Burial Plot Lease Duration and Renewal Process
Burial plots in most cemeteries are not available indefinitely – most are available for a long lease only, which typically lasts between 25 and 100 years. After the burial plot lease runs out or after 75 years, cemeteries have the right to disturb the graves and human remains and re-use the site for other burials should they choose to do so.
For people wanting to renew the lease on a burial plot, they must pay cemeteries a renewal fee and provide a significant amount of documentation (e.g., grave deeds, wills, and death certificates) for approvals.
Re-use of Lease Graves and Increasing Demand for Burial Space
There is a massive demand for burial spaces across the UK and most cemeteries will not offer automated lease renewals, as this restricts their options as a business to choose their most pressing clientele, as it were. People are able to manually renew burial plot leases, but where this is not done quickly enough in a timely fashion cemeteries will capitalise on the opportunity and quickly resell the burial plots.
There is very effective monitoring by local authorities and cemetery owners precisely because of the high demand for burial spaces. The re-use of a burial plot means that memorials or headstones are removed while graves are re-dug to allow for new burials. Typically the existing remains in the graves are left in the ground, and the new burials are interred on top of them – this means that both deceased parties must share their final resting place for the remainder of their earthly residence.
Shared Cemeteries and Multi-Faith Burial Practices
It is also important to note that many cemeteries are shared by people of different faiths, and different types of human remains are buried, e.g., cremated remains.
Understanding Freehold Graves and Their Benefits
What Are Freehold Burial Plots?
All Muslims who wish that they or their loved ones are not buried below or on top of another deceased person or sharing their final resting place with a person of non-Muslim faith and who wish for their final resting place to remain undisturbed until the Day of Judgment should seek freehold burial plots within a Muslim-only cemetery.
Advantages of Freehold Graves Over Lease Graves
Freehold burial plots provide a grave space in perpetuity; this means without an expiry time, and this secures the grave space from any re-use and disturbance. Freehold plots also allow memorials or headstones to be in place permanently and without risk of removal.
Our Commitment to Providing Freehold Burial Services
We are pleased that Garden of Blessings only offers freehold burial plots and that we can serve our Muslim brothers and sisters with a peaceful, serene, and beautiful resting place.