Two people contacted us: a woman and a man. Both wanted to raise the issue of what they considered illegal fees for graves. Reader:

Cemeteries charge fees for 20 years for a grave. Later, if the family has not paid for the grave, for example for 10 years, and wants to pay for another 20 years, the cemetery refuses to accept the further payment unless the earlier fee is settled.

According to our informants, a resident of one of Bolesławiec’s largest housing estates had to pay an additional PLN 700 because she had simply forgotten about the aforementioned fee.

According to those who reported the matter, the cemetery administration has no right to collect “backdated fees,” because during that time the cemetery management could, for example, have buried someone else there or eliminated the grave. (Our interviewees stressed that they had found articles online indicating that this was illegal and that such practices are used throughout the country).

Iwona Plizga, head of the Cemetery Administration Department in Bolesławiec, explains:

In response to (…) the inquiry, I explain that the Act on Cemeteries and the Burial of the Dead dates from 1959 and repeats provisions of the 1932 Act. It does not regulate fees, apart from the fee for a grave plot, which is paid for 20 years. It is paid at the time of burial, and the municipality grants the grave for a period of 20 years, with the possibility of extending it on condition that a fee is paid for another 20 years—a fee extending the grave’s protected status.

Fees concerning the Municipal Cemetery in Bolesławiec at ul. Śluzowa are charged in accordance with:

  • Order No. 229/2022 of the Mayor of Bolesławiec of 25 August 2022 on establishing the schedule of fees applicable at the Municipal Cemetery at ul. Śluzowa 10 in Bolesławiec,
  • Order No. 32/2018 of the Mayor of Bolesławiec of 12 February 2018 on establishing fees for the use of public-utility facilities located at the Municipal Cemetery in Bolesławiec at ul. Śluzowa 10 and establishing the schedule of services provided by the Cemetery Administrator.

Under the aforementioned local legal acts and applicable regulations, no penalties or interest are charged for late payment of the extension fee, and the cemetery’s fee schedule contains no fee of PLN 700.

She adds:

Thus, when a family declares its wish to continue maintaining a grave, a fee is charged for the previously unpaid period, calculated in a way that ensures continuity of the right to the grave according to the current fee schedule, for the period starting when the previously applicable period ended. This is not the retroactive application of the law, but merely the continuation and settlement of the fee for something we have been using all along—in this case, an existing grave plot.

It is not the case that the cemetery administration is obliged to eliminate a grave when no fees have been paid. Some time passes before that happens; it is not done overnight.

We realize that, amid the multitude of daily matters, we often forget about things such as paying for a grave. For this reason, we do not rush to designate unpaid graves for another burial and regulate the fees in accordance with the explanation above. This practice stems from purely human considerations.

And she sums up: – Please imagine a situation in which, because someone overlooked a payment, a person coming to visit the grave of a close family member finds that another person’s grave is already there…