Yes, you can be buried on your own property in some parts of the United States. Home burial—burying a person's body on private land—depends on state requirements, local rules, and approval of the burial site. The Vermont Department of Health explicitly allows private-property burial without hiring a licensed funeral director and does not require embalming, according to its private property burial guidance. Before choosing home burial, establish whether your land qualifies, what paperwork the family must complete, and how the grave will affect future ownership.
Table of Contents
- Does owning the land give you permission?
- Will your property qualify?
- What must happen before transport and burial?
- What happens when the property changes hands?
Does owning the land give you permission?
Land ownership alone does not authorize a burial. The California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau says owners must apply for and receive a Certificate of Authority, or cemetery license, before burial on their property. Its home burial requirements make approval a separate step from owning the land. Connecticut also separates permission to establish a burial ground from permission to bury a particular person.
According to the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the department must approve the private burial ground before it is created or used. Each burial then requires a separate permit from the town clerk or another authorized official. Local rules also matter. Washington law allows cities and counties to regulate or prohibit new family burial grounds, even though state law permits owners to designate land for that purpose. Start by asking your state's cemetery regulator or health department about the approval process, then ask local planning officials whether your parcel qualifies.
Will your property qualify?
A suitable location involves more than choosing a quiet corner of the yard. The Connecticut Department of Public Health inspects proposed sites for soil, drainage, and separation from wells, streams, sewage systems, and storm drains. Its private burial grounds guidance also requires test holes to establish groundwater and rock depth. Washington illustrates how specific property requirements can be.
State law limits a family burial ground to 10% of the parcel and requires written consent from every individual co-owner. Required setbacks include 25 feet from parcel boundaries and 100 feet from drinking-water wells; a setback is the minimum required distance between features. Use those examples to prepare questions, rather than treating them as nationwide standards. Before settling on a grave location, ask the responsible officials:.
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- What inspections or soil tests does this parcel need?
- What distances must the grave maintain from water sources, property lines, and other features?
- Whose written consent is required?
- Must the burial ground have recorded legal access from a road?
What must happen before transport and burial?
Treat site approval and the paperwork for the death as separate tasks. Connecticut's requirement for a permit before each burial means an approved family burial ground does not eliminate the next family's paperwork. Ask the issuing office who must obtain the permit and what must be completed before burial. Transport can require paperwork too.
The Vermont Department of Health says families transporting a body themselves must obtain a completed Preliminary Report of Death and a burial transit permit before moving it. After burial, the family must sign and file the permit with the town clerk. For planning purposes, identify who will handle each step: obtaining documents, arranging transport, preparing the grave, and filing the completed records. If you are comparing costs, request separate estimates for any services your family plans to hire. Vermont's permission to proceed without a funeral director gives families a choice about that service; it does not establish requirements elsewhere.
What happens when the property changes hands?
Plan access and recordkeeping before selecting the site. Connecticut's Department of Public Health requires private burial grounds to have legal road access, such as an easement or right-of-way recorded in the deed and town records. These arrangements establish a legal right to cross land to reach the burial ground. Washington requires owners to report and record each family-ground interment, meaning burial, within 30 days, including the grave's verified coordinates.
Owners must also disclose the burial ground to prospective buyers before selling, under the Washington State Legislature's family burial ground recording and disclosure requirements. Consider those obligations alongside your plans to keep, sell, or leave the property to relatives. Keep the site approval, burial documents, grave-location information, and access records together for whoever will manage the land next. Before establishing the burial ground, ask the local recording office which documents must become part of the property's permanent records.
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