Rights and Privileges
These Rights and Privileges are rules designed to protect and preserve your Cemetery’s beauty. All owners, visitors, and contractors shall be subject to these Regulations and to all amendments adopted by the Cemetery to ensure responsible perpetual care. A copy of these Rights and Privileges shall be given to each person upon purchase of an Interment Space.
I. Definitions
· Cemetery means the Cemetery named on the preceding page and it successors and assigns.
· Interment means inurnment, entombment, or burial of the remains of a deceased person.
· Interment Space means a Grave Space, Lawn Crypt, Mausoleum Crypt, or Niche.
· Interment Rights means the right to inter in an Interment Space.
· Owner means the person or entity that owns an Interment Right, as determined by the Cemetery’s record.
· Grave Space means a single earth burial space.
· Lawn Crypt means a crypt specially constructed drained and vented for below ground Interment.
· Mausoleum Crypt means an aboveground entombment in a mausoleum.
· Niche means a repository for the Entombment of cremated remains within a columbarium.
· Cemetery Certificate means a legal instrument conveying an Interment Right to an Owner.
· Memorialization means any memorial, monument, name plate or other structure placed upon any Interment Space for the purpose of identification or memorialization.
· Contractor means any person or entity; expect a Cemetery employee, engaged in or performing any work in the Cemetery.
II. Purchase and Ownership of Interment Rights
1. Interment Rights shall be purchased by a written purchase agreement executed by the Cemetery. After an Owner fulfills all the requirements of a purchase agreement, the Cemetery shall issue a Cemetery Certificate to the Owner. The Cemetery Certificate vests in the Owner an Interment Right only.
2. After the death of an Owner, Owner’s Interments Rights in Interment Spaces shall pass to such Owner’s heirs at law, unless specifically disposed by the Owner’s will. If the Owner has no heirs at law and Owner’s Interment Rights are not disposed by Owner’s will, the Owner’s Interment Rights shall revert to the Cemetery.
III. Care and Maintenance of the Cemetery
1. The Cemetery and the Cemetery’s office shall be open on normal business hours and by appointments.
2. The Cemetery will deposit a portion of the sale price of the Interment Right into a Perpetual Care Fund. The Cemetery shall make those deposits in the amount required by law. If an outside contractor installs a memorial on an Interment Space the Cemetery will require a deposit for the care of the memorial. The amount of this deposit will be determined by the Cemetery based on the size of the foundation. The Cemetery will deposit this amount into the Perpetual Care Fund.
3. The net income from all funds deposited in the trust shall be used for the care, maintenance, repair, and improvement of the Cemetery premises, including its features, improvements, fixtures, and equipment, in a manner which enhances the Cemetery.
4. The Cemetery may enlarge, reduce, re-plat or change the boundaries or grading of the Cemetery and may install, change, repair or remove any Cemetery road, walkway, feature, improvement, or fixture, as the Cemetery deems to improve Cemetery grounds. The Cemetery reserves the right to use all unsold Cemetery property for such purposes as the Cemetery deems proper.
5. All grading, road work, landscape work, improvements of any kind, care of Interment Spaces, Interments, Disinterment’s, and removal of property shall be made by the Cemetery or its approved Contractors using equipment approved in advance by the Cemetery.
6. The Cemetery has the right to correct any problems and/or safety concerns within cemetery grounds or upon cemetery structures without prior notification to the Purchaser.
7. If any tree, shrub, or plant standing on or adjacent to any Interment Space becomes detrimental to any adjacent Interment Space, road, walkway, feature, improvement, or fixture the Cemetery may (but is not required to) remove such tree, shrub, or plant.
8. The Cemetery takes reasonable precaution to protect to the Purchaser from loss or damage, but it distinctly disclaims all responsibility for loss or damage from causes beyond its reasonable control and unavoidable accidents whether damage be direct or collateral.
IV. Cemetery Operations
1. Guidelines to assist the owner with grave decorations have been designed to achieve high standards of grounds maintenance in the Cemetery. These guidelines are in the best interest of all lot owners.
a. All cut and artificial flowers are permitted but are to be placed in permanent vases. One plastic vase will be permitted but will be removed if it becomes broken or worn. The grounds crew will remove those flowers that are wilted or in poor condition when they are working in different sections of the Cemetery.
b. Potted plants will remain on graves until one week after Easter, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
c. Bellerive will conduct two cemetery clean-offs per year. All items will be removed and discarded from the burial gardens and the mausoleum the first full week of February as well as the first full week of October. This includes flowers, statues, stones, and any other items.
d. Glass containers, tin cans, ceramic décor, metal garden hooks, lighting of any type, wooden stakes, wires of any kind and cone shaped tin containers will be removed as they are a safety hazard for the grounds crew.
2. No planting will be permitted except as authorized by the Cemetery.
3. Flags are permitted only one week before Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Veteran’s Day. They will be removed within one week after the holiday.
4. No enclosure of any kind, such as a fence, coping, hedge, gravel, mulch or ditch shall be permitted around any Grave Space or Lawn Crypt. No Grave Space or Lawn Crypt shall be raised above the established grade.
5. The Cemetery cannot be responsible for loss or damage from beyond reasonable control.
6. Vehicles driven in the Cemetery should drive at a responsible speed, no greater than 15 MPH. DO NOT DRIVE OR PARK ON THE GRASS.
7. All pets must be leashed at all times and you must pick up after your pet.
V. Interments and Disinterments
1. Expect as agreed in writing between the Cemetery and the Owner or Owner’s legal representative, no Interment or Disinterment shall be made unless all purchase or transfer charges have been paid in full.
2. The Cemetery office will be able to provide the times and days available for burials.
3. All Interments must be approved by the Owner or his legal representative in writing on the Cemetery’s approved forms, which shall be kept as part of the Cemetery’s permanent records.
4. There shall be no more than one Interment in any one Interment Space, expect as specifically permitted by the Cemetery in writing. The Cemetery is not responsible for establishing the identity of persons to be interred.
5. All entombments in a Mausoleum crypt shall be in rigid caskets, which completely enclose the remains. The Cemetery may place caskets into a casket tray (a rigid fiberglass or plastic container) which will be provided by the Cemetery prior to entombment. The Cemetery reserves the right, for the family’s protection, to reject caskets, which do not conform to these standard quality requirements. All remains must be embalmed before entombment in a Mausoleum Crypt.
6. All interments shall be in rigid caskets, which completely enclose the remains. Interments shall be encased in at least a concrete vault. The Cemetery reserves the right, for the family’s protection, to reject caskets and grave linings which do not conform to these standard quality requirements.
7. A disinterment may be authorized only by the person originally authorizing the Interment, by a court order, or legal next of kin. All disinterment’s must be approved by the Cemetery and must be scheduled at least 7 days in advance. Information regarding the time and days when disinterments are permitted is available from the Cemetery office. The disinterment fee is established by the Cemetery and all other fees and charges must be paid in full prior to a disinterment.
8. An Interment Space may be opened, and the contents removed for good cause shown to the satisfaction of the Cemetery and the Cemetery trustees, upon payment of any costs incurred in returning the space to presale condition. The person requesting the removal will pay these costs. Any such circumstances shall be duly noted in the Cemetery’s records. Any such opening for removal shall be as allowed by law.
9. The Cemetery reserves the right to correct errors that it may make in interments, disinterments or removals in the description or transfer of any property of equal value and similar locations as may be substituted in lieu thereof.
10. An Interment Space is limited for use by the Owner or a member of the Owner’s immediate family. Cemetery’s approval is required for an Interment Space to be used for someone other than the Owner or Owner’s immediate family.
VI. Sale of Transfer of Interment Rights
1. Owner shall not sell or transfer Interment Rights unless such sale or transfer shall be approved in writing by the Cemetery. The Cemetery may withhold consent to a sale or transfer of Interment Rights if any indebtedness is due from the Owner to the Cemetery.
2. All sales or transfers shall be subject to a transfer charge, which must be paid prior to the Cemetery’s approval of such sale or transfer.
3. No sale or transfer of an Interment Right shall be approved by the Cemetery after the Owner dies, expect upon court order or upon proof reasonably satisfactory to the Cemetery that the proposed seller of such Interment Right is the lawful successor or legal representative of the deceased Owner.
4. Owner is prohibited from selling or transferring Interment Rights for purposes of speculation or profit. Owner agrees that a sale or transfer of Interment Rights made for consideration in excess of the transfer charge Owner paid to the Cemetery shall be a violation of this rule and shall entitle the Cemetery to liquidated damages of $1,000.00 from either Owner or the transferee of the Interment Rights. The Cemetery shall require transferees provide documentation of the consideration paid to Owner for the sale or transfer of Interment Rights. If the Cemetery gives written notice of a claim for liquidated damages to Owner or the transferee, such claim shall constitute an unpaid charge for purposes of Paragraph V.1 above. This paragraph shall not apply to the Owner of Interment Rights in one of the Cemetery’s mausoleums.
VII. Memorialization
1. Owners may purchase Memorial and/or the installation of Memorials from the Cemetery or another Memorial dealer; provided any contractor who delivers or installs Memorials must sign an agreement with the Cemetery regarding the terms and conditions of such delivery or installation and agree to abide by these Regulations prior to making any installation.
2. Prior to installation of a Memorial, each Owner shall make the contribution to the Cemetery’s perpetual care trust fund as described in Missouri Perpetual Care Trust Fund Regulations.
3. Prior to installation of any Memorial, an Owner shall pay the amounts due to the Cemetery for Interment Spaces, opening and closing fees or other property or services purchased from the Cemetery.
4. No installations of any Memorial shall be made without the written authorization of the Owner or the Owner’s legal representative.
5. The Cemetery has established rules and requirements regarding the size, installation, location, and placement of Memorials, which have been adopted to preserve and enhance the beauty of Bellerive Gardens. Owners and Contractors shall consult with the Cemetery prior to purchasing or installing Memorials.
6. Lawn level bronze markers furnished by the government are the only type of military Memorial permitted. Orders for government markers will not be approved by the Cemetery until a foundation purchase agreement and an installation agreement with the Cemetery or a Contractor has been signed.
7. No more than two burials shall be identified on any lawn level Memorial, unless approved in writing by the Cemetery prior to installation.
8. If the Cemetery determines that the Memorial, inscription or any other object placed in the Cemetery is offensive or improper, the Cemetery has the right (but not obligated) to remove, change, or correct the Memorial.
9. All Memorial benches and other Cemetery feature items may be purchased through the Cemetery only and only in approved areas of the Cemetery. (Cemetery feature items may or may not include the right of interment or memorialization.)
10. After 90 days, any temporary marker will be removed and the property will remain unmarked unless a permanent marker is placed or is on order.
VIII. Other Regulations
1. The Cemetery hereby expressly reserves the right to adopt new rules and regulations, or to amend, alter or repeal any rule or regulation that will help the Cemetery to be of better service or enhance the beauty of Bellerive Gardens.
