Delaware Cemetery Board: What It Does and How It Protects Families

If you've discovered that a loved one's gravesite is in poor condition, or if a Delaware cemetery has been mismanaged to the point of neglect, you're not without recourse. Delaware has a regulatory body specifically designed to address exactly these problems — the Delaware Cemetery Board — and a dedicated funding mechanism for distressed cemeteries. Most families never hear about either until they need them.

What the Delaware Cemetery Board Is

The Delaware Cemetery Board is the state regulatory authority that oversees the licensing and operation of cemeteries within Delaware. Its jurisdiction covers for-profit and non-profit cemetery companies, governing how they must operate, maintain records, handle burial lots, and manage consumer transactions. The Board operates under Delaware statute and reports through the state's regulatory structure.

Its core functions include:

• Issuing and renewing licenses for cemetery operators
• Establishing operational standards for cemetery management and maintenance
• Investigating complaints from consumers about cemetery practices
• Taking enforcement action against operators who violate state law or Board regulations
• Administering the Distressed Cemetery Fund for qualifying neglected or abandoned cemeteries

The Board is separate from the Board of Funeral Services, which governs funeral directors, crematories, and funeral establishments. If your complaint involves a funeral home's conduct — pricing, mishandling of remains, FTC Funeral Rule violations — that goes to the Board of Funeral Services (under the Division of Professional Regulation), not the Cemetery Board.

The Distressed Cemetery Fund

Delaware established the Distressed Cemetery Fund specifically to address cemeteries that have fallen into a state of disrepair, abandonment, or financial insolvency — situations where the operator no longer has the capacity or willingness to maintain the grounds.

The Fund provides a mechanism for state intervention when families discover that gravesites are overgrown, markers are damaged, or the cemetery has been effectively abandoned by its operator. Eligible cemeteries can receive funding for basic stabilization and maintenance work. The Board coordinates this process and determines which cemeteries qualify based on their documented state of distress and the availability of funds.

This matters because abandoned cemeteries are not simply a historical or aesthetic problem. Families have the right to visit gravesites that are safely accessible and reasonably maintained. When an operator fails in that obligation, the Distressed Cemetery Fund exists precisely so that failure doesn't become permanent.

What Happened with Sharon Hills Memorial Park

The most prominent example of Delaware cemetery enforcement in recent memory involves Sharon Hills Memorial Park, a cemetery case that drew intervention from the Delaware Attorney General's office. The situation illustrated exactly the type of scenario the regulatory framework exists to address — a cemetery with management failures significant enough to require state-level involvement, affecting families who had purchased burial lots in good faith and had no practical remedy short of formal legal action.

The Attorney General's office has statutory authority to pursue action against cemetery operators when the Board's regulatory enforcement powers are not sufficient to remedy the situation. The Sharon Hills matter demonstrated that Delaware's enforcement infrastructure, while not always fast, does respond to documented cemetery mismanagement when consumer harm is clear and evidenced.

If you are dealing with a comparable situation — unpaid perpetual care obligations, damaged or missing markers, inaccessible grounds — documenting the conditions thoroughly before filing a complaint is critical.

How to File a Complaint About a Delaware Cemetery

If you have a grievance involving a cemetery — gravesite neglect, misrepresentation when you purchased a burial lot, failure to honor perpetual care obligations, or any other operational violation — your primary escalation path runs through the Delaware Cemetery Board.

Practically, this means:

Document everything first. Photograph the gravesite conditions, cemetery grounds, and any relevant documentation you have from your lot purchase. Note dates and what you observed. If you've made verbal complaints to cemetery management and been ignored, keep a written log of those attempts.

Contact the Delaware Cemetery Board. File a formal written complaint describing the specific violation or condition you're reporting. Include your documentation as attachments. The more specific and factual your complaint, the more actionable it is for investigators.

Escalate to the Attorney General if warranted. For situations involving financial fraud, large-scale neglect affecting multiple families, or where the Cemetery Board's response has been inadequate, the Delaware Department of Justice — specifically the Consumer Protection Unit — can be engaged. The Attorney General's office has investigative and enforcement powers that go beyond administrative licensing sanctions.

Contact the Division of Professional Regulation for funeral home complaints. If the issue involves a funeral director or funeral establishment rather than a cemetery, route the complaint to the Board of Funeral Services under the Division of Professional Regulation instead. That Board handles pricing violations, mishandling of remains, failure to provide itemized price lists under the FTC Funeral Rule, and other conduct-related complaints.

Your Rights When Purchasing a Cemetery Lot

Delaware law provides specific consumer protections for families purchasing burial lots and pre-need cemetery services. Before you sign any cemetery contract, you have the right to:

• Receive a clear written description of exactly what you're purchasing, including the specific location and dimensions of the lot
• Understand what perpetual care obligations the cemetery has committed to and what that maintenance actually covers
• Know the conditions under which the lot can be resold or transferred
• Receive an itemized breakdown of all costs, including any endowment care fees

Cemetery pre-need contracts — those sold in advance of immediate need — are subject to Delaware's consumer protection requirements. If a cemetery operator makes material misrepresentations about what a pre-need purchase includes, that may constitute a deceptive trade practice under Delaware law, giving you standing for a formal complaint with the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Unit.

The most common consumer traps in cemetery sales involve perpetual care language that sounds comprehensive but actually covers very little, and lot locations that are misrepresented relative to what was shown during the sales consultation. Get specifics in writing before purchasing.

What the Cemetery Board Cannot Do

It's worth being direct about the limits. The Delaware Cemetery Board is a regulatory and administrative body. It can investigate complaints, impose licensing sanctions, and refer matters for legal action. It cannot:

• Provide you with legal representation or advise you on civil litigation strategy
• Compel a cemetery operator to make monetary payments to you directly
• Guarantee specific timelines for resolving disputes
• Override county zoning regulations, which are administered by New Castle, Kent, and Sussex county planning offices separately from any state-level cemetery oversight

If you have a financial loss tied to cemetery fraud or contract misrepresentation, recovering those funds likely requires civil legal action, not just a regulatory complaint. The complaint process is important for protecting other families and triggering enforcement — but it is not a substitute for a lawsuit if monetary recovery is your goal.

Funeral Home Complaints Go Elsewhere

Because the Board of Funeral Services and the Delaware Cemetery Board are separate agencies, it's common for families to route complaints to the wrong body. Here's the quick routing guide:

• Funeral home pricing, FTC Funeral Rule violation, mishandling of remains, unlicensed practice → Board of Funeral Services, Division of Professional Regulation
• Cemetery lot conditions, perpetual care failures, cemetery operator misconduct → Delaware Cemetery Board
• Financial fraud, large-scale consumer harm, deceptive trade practices → Delaware Attorney General, Consumer Protection Unit
• Death certificate or burial permit issues → Delaware Office of Vital Statistics

Understanding your rights at every step of the funeral and burial process — from the moment of death through the long-term administration of a gravesite — is exactly what the Delaware Funeral Laws & Consumer Rights Guide is designed to help with. It covers your FTC protections at the funeral home, the authorization requirements for burial and cremation, and the full consumer framework so you can engage these agencies from an informed position.

When to Act

The most common mistake families make is waiting too long. Cemetery conditions that deteriorate over months are harder to document retroactively. Pre-need contract misrepresentations are easier to address before you've fully paid. And regulatory complaints carry more weight when filed promptly after the violation, with contemporaneous documentation.

If something is wrong with how a Delaware cemetery is being operated — whether it affects your family directly or affects a cemetery your family has a long-term connection to — the regulatory infrastructure exists to address it. Use it early and document thoroughly.

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