cemetery

[charlie2dogs]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? virginia

In virginia, if a cemetery is set aside, approved by the planning commission, and the court, ((does the property that it is on require a deeded access)), for those that may want to visit that cemetery. any codes are statues on this would be helpful. Also i might as that a deeded access exist to the edge of the property that the cemetery is on but the cemetery is on the far end of the 12 acres that the cemetery is on, there is a way to the cemetery on that property but it isnt being maintained for travel, there needs to be some maintenance for travel, and the person who owns it doesnt live in this state. and help would be appreciated.

charlie

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? virginia

In virginia, if a cemetery is set aside, approved by the planning commission, and the court, ((does the property that it is on require a deeded access)), for those that may want to visit that cemetery. any codes are statues on this would be helpful. Also i might as that a deeded access exist to the edge of the property that the cemetery is on but the cemetery is on the far end of the 12 acres that the cemetery is on, there is a way to the cemetery on that property but it isnt being maintained for travel, there needs to be some maintenance for travel, and the person who owns it doesnt live in this state. and help would be appreciated.

charlie

Your question is convoluted and impossible to understand...
I would suggest that "the person who owns it" speak with the local municipality about this matter.

 

[FarmerJ]

Charlie was there a so called approved sale of land where a cemetery was sited sold to someone and your needing access to visit gravesite (s)

 

[charlie2dogs]

the 12 ac tract of land that contains the cemetery was part of an estate, the tract now belongs to an heir that lives out of state, the cemetery was set aside and approved by the planning commission and the court. there is possibly 2-300 people in three states that could be associated with this cemetery because of the name, as this information will be on the net where people search for their ancestors and their burial sites. There is a road to it through the woods after crossing an open space of field that is growing up and needs to be maintained, basically bush hogged, in order for anyone to get to the cemetery. There is no deeded access to the cemetery, my question would be should there be a deeded access for a cemetery, and if not what rights do anyone who might have reason to go to that cemetery have in regards to access. I appreciate your response.

 

[FarmerJ]

Charlie when you said > there is possibly 2-300 people in three states that could be associated with this cemetery < did you mean surviving relatives of family members who are buried there ? ( so when was the most recent burial there ? ) When you said > the cemetery was set aside and approved by the planning commission and the court.< It still seems puzzling in a way , So question was this cemetery at one time open to the public or used by a small community at one time , Is it now your property ? If its your property I would suggest speaking to a real estate oriented atty so you can find out what kind of ins coverage you should have to cover any person who enters the property to visit a grave , as to maintaining the cemetery grounds What did the state tell you if the cemetery is real old and no longer has funding to maintain it ? Keeping a path cleared to it , well I would suspect that at least keeping a path mowed would help reduce the risk of a grave site visitor from being injured.

 

[HRZ]

VA has law on point...might help ...

A. Owners of private property on which a cemetery or graves are located shall have a duty to allow ingress and egress to the cemetery or graves by (i) family members and descendants of deceased persons buried there; (ii) any cemetery plot owner; (iii) any person engaging in genealogy research, who has given reasonable notice to the owner of record or to the occupant of the property or both. The landowner may designate the frequency of access, hours and duration of the access and the access route if no traditional access route is obviously visible by view of the property. The landowner, in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, shall be immune from liability in any civil suit, claim, action, or cause of action arising out of the access granted pursuant to this section.
B. The right of ingress and egress granted to persons specified in subsection A shall be reasonable and limited to the purposes of visiting graves, maintaining the gravesite or cemetery, or conducting genealogy research. The right of ingress and egress shall not be construed to provide a right to operate motor vehicles on the property for accessing a cemetery or gravesite unless there is a road or adequate right-of-way that permits access by motor vehicle and the owner has given written permission to use the road or right-of-way of necessity. . . .
Va. Code Ann.§ 57.27.1 (1993).

 

[charlie2dogs]

Charlie when you said > there is possibly 2-300 people in three states that could be associated with this cemetery < did you mean surviving relatives of family members who are buried there ? ( so when was the most recent burial there ? ) When you said > the cemetery was set aside and approved by the planning commission and the court.< It still seems puzzling in a way , So question was this cemetery at one time open to the public or used by a small community at one time , Is it now your property ? If its your property I would suggest speaking to a real estate oriented atty so you can find out what kind of ins coverage you should have to cover any person who enters the property to visit a grave , as to maintaining the cemetery grounds What did the state tell you if the cemetery is real old and no longer has funding to maintain it ? Keeping a path cleared to it , well I would suspect that at least keeping a path mowed would help reduce the risk of a grave site visitor from being injured.

We have researched the name of this cemetery far as other people with the same name as that of the cemetery. There are only a few graves here in this cemetery, and far as i know no one knows who they are. The graves have been there for several hundred years. It was never set aside as a cemetery until recently, two of us tried to stop it but we couldn't afford lawyers to fight it, even the historical society was against it for the reasons i have written about. There is a lot of activity on the internet about genealogies and burial sites of ancestors. There were people that lived in this area with the same name as the cemetery that was named when it was set aside. However two of the family has researched and found that none of them lived on this place or was buried here but most of those with the name of the cemetery wont have access to the data that we had in this, and out of all those some will most likely come here looking for the grave sites, it has happened here several times before. The person that owns the land the cemetery is one lives out of state and has no interest in this at all far as i know now. Thus i am trying to understand this before all this gets to be a problem far as what right anyone has that thinks they may have a relative buried there, I do live here and own some property here, my parents were the only owners to ever live here, and far as we know no one that has owned the property is buried here, but that wont help those on line with the same name that will come here looking for a grave site with their name on it. Maybe it shouldn't matter but i have had to deal with this before with people wandering around on property they don't belong on looking for grave site. the attorneys that settled the estate, did a title search to see if there was ever a cemetery on this place and found none but they still allowed two not just one cemetery to be set aside. I hope this makes some sense to you , i appreciate the time you have given to try and help.

 

[charlie2dogs]

cenetert

VA has law on point...might help ...

A. Owners of private property on which a cemetery or graves are located shall have a duty to allow ingress and egress to the cemetery or graves by (i) family members and descendants of deceased persons buried there; (ii) any cemetery plot owner; (iii) any person engaging in genealogy research, who has given reasonable notice to the owner of record or to the occupant of the property or both. The landowner may designate the frequency of access, hours and duration of the access and the access route if no traditional access route is obviously visible by view of the property. The landowner, in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, shall be immune from liability in any civil suit, claim, action, or cause of action arising out of the access granted pursuant to this section.
B. The right of ingress and egress granted to persons specified in subsection A shall be reasonable and limited to the purposes of visiting graves, maintaining the gravesite or cemetery, or conducting genealogy research. The right of ingress and egress shall not be construed to provide a right to operate motor vehicles on the property for accessing a cemetery or gravesite unless there is a road or adequate right-of-way that permits access by motor vehicle and the owner has given written permission to use the road or right-of-way of necessity. . . .
Va. Code Ann.§ 57.27.1 (1993).

thank you for your reply and code i will research it.