ownership to the correct person/s following any original owners passing away thus passing ownership on through their will.

Therefore we would ideally prefer to deal with one person or at the most two persons.

Please note, our transfer procedure is due to undergo revision.