Spanish Cemetery Warns Of Evictions For Nonpayment

MADRID — Pushed for space, a Spanish cemetery has begun placing stickers on thousands of burial sites whose leases are up as a warning to relatives or caretakers to pay up or face possible eviction.

Jose Abadia, deputy urban planning manager for northern Zaragoza city, said Monday the city's Torrero municipal graveyard had removed remains from some 420 crypts in recent months and removed them to a common burial ground.

Torrero, like many Spanish cemeteries, no longer allows people to buy grave sites. It instead leases them out for periods of five or 49 years.

Abadia said the cases involved graves whose leases had not been renewed for 15 years or more. He said Torrero currently had some 7,000 burial sites with lapsed leases out of a total of some 114,000.

He said leases generally lapsed because the relatives or caretakers had died or had moved house and failed to renew the contract. He said in other cases, with the passing of years family descendants sometimes no longer wanted to pay for further leases.

He said the policy was a matter graveyard management and that graveyards were not limitless in space.

"If we keep on building and building spaces for human remains, where are we going to end up?" said Abadia. "It's a problem that is affecting big city cemeteries more and more."

The graveyard began looking for payment defaulters over the past two years. Abadia said the process of trying to notify relatives or caretakers and giving them a chance to decide what to do normally takes up to six months.

"We're not doing it to make money or empty graves but rather to improve management," said Abadia.

The sticker campaign was decided upon to coincide with the Nov. 1 Roman Catholic holiday on which people visit graveyards. Abadia said that since then hundreds of people had called to make inquiries about grave of their relatives.

Nowadays, Spanish cemeteries normally place coffins or cremated ash urns in niches above ground.

Comments

[E Linn]

03:33 PM on 11/09/2011

Throwing a damper on this "burial is a waste of space" commentary, sorry. I used to want to be cremated. I didn't believe in taking up valuable earth space for my remains. Then my infant daughter died. In the horrific depths of the grief I experienced those first weeks, when I was *required* to make some tough decisions -- try facing the question, "What would you like done with your daughter's remains?" when she isn't even a year old and when I was at my least capable of deciding anything -- my now ex and I chose not only to bury our daughter, but to embalm her and put her in a waterproof casket *and* vault. I can't give you a logical answer why, except that we were her parents and we did everything we still could to "protect" the person we cherished most in this world. We dressed her in her warmest clothing and said goodbye to her. We bought a double plot, because I'm now going to be buried above her. I didn't get to keep her in life, so I want to be above her for the eternity of death. I'd be HORRIFIED if they dug my child up after 5 or 49 years. I've paid in full for the plot, it is not rented. This decision was made for me, the living, grieving mother. Putting it out there as to why some of us want perpetual endowment and not a "rental" grave.

[qtpeye46]

04:23 PM on 11/09/2011

Sorry for your loss. I think it is horrible to move bodies like that. But its all about the money for some..

[Jay Goldammer]

10:45 AM on 11/09/2011

Cremate me and dump me over some white water rapids.....

[berrygal66]

10:34 PM on 11/08/2011

What is the point of getting buried and having the grave leased if your bones are eventually going to be stacked in a common grave? Not only is the enire practice utterly ridiculous, but people who follow this are flat out stupid. Why lease for 5 years and waste all of your money. Just get dumped in the mass grave and save a bundle.

[E Linn]

03:19 PM on 11/09/2011

Well, since the dead person might not be the one making this decision, one would assume that the survivors want a special place to visit to honor their loved one.

[mebemommee06]

03:10 PM on 11/08/2011

This is nothing new to me.. My mother is from Germany, they have been doing this forever. Its a matter of space. And personally I would rather be cremated and have my ashes spread all over..

[trekie70]

01:47 PM on 11/08/2011

Just one more reason for me to definitely be cremated, as I'm sure this debacle will eventually make its way to the US.

[Wendy Stewart]

11:24 AM on 11/08/2011

So much for rest in peace.

[CruiseHittile000]

01:23 PM on 11/09/2011

R.I.P now stands for rest in pieces.

[walker1946]

10:19 AM on 11/08/2011

Maybe they won't try it in the United States. It's already against the law to dig Indian Remains. If they are allowed to remove any grave don't just dig remains of people that can't afford to pay.

[Joann Reid Scanlon]

09:43 AM on 11/08/2011

direct cremation only costs from 400 to 600 dollars.........

[yellowrose3218]

09:22 AM on 11/08/2011

I have always said, throw me in the back of my pick up truck, then take me out to the woods.

[rodneyvgt]

12:42 PM on 11/08/2011

I told my wife to throw me in the dumpster let the Gov do it

[mebemommee06]

03:14 PM on 11/08/2011

and hubby said put him in the backyard,, but its getting crowded back there, what with burying all the goldfish, birds, cats, dogs, and so on and so on...

[bohol2528]

09:20 AM on 11/08/2011

This is in no way surprising. In the Philippines where my wife is from they routinely dig you up after 5 years and stack your bones in the center of the graveyard. I remember seeing skulls as well as other bones all over as well as one guy that had had his bones put in a Bambi Edible Oil can. In my way of thinking to do things like that is nothing but disrespect, & to disrespect the dead ain't right, they get cranky when that happens.

[Royce09]

09:11 AM on 11/08/2011

Now RIP is not even a sure thing.

[Ray Russelburg]

07:55 AM on 11/08/2011

And people call americans greedy. At least we don't keep trying to make money off someone AFTER they die!

[rodneyvgt]

12:43 PM on 11/08/2011

death tax,you will get taxed to die

[Ray Russelburg]

01:35 PM on 11/08/2011

Yup. so far here is the taxes:

1. Taxed when you MAKE money.
2. Taxed when you SPEND money.
3. TAXED again at the end of the year.
4. TAXED when someone dies and you inherit their possessions.

and coming soon:

5. Taxes to die. If you don't pay they put your body in prison. LOL

[mebemommee06]

03:16 PM on 11/08/2011

this is a small country, got to get their money some how.. and like I posted later after yours, its a matter of space too..

[wakohnen]

05:46 AM on 11/08/2011

Hey Pa ...wake up....the landlord is here

What does he want?

The rent

Again?? I'm too tired to go to work.....tell him my bones hurt...

[aicequeen36]

11:02 PM on 11/07/2011

O.K. well I just decided to be cremated..Now my daughter will not be burdened if the U.S. decides to do this..good to know

[garylinn]

10:17 PM on 11/07/2011

We already have our plot, our gravestone and our names on it. All that is left is to add the date of death. It's sort of creepy to visit it and see my name, but, I have gotten use to it. We own our plots, by the way...not leased for fifty years...that's crazy