In Consumers Digest, April 10,2010, there is an article, "Grave Concerns, Digging Up the Dirt on Cemetery Scams." It was excellent timing for me because my mother passed away last week, and all of a sudden, I was caught up in funeral arrangement and carrying out burial plans that she had made fifteen years ago. I am not sure whether the disclosure I received from the mortuary was a state or federal requirement, but it did list each item and costs with the most expensive being the casket and the least expensive being a food book ($2). A casket could be as little as a few hundred dollar up to thousands. My shocker (and I am sure they don't like to disclose) was over $2,000 to the director for an hour service. Of course, there was a fee for every transport at the costs of hundreds of dollars, and the itemization went on and on. For a simple funeral, less than an hour with a $1350 casket was over $5500. My complaint is not with the mortuary. She left money to take care of everything, and I followed her wishes explicitly.
My issue was with the Garden of Faith cemetery. You need to take heed of the situation. My parents purchased a space in the mausoleum in the middle of a beautiful cemetery 15 years ago. I have never seen the paperwork for the cost of the two spaces but I'm sure it was over $2000 for them. My stepfather was entombed there in 1999 while it was still under the original owners who maintained it beautifully. I moved to the beach in 2001 which is about an hour away but I continued to visit my mother for a few years. We would periodically place new flowers in the vase, and the property looked fine. In 2005, my mother's alzheimers progressed to a more serious stage, and she moved to the beach with me. I did not see the property until Saturday when we all arrived for a graveside service. I was horrified. The roads were so broken that some of them did not look like they had ever been paved (and they had). Burial vaults were stacked up adjacent to the mausoleum...an eyesore. The chapel had a beautiful stain glass window but you could seen stains where there had been leaks. Dead flowers were in vases throughout the mausoleum. The office manager decided to leave early, and I was told to pay the grave digger before or after the service...that's a whole other story. Even though, my parents had pre-paid, I had to pay an unseal and reseal fee of $525 and another $425 for her name on her space. If it sounds like I am all caught up in the costs, I don't mean to be. My point is my parents paid for perpetual care. There are no documents to show whether there are any trusts or reserves required by any governmental agency, and there is no evidence where purchasers of pre-paid services are notified of all the fees involved. My mother thought she had paid all the fees. The manager's response to me on Monday, "Yeh, everyone complains." Imagine how your buyers would react to closing on their house only to find out there was a fee for the key, a fee to unlock the door,etc. My greatest concern is for the maintenance. Where is that money? I will be in touch with the regulatory agency in our state with my issues; hopefully, something can protect the deceased persons' interest.
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