A. No cemetery owned by a county or city shall be sold to a private owner unless the county or city has made a good faith effort to ensure, prior to sale, that the ownership of such cemetery is vested in the estate of the last owner of record or that permission for the sale has been granted by the family members or descendants of such owner.
B. For purposes of subsection A, a county or city will be deemed to have made a good faith effort if it attempts to contact all known family members and descendants of the last owner of record no less than three separate times by phone, mail, or visiting the last known address of record for such family members or descendants; however, if the county or city is unable to successfully contact a family member or descendant, it must utilize two different contact methods listed above for a total of three different times in an attempt to reach the family members or descendants of the last owner of record of the cemetery. A county or city shall keep written records of each attempt to contact a family member or descendant of the cemetery's last owner of record.
2022, c. 281.
Structure Code of Virginia
Title 57 - Religious and Charitable Matters; Cemeteries
§ 57-22. Conveyance of land to trustees or local governing body for cemetery use
§ 57-23. Appointment, change or removal of trustees
§ 57-24. Powers and duties of trustees
§ 57-24.1. Trustee for purpose of suit
§ 57-25. Condemnation of land for cemeteries
§ 57-26. Restrictions as to location of cemeteries and as to quantity of land
§ 57-27. City of Richmond may prohibit burials in certain cemeteries
§ 57-27.2. Correction of interment errors
§ 57-27.3. Authorization for interment
§ 57-28. Cities and counties may establish
§ 57-30. Funds from sale of lots and for perpetual upkeep
§ 57-32. Who may hold such property
§ 57-34. Amount to defray original cost not limited
§ 57-35. Trusteeship for administering funds for perpetual care
§ 57-35.36. Cemeteries owned by localities; good faith effort required prior to interment
§ 57-35.37. Sale of cemeteries owned by a locality; required notice to descendants of original owner
§ 57-36. Abandoned or previously unidentified graveyards may be condemned; removal of bodies
§ 57-37. Costs of suits, removal and reinterment; how surplus above costs disposed of
§ 57-38. Exemption from §§ 57-36 and 57-37
§ 57-39. Proceedings for removal of remains and sale of land vacated
§ 57-39.1. Improvement of abandoned and neglected graveyards
§ 57-39.1:1. Recovery of abandoned interment rights; procedure; rights of owner of record
§ 57-39.2. Reversion of unoccupied cemetery lots in cities and certain towns; rebuttable presumption
§ 57-39.3. Proceedings; determination of abandonment
§ 57-39.4. Notice to owner of record; publication
§ 57-39.5. Judicial determination; conveyance of title
§ 57-39.6. Sale of abandoned cemetery lot
§ 57-39.7. Applicability; abandonment determination limited in certain circumstances
§ 57-39.19. Application of §§ 54.1-2818.1 through 54.1-2818.3
§ 57-39.21. Duty to file declaration of land use restriction
§ 57-39.22. Certain representations unlawful; perpetual care trust fund required
§ 57-39.23. Change of address required from owner of burial right