Poland’s Interior Ministry submits changes on municipal cemetery fees — RMF24

Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration has submitted to the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers a draft amendment concerning the collection of fees at municipal cemeteries. As reported by RMF24, the amendment is intended to establish clear grounds for charging for the use of cemeteries, as well as public-use facilities and devices located there.

Powers for municipalities

The draft provides for adding a relevant provision to the law on cemeteries and the burial of the deceased. The amount of fees and the procedure for collecting them will be determined under the rules of the 1996 law on municipal economy.

This means that municipal councils will be able to independently set rates for such services, as they do for other municipal services. The current legislation in this area dates back to 1959 and, according to the outlet, does not meet modern needs, resulting in court disputes.

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Which disputes are to be resolved

Administrative courts are increasingly finding that the current law allows fees to be charged only for burial and for reserving a grave for the following 20 years. In particular, a 2020 ruling by the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Poznań limited municipalities’ right to set other fees related to cemetery management.

The new rules are intended to regulate, among other things, fees for opening a cemetery gate or installing a gravestone. The draft must still be considered by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. If adopted, the new provisions may enter into force in the coming months.