When Plant City resident Timothy Nelson and his family prepared Oct. 27 burial plans for a relative, they had no idea they were going to be required to show documentation to whom legally was allowed to be buried in the family’s plot.
The family did not possess official records. The city also did not have the required records because they had been lost in a 1950 fire.
The trend has been growing steadily over the past several generations around the U.S. But city officials and area funeral home directors say there has been recently a higher number of cases in Plant City than usual.
When families own cemetery property but have numerous members of the same generation, they sometimes have more heirs than cemetery plots. They must officially determine who will be buried in specific plots, because each member of the inheriting generation legally has the same claim to the plots. Without official documentation, city officials will not allow the family to bury any potential heir in those plots.
Usually, the family member who purchased the plots years ago did not outline in the deed, nor in his or her will, who exactly should inherit them.
“They don’t think about it,” Haught Funeral Home owner David Wolf said. “It’s a small item.”
For Nelson’s family, the city agreed to let the family bury Nelson’s relative in a family plot before the family could gather the necessary documents, but the whole family was still required to sign an agreement after the burial.
“These are plots that have been here for generation after generation,” Nelson said. “Some of these people go way back in Plant City history, but they don’t have the papers.”
The solution is simple, although it takes prior planning. All siblings who have legal claims to the property, whether or not they want the plots, must sign a document that specifies who will be buried in their family’s remaining plots. But, it is often difficult to work out the details while emotionally processing a recent death.
“It all makes perfect sense when you’re talking about it when there’s not been a death,” Wolf said. “You have a death occur, and those same people that were reasonable yesterday … now there’s a panic about it, there’s urgency, and emotions are high.”
Wolf said it is important to develop and sign a contract long before any potential heirs die, to avoid that last-minute panic and rush.
Families can work with the city attorney’s office, often through a funeral home director, to develop the correct documentation.
“In some of the cases, the people were given deeds,” City Attorney Ken Buchman said. “They were told to record the deeds. If they were not recorded, then we just have to base it on the records that we have.”
In this situation, the family must develop a contract.
“It’s not a difficult thing, but you’ve got to be very sensitive about it,” Buchman said. “Most of the time, it’s not a problem.”
Nelson hopes that other families will learn of the issue to avoid what his family had to go through.
“I just think families ought to know,” Nelson said. “Be prepared — you might have to face this when you go to bury your loved one.”
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.