FAMILY HEADSTONE

Black Bart

Hi guys, can anybody tell me who has the legal right to change the wording on a family headstone? Thanks in advance.

Jim_Hodge

Who paid for the headstone?

coylemj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119657717#Comment_119657717

I'd say that once the headstone is installed, the only person who can authorise a change to the inscription will be the person who (according to the cemetery operator) owns the grave.

NUTLEY BOY

As above, but the official owner often becomes the person last interred. So, who has the rights subsequently given that the cemetery cannot now deal with the original purchaser / title holder ?

I suspect that the party legally entitled to alter the inscription will be the heirs of the now deceased previous purchaser. I have never heard of title to a grave being the subject of a specific bequest in a will. So, I guess that the grave and headstone come in to the residue of the estate and thus whoever becomes possessed of that.

When masons are instructed to alter a headstone inscription I think that the proposed change usually has to be authorised by the operators of the cemetery on receipt of an application from the masons. The masons should check on the authority of whoever wants to instruct them first.

UrbanFox

Side bar point.

Is it possible to get insurance on a grave headstone against risks like damage to it or potential public liability if it fell over and injured someone ?

It is not part of the insured property as described in a household insurance policy. Can a household policy be amended to incorporate the family grave / headstone or is this a specialist risk or just uninsurable ?

UrbanFox

On a wider point, is a grave ever truly "bought" from a cemetery operator or is it on a glorified lease ?

Going through Deansgrange Cemetery recently I noticed some very new vintage graves [not to be confused with the premium seats in the lawn section] in amongst the older ones. How is that possible if the original purchasers were true owners in perpetuity.

Also, it is curious to see some graves carrying an inscription at the foot of the surround indicating that the grave qualifies for perpetual maintenance. This would seem at odds with the temporary nature of the rental/leased concept.

coylemj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119659690#Comment_119659690

I seriously doubt that anyone injured by a falling headstone will seek to sue the family of the people interred there. Ambulance chasing lawyers tend to go for the easy target, which in this case would be the local authority or whatever body (pun intended) operates the cemetery.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119659704#Comment_119659704

It depends on the cemetery /graveyard. Some offer leases of about 100 years. It is possible that others are licences.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119659667#Comment_119659667

As above, but the official owner often becomes the person last interred

What are you basing that on? Ownership of a plot can be willed like any other interest. Burying somebody in an existing grave doesn't remove the owners interest.

Trigger Happy

I have recently done this - had a family gravestone sanded down and re-engraved with alternate wording.

It seems to differ depending on the cemetery.

Large -well organised- cemeteries will want to be sure that any work done on a grave is authorised by the owner/lease holder etc but in smaller graveyards there may well be no formal system of ownership.

This was the case with the grave I wanted working on. So it was simply a case of engaging with a stonemason to do the work. Now - that does not take away the moral obligation to ensure that family members are bought in to the changes and support it. In my case they were and helped pay the cost of the grave renovation.

MacDanger

Unrelated but it was funny at the time - my parents in law were looking into their ancestry in the south east and came across the grave of a family member where the headstone (stone rather than marble) had fallen over and the plot was in generally bad repair. They paid someone locally a fairly decent sum to re-erect the headstone, polish it up, etc.

A few weeks later they returned to inspect the by-now, sparkling headstone only to discover that it was the wrong headstone that had been repaired. It turns out that they had misread whatever cemetry map they had been looking at to identify the correct grave and had landed one or two graves over from where they had intended. In fairness, yer man charged them a reduced rate to repair the correct headstone