TITLE II: MUNICIPAL SERVICES

When the mayor is aware of the existence of descendants or successors of the concession holders, he shall notify them within eight days of a copy of the official report and give them formal notice to restore the concession to a good state of maintenance. The notification and formal notice shall be made by a single registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

Within the same eight-day period, extracts from the minutes are brought to the attention of the public by means of posters affixed for one month to the door of the town hall, as well as to the door of the cemetery. These posters are renewed twice at fortnightly intervals. A certificate signed by the mayor records the completion of these postings. It is appended to the original minutes.

A list of concessions whose state of abandonment has been established in accordance with articles R. 2223-12 to R. 2223-16. This list is deposited at the office of the cemetery curator, if this post exists, as well as at the prefecture and sub-prefecture. An inscription placed at the entrance to the cemetery indicates the places where this list is deposited and made available to the public.

After the expiry of the one-year period provided for in Article L. 2223-17, where the plot is still in a state of abandonment, a new official report, drawn up by the mayor or his delegate, in the forms provided for by the articles R. 2223-13 and R. 2223-14, is notified to the interested parties with an indication of the action that must be taken. One month after this notification and…

The mayor’s order to take back the land allocated to a plot is enforceable by operation of law as soon as it has been published and notified.

Thirty days after publication and notification of the decree, the mayor may have the materials of the monuments and funerary emblems remaining on the plot removed. He shall have the remains of the interred persons exhumed. For each plot, these remains are placed in an appropriately sized coffin.

The land occupied by the concessions taken over may be the subject of a new concession contract only when the requirements of articles L. 2223-4, R. 2223-6, R. 2223-19 and R. 2223-20 have been observed.

The articles L. 2223-4, R. 2223-12 to R. 2223-21 do not derogate from the provisions governing military burials. When a person whose death certificate bears the entry “Died for France” duly recorded has been buried in a perpetual or centenary plot, the plot may not be repossessed before the expiry of a period of fifty years from the date of burial. This provision does not apply if a centenary plot…

A centenary or perpetual plot may not be repossessed if the municipality or a public institution is obliged to maintain it in execution of a duly accepted donation or testamentary disposition.