[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Green Death and Water Quality

[Lawrence Lile]

>What are the legalities of burial at home, rather than in a cemetery? 

My Ex buried a friend of hers on the back 40, with permits and all.
Apparently you end up registering the place as a graveyard, and in
Missouri at least, succeeding generations are charged with maintaining
the place, and allowing access for visitors.  ANY visitors.  There is a
legal restrictive covenant that runs with the deed. I'm sure it does not
help the resale price.  She was able to do the burial legally without
embalming, the body was just wrapped in a shroud.  A dozen officials
told her this was illegal, however none of them could cite a specific
statute and a lawyer settled it for them.  Every state is going to have
different rules.  The deceased was a good friend of mine, which is why
this whole thread popped into my head in the first place. I don't feel
it is totally off-topic, we all die and I'd like to accomplish that
transition to my Permanent Green Building in the Greenest way possible.


--Lawrence Lile



-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Jefro
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 12:23 PM
To: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] Green Death and Water Quality
Importance: Low

Sorry to prolong this somewhat off-topic thread, but perhaps this will
wind it back around to green building.

What are the legalities of burial at home, rather than in a cemetery?  
Short of cremation and scattering ashes at home, that is---I'm thinking
of actual burial in a secluded, sacred spot on our property.  We are
going to all this trouble to root ourselves on this wonderful piece of
land and secure it for future generations.  It seems sort of sad to then
go back to the earth in some other spot, even if it is only a few miles
away. 

I suppose one issue might be future sale of the property.  Hard as it is
to imagine now, it is possible our great-grandchildren won't feel the
same way about the property, and our continued presence may make it
harder to sell.  (Is that a required real estate disclosure?)  Then
again, with a green burial I imagine I'd be long gone at that point,
although if a bone turned up during construction long in the future it
could present an awkward legal situation for the current owner.  One
friend of mine was building a house on the north coast of California
this past spring in an area where archaeological studies are required,
and they turned up a tiny fragment of bone that was determined to be a
pinky bone from a native American.  It was probably 300 years old.  It
ended up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 (no typo) to
clear the issue.  I know of someone else in a similar situation, but it
turned out to be a bone from someone's long-dead dog, although it still
cost a ton of cash to clear it up.

I am guessing this varies from state to state.  I don't expect to have
to deal with the question for a long time yet, but it would be
interesting to know if anyone else has researched this.

thanks





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