2023 New York Laws › NPC - Not-For-Profit Corporation › Article 15 - Public Cemetery Corporations › 1513 - Sale of Burial Rights.

§ 1513. Sale of burial rights.
(a)  Conveyance  of  lots.  (1)  Except  as otherwise provided in this
paragraph the right to use any lot, plot or part thereof may be sold  or
conveyed  only by the cemetery corporation. (2) It shall be unlawful for
any  person,  firm  or  corporation  to  purchase  or  for  a   cemetery
corporation  to  sell  a  lot,  plot  or part thereof for the purpose of
resale. This provision, however, shall not  prohibit  the  sale  to  its
members  of  lots,  plots or parts thereof, or the right to use any lot,
plot or part thereof,  by  a  membership  or  religious  corporation  or
unincorporated association or society which provides burial benefits for
its  members. (3) It shall be unlawful for a cemetery corporation to pay
or offer to pay, or for any person,  firm  or  corporation  to  receive,
directly  or  indirectly, a commission, bonus, rebate or other things of
value for, or in connection with, the sale of  any  lot,  plot  or  part
thereof,  or  the sale of space in a public mausoleum, or the furnishing
by or through the cemetery  corporation  of  any  service,  merchandise,
wares,  goods  or  articles.  The provisions of this paragraph shall not
apply to a person regularly employed  and  supervised  by  the  cemetery
corporation.  (4)  Notwithstanding  any  inconsistent  provision of this
paragraph, and subject to the  provisions  of  section  fifteen  hundred
sixteen  of  this  article,  a  cemetery  corporation  may  enter into a
contract with a third-party vendor to create and maintain a website  for
the  purposes  of the sale of any lot, plot or part thereof, or the sale
of space in a public mausoleum, or the  furnishing  by  or  through  the
cemetery  corporation  of  any  service,  merchandise,  wares,  goods or
articles. The third-party vendor may charge a fee for a transaction made
through this website, provided that a fee for all such  transactions  is
specified  in  the  contract  and  is not dependent on or related to the
value of the  lot,  goods  or  services  to  be  sold  by  the  cemetery
corporation.  (5)  A  violation  of  this  paragraph  shall constitute a
misdemeanor and shall be punishable by a fine  of  not  more  than  five
hundred  dollars  or not more than six months imprisonment or both. Each
violation shall constitute a separate offense.
(b) Prices for burial rights and instruments of  conveyance.  (1)  The
directors must fix and determine the prices of the burial lots, plots or
parts  thereof, and keep a plainly printed copy of the schedules of such
prices conspicuously posted in each of the offices of  the  corporation,
open at all reasonable times to inspection, and shall file a schedule of
such  prices  in  the  office  of  the  cemetery  board.  (2) Unless its
certificate of incorporation or by-laws otherwise provide,  and  subject
to  its  rules and regulations, the corporation shall sell and convey to
any person the use of the lots, plots or parts thereof designated on the
map filed in the office of the corporation, on payment of the prices  so
fixed  and  determined,  but need not sell and convey more than one lot,
plot or part thereof to any one person. Conveyances of lots,  plots  and
parts  thereof  shall  be  signed by the president or vice-president and
treasurer or assistant treasurer of the corporation. A written  contract
for  the  sale or use of a lot, plot or part thereof shall have attached
thereto and made a part thereof a copy of the rules and  regulations  of
the  cemetery corporation or such parts of such rules and regulations as
relate to the size and placement  of  monuments,  restrictions  on  plot
usage, warranties, obligations of the cemetery corporation and financial
obligations  and duties of the lot owner. If a lot, plot or part thereof
is sold without a written contract, the corporation  shall,  before  any
part  of  the  purchase  price  is paid by the purchaser, deliver to the
purchaser a copy of the rules and regulations or such parts  thereof  as
would  be required to be attached to a written contract. Nothing in this
subdivision shall prevent the subsequent amendment  of  such  rules  and

regulations  to  increase  the  charges  for  services  rendered  by the
corporation or in other particulars  by  or  with  the  consent  of  the
cemetery board under section fifteen hundred nine of this article. (3) A
cemetery  corporation  that  shall  sell a lot, plot or part thereof, in
excess of the price shown on the schedule filed in  the  office  of  the
cemetery  board,  and any person acting for or on behalf of the cemetery
corporation in connection with such sale,  shall  each  forfeit  to  the
people  of  the  state  of  New York a sum equivalent to three times the
excess amount so paid. Such penalty may be recovered in a  civil  action
by  the  cemetery  board. (4) The instrument of conveyance of any burial
lot, plot or part thereof shall include the actual amount paid  therefor
and  a  description showing the dimensions of the property conveyed, and
the plot number, section and block number as they appear on the cemetery
map.
(c) Resale by lot owner. Before any burial shall have been made in any
such lot, plot or part thereof, or, if all the bodies therein have  been
lawfully  removed,  the  lot  owner may sell or convey such lot, plot or
part thereof upon notice to the cemetery. Such sale shall only occur  in
those  instances where the owner of such lot, plot or part thereof shall
have offered it to the cemetery corporation within one year prior to the
sale, in writing by registered or certified  mail,  at  the  price  paid
therefor by said lot owner, together with simple interest at the rate of
four  per  centum  per  annum,  and  the cemetery corporation shall have
failed to accept such offer within thirty days after the making thereof.
Subsequent to the receipt of notice of sale of such lot,  plot  or  part
thereof, the secretary of the cemetery corporation shall file and record
in  its books all instruments of transfer. An owner may convey or devise
to the corporation his right and title in and to any such lot,  plot  or
part thereof.
(d) Lots held in inalienable form. (1) No portion of the cemetery of a
cemetery  corporation  which  any  person  other than the corporation is
entitled to use for burial purposes, or in which bodies have been buried
and not removed, shall be sold, mortgaged or leased by the  corporation.
A  cemetery corporation may convey any lot so that upon such conveyance,
or after an interment therein, such lot shall  be  forever  inalienable,
and upon the death of the lot owner shall pass to such person or persons
as  may  be  designated  in  the conveyance or if no such designation be
made, shall descend as provided in section  fifteen  hundred  twelve  of
this article. Any one or more of the owners of such a lot may release or
devise  to  any  other  owner  of  the  lot his interest therein on such
conditions as shall be specified in the release or will. (2) Any  person
who  is  the  sole owner of the burial rights in a cemetery lot, plot or
any part thereof, in which a burial has been made, may give  his  entire
interest,  or,  if  not  prohibited  by the rules and regulations of the
cemetery corporation, any portion thereof to any person within the third
degree of consanguinity to the owner, or, in  the  event  that  no  such
person  exists, within the fourth degree of consanguinity to such owner.
Such conveyance shall be made subject to the right of interment  of  the
spouse of any deceased owner, which right said spouse may release at any
time,  but no conveyance or devise by any other person shall deprive the
surviving spouse of such right. Burial  rights  shall  not  be  conveyed
pursuant  to  the  provisions  of this subparagraph more frequently than
once in any ten-year period. (3) A cemetery  corporation  may  take  and
hold  any  lot  conveyed  or  devised  to  it  by  the lot owner so that
thereafter it will be inalienable, and the interments therein  shall  be
restricted  to  such  person or class of persons as may be designated in
the conveyance or devise. (4) The title of a  lot  owner  shall  not  be
affected  by  the  dissolution  of  the  corporation, by non-user of its

corporate rights and franchises by any act of forfeiture on its part, by
any alienation of  its  property  or  by  incumbrance  thereon  made  or
suffered by it.