Acquire the right of use of the cemetery

In Rhineland-Palatinate there are different types of burial grounds, including community cemeteries and church cemeteries. In principle, municipalities have a duty to create cemeteries and build morgues if there is a public need.

In municipal cemeteries, row graves must be made available in any case (note: the right of use cannot be extended). These can be urn row graves or row graves for earth burial.

In addition, the municipality can provide elective graves (right of use can be extended and one has the choice of location), also for both forms of burial or as mixed graves.

The municipalities, in the case of church cemeteries, the carriers of church burial places (= parish) regulate the use of the cemetery by statute or user regulations.

Contact the community in whose area the cemetery is located to the local cemetery office of the respective city or municipality.

Please ask the responsible cemetery office which documents are required.

• Cemetery statutes of the municipalities
• Municipal statutes on cemetery fees

The relatives of a deceased person (= person obliged to bury) contact the competent city or municipality (where the deceased is to be buried) in order to acquire the right to bury the deceased in the cemetery of the municipality. The right to use a grave site is acquired for a certain period of time, whereby the grave remains the property of the cemetery owner. All relevant rules (including what kind of graves there are and how high the fee for the acquisition of the right of use is) are contained in the cemetery statutes and/or funeral fee regulations (or similar).

The fees are based on the cemetery fee statute of the respective municipality.

The service description serves as an initial overview of the legal situation in Rhineland-Palatinate and cannot replace any legal advice required in individual cases. According to the Act on Extrajudicial Legal Services, legal advice or legal advice is reserved, inter alia, to members of the legal profession.