So, You Want a Backyard Cemetery
Like many elder millennials, I was obsessed with the movie The Addams Family. One of my absolute favorite scenes was Morticia walking with Fester around all of the family graves, each with a marble sculpture depicting the inhabitant’s grisly end.
Naturally, I wished my family had a giant cemetery off the back of our tiny house instead of outdoor storage units. Fast-forward to 2024, when the idea of a cemetery on private property came to me again and my knee-jerk reaction was, there’s no way that would be legal… right?
Up until that time, my idea of a family plot was one of those giant million-dollar mausoleums that you see in upscale cemeteries. Maybe a cemetery on the estate if you were old money newspaper magnates or oil barons. Surely it wasn’t legal, or you’d have a bunch of family plots on all the farmland in the Midwest. A friend of mine is the fourth-generation owner of a pork farm - no shortage of space, coupled with the ingrained passion for passing the land down - how could they have resisted a private graveyard if it was legal?
But I couldn’t say with certainty that it wasn’t legal, so I had to do some digging.
Spoiler: It absolutely is legal.
The benefits:
Loved ones are much closer - I would imagine this brings comfort and security to a grieving person.
Lower upfront cost than a commercial internment. I cushion this statement with “upfront costs” because there’s no home insurance coverage (more on that below).
Little to no involvement from mortuaries.
The restrictions:
Restrictions will vary state by state. In Minnesota, for example, land must be surveyed to create a plat map showing the boundaries of the burial site. A permit is required, with special restrictions made for:
Grave depth
Distance from water sources
Distance from neighbors
All of these vary state-by-state, so it’s important to do the legal research. Often, an environmental study is required to understand the potential for soil contamination. Like many zoning permits, it’s reviewed by a zoning board and usually coupled with a public hearing where folks can tell you exactly how they feel about living near a residential cemetery.
Something else to consider: Many states mandate burial vaults for residential cemeteries. Unlike wooden caskets, vaults are made of metal or concrete to maintain the structure of the soil above and prevent it from sinking over time.
The side effects:
Most home insurance doesn’t include burial sites. So if a tornado knocks over the family mausoleum, the homeowner is on the hook for repairs.
If you end up putting your home on the market, you’ve either got to move the cemetery inhabitants or alert potential homeowners of their occupancy.
The potential for unwanted trespassers shouldn’t be slept on. Cemeteries have visiting hours, your home does not. And if your estranged cousin decides that he wants to see his uncle at three in the morning - even though it’s technically trespassing - you’re on the hook to prove malicious intent.
A backyard cemetery is intriguingly legal in most places, but comes with complications. I do wish they were more accepted - the stigma seems like another way we’re distanced from death - but I appreciate that the option is even available.
