2009 Iowa Code
Title 13 - Commerce
Subtitle 1 - Insurance and Related Regulation
CHAPTER 523I - IOWA CEMETERY ACT
523I.304 - RULEMAKING AND ENFORCEMENT.

        523I.304  RULEMAKING AND ENFORCEMENT.
         1.  A cemetery may adopt, amend, and enforce rules for the use,
      care, control, management, restriction, and protection of the
      cemetery, as necessary for the proper conduct of the business of the
      cemetery, including, but not limited to, the use, care, and transfer
      of any interment space or right of interment.
         2.  A cemetery may restrict and limit the use of all property
      within the cemetery by rules that do, but are not limited to doing,
      all of the following:
         a.  Prohibit the placement of memorials or memorialization,
      buildings, or other types of structures within any portion of the
      cemetery.
         b.  Regulate the uniformity, class, and kind of memorials and
      memorialization and structures within the cemetery.
         c.  Regulate the scattering or placement of cremated remains
      within the cemetery.
         d.  Prohibit or regulate the placement of nonhuman remains
      within the cemetery.
         e.  Prohibit or regulate the introduction or care of trees,
      shrubs, and other types of plants within the cemetery.
         f.  Regulate the right of third parties to open, prepare for
      interment, and close interment spaces.
         g.  Prohibit interment in any part of the cemetery not
      designated as an interment space.
         h.  Prevent the use of space for any purpose inconsistent with
      the use of the property as a cemetery.
         3.  A cemetery shall not adopt or enforce a rule that prohibits
      interment because of the race, color, or national origin of a
      decedent.  A provision of a contract or a certificate of ownership or
      other instrument conveying interment rights that prohibits interment
      in a cemetery because of the race, color, or national origin of a
      decedent is void.
         4.  A cemetery's rules shall be plainly printed or typewritten and
      maintained for inspection in the office of the cemetery or, if the
      cemetery does not have an office, in another suitable place within
      the cemetery.  The cemetery's rules shall be provided to owners of
      interment spaces upon request.
         5.  A cemetery's rules shall specify the cemetery's obligations in
      the event that interment spaces, memorials, or memorialization are
      damaged or defaced by acts of vandalism.  The rules may specify a
      multiyear restoration of an interment space, or a memorial or
      memorialization when the damage is extensive or when money available
      from the cemetery's trust fund is inadequate to complete repairs
      immediately.  The owner of an interment space, or a memorial or
      memorialization that has been damaged or defaced shall be notified by
      the cemetery by restricted certified mail at the owner's last known
      address within sixty days of the discovery of the damage or
      defacement.  The rules shall specify whether the owner is liable, in
      whole or in part, for the cost to repair or replace an interment
      space or a damaged or defaced memorial or memorialization.
         6.  The cemetery shall not approve any rule which unreasonably
      restricts competition, or which unreasonably increases the cost to
      the owner of interment rights in exercising these rights.
         7.  A cemetery owned and controlled by a governmental subdivision
      shall adopt and enforce a rule allowing any veteran who is a
      landowner or who lives within the governmental subdivision to
      purchase an interment space and to be interred within the cemetery.
      For the purposes of this section, "veteran" means the same as
      defined in section 35.1 or a resident of this state who served in the
      armed forces of the United States, completed a minimum aggregate of
      ninety days of active federal service, and was discharged under
      honorable conditions.  

         Section History: Recent Form

         2005 Acts, ch 128, §26; 2007 Acts, ch 175, §44 

         Footnotes

         For future amendment to subsection 7 effective July 1, 2010, see
      2009 Acts, ch 164, §5--7