The family grave in Switzerland: lease, term and bringing relatives together

“We would like our parents to rest together.” It is a request we receive every week, and it is nearly always achievable – provided you start from the right type of grave. This page explains the distinction that governs everything else.

Family lease and row grave

The row grave goes to whoever needs it next: the municipality allocates it in the order burials occur. The family chooses neither the location nor the term, pays no lease fee, and generally cannot extend. When the rest period expires, the municipality clears it.

The family grave rests on a contract between the municipality and a family. It is paid for, covers a specific plot, runs for a set term and can in most cases be renewed. While it is in force, the municipality will not remove the grave.

The consequence is direct: within a lease, the family has real room for manoeuvre – including for an additional burial. In a row grave that room is narrow.

Term and renewal

The municipal regulations set the term of a lease, and it is generally noticeably longer than the rest period of a row grave. At expiry, most municipalities offer renewal against a fee.

Two practical points are worth anticipating. First, the municipality sends the expiry notice to the address it holds on file – often that of someone who has since died, or a relative who has moved. Keeping that address current stops a renewal from being missed.

Second, renewal is dealt with before expiry, not after. Once clearance is under way, reversing it is difficult or impossible.

Who decides within the family

For a lease there is a holder of the right of use. In principle it is that person who deals with the municipality: renewal, additional burial, layout of the plot.

But holder does not mean sole decision-maker. Where an opening or a relocation is contemplated, the authority generally asks for the consent of the entitled relatives, regardless of whose name is on the contract.

One question deserves settling early: what happens when the holder dies? Many sets of regulations allow a transfer, but somebody has to take that step with the municipality. Without it, a lease can end up with no counterpart – and nobody receives the expiry notice.

Bringing several people into one grave

This is the most common reason for a relocation, and municipalities generally receive it well, because it matches exactly what a family lease is for.

Two routes exist. Either the family already holds a lease and wants to move someone buried elsewhere into it: that needs authorisation from the releasing municipality and the agreement of the receiving one. Or the family creates a new lease and brings several people into it: the same procedure, multiplied by the number of graves involved.

Where several municipalities are involved, the order of steps matters. You must secure the receiving plot before the municipality will authorise the first opening – otherwise you open a grave with nowhere to go.

The practical limits

Three limits come up regularly.

Capacity. A lease does not take an unlimited number of burials; the regulations cap the number, and the available depth caps it further.

The internal rest period. Even inside a family grave, a new burial cannot always follow immediately after the previous one.

Coffin or urn. An urn takes far less space than a coffin. A grouping that is impossible in coffins is often achievable in urns.

How to go about it

Start with the basic facts: which type of grave, what term, what expiry date, and what space is available. One call to the cemetery administration is enough, with the name of the cemetery and the grave designation to hand.

Only then do questions of feasibility and cost arise. We are glad to make that clarification for you, including where several municipalities are involved – that is precisely the case where the order of steps wins or loses weeks.