S.C. Code Ann. § 39-55-215 – Minimum acreage; restrictions on sale, mortgage, lease, or encumbrance; conveyance to municipality; exceptions | Midpage
§ 39-55-215
S.C. Code Ann. § 39-55-215
Minimum acreage; restrictions on sale, mortgage, lease, or encumbrance; conveyance to municipality; exceptions
(a) Each licensee shall set aside a minimum of thirty acres of land for use as a cemetery, except as may otherwise be provided in this chapter, and may not sell, mortgage, lease, or encumber it.
(b) The fee simple title in any lands owned by the licensee and dedicated for use by the licensee as a cemetery, which lands are continuous, adjoining or adjacent to the minimum acreage described in subsection (a), may be sold, conveyed, or disposed of by the licensee for use by the new owner for purposes other than as a cemetery if no bodies have been previously interred and if any titles, interests, or burial rights which may have been sold or contracted to be sold in these lands are reconveyed to the licensee prior to the consummation of any conveyance.
(c) Any licensee may convey and transfer to a municipality or county its real and personal property, together with monies deposited with the trustee, if the municipality or county accepts responsibility for maintenance and prior written approval of the board is obtained.
(d) The provisions of subsections (a) and (b) relating to a requirement for minimum acreage do not apply to those cemeteries licensed by the board on or before July 1, 1984, which cemeteries own or control a total of less than the minimum acreage, but these cemeteries may not dispose of any of the lands.
(e) The provisions of subsections (a) and (b) relating to the minimum acreage do not apply when the governing body of a municipality which is within fifteen miles of the corporate limits of the City of Charlotte, North Carolina and in which the cemetery is to be located passes an ordinance authorizing a cemetery with less than thirty acres of land when a licensee establishes an irrevocable trust with a trust corpus of at least fifteen thousand dollars and five acres of land, and the dedication of fifteen percent of all future sales to deposit in the trust on a quarterly basis.