§ 12-505. Lots; resale or reclamation; conditions; notice; requirements.
AI-assisted research summary: An association may sell or reclaim unused cemetery lots when certain payments have been unpaid long enough, but it must give notice and file proof of that notice.
(1) If the purchase price, or any portion thereof, of any lot or subdivision of a lot shall remain unpaid for three years or more, or if the general assessments, annual care assessments, or other levies or charges made by such association shall remain unpaid on any lot or subdivision of a lot for three years or more, such association shall have authority to sell the unused portion of such lot or fractional part thereof as though the original title remained in such association, proceeding under the general bylaws of the association. Such association shall distinctly mark and set off the used portion of any such lot or subdivision and shall give notice of its intention to sell such lot or subdivision. Such notice shall be in writing and served personally upon the owner of such lot or subdivision, not less than sixty days before such lot or subdivision shall be held for sale, and proof thereof filed and recorded in the office of the register of deeds. If it is impossible to serve such notice personally, notice shall be given by publication in a legal newspaper published in the county where the cemetery is located, or if none is published in such county in a legal newspaper of general circulation in the county where the cemetery is located, for three successive weeks. The last publication shall be not less than sixty days before such lot or subdivision shall be offered for sale. Proof of publication shall be filed and recorded in the office of the register of deeds, together with the affidavit of the secretary of the association showing that diligent effort has been made to locate the owner and that personal notice cannot be given to such owner. The association may purchase any such lot or subdivision sold pursuant to this subsection. (2) When there has been no burial in any such lot or subdivision and no payment of annual assessments for a period of twenty years, the association may reclaim the unused portion of such lot or subdivision after publishing notice of its intention to do so. Such notice shall be published once each week for four weeks in a legal newspaper of general circulation throughout the county in which the cemetery is located, shall describe the lot or subdivision proposed to be reclaimed, and shall be addressed to the person in whose name such portion stands of record or, if there is no owner of record, to all persons claiming any interest. If no person appears to claim such lot or subdivision and pay all delinquent assessments with interest within fifteen days after the last date of such publication, the association may by resolution reclaim such lot or subdivision. Such reclamation shall be complete upon a filing of a verified copy of such resolution, together with proof of publication, in the office of the register of deeds. History: R.S.1866, c. 25, § 49, p. 206; R.S.1913, § 682; Laws 1919, c. 27, § 1, p. 93; C.S.1922, § 591; C.S.1929, § 13-504; R.S.1943, § 12-505; Laws 1959, c. 29, § 1, p. 181; Laws 1963, c. 39, § 1, p. 210; Laws 1986, LB 960, § 5.