Can You Create a Family Burial Ground on Your Property in Washington State?
For many people, estate planning is about more than deciding who receives property after death. It can also involve deciding what happens to the property itself—and even where you want to be buried.
Beginning in 2026, Washington law expressly allows property owners to establish a family burial ground on privately owned land.
The new law creates an interesting estate-planning opportunity for people who own rural acreage, family property, farms, forests, or other land they hope to keep connected to their family for generations.
It may also provide an option for someone who wants a simple natural burial on land that is personally meaningful to them.
Washington's New Family Burial Ground Law
In 2026, Washington enacted Chapter 68.74 RCW, establishing a legal framework for private family burial grounds.
The Legislature explained that the law is intended to provide greater flexibility in choosing where people are interred and to support individual and family connectivity with the land.
Under the new law, a natural person may designate part of land they own as a family burial ground.
Despite the name, Washington's definition is broader than you might expect. Interments in a family burial ground may, but do not have to, be limited to people related by birth, marriage, or adoption.
That means the law potentially provides flexibility for unmarried individuals, people without descendants, and property owners whose idea of “family” does not fit neatly into a traditional family tree.
How Much of Your Property Can Become a Burial Ground?
There are important limitations.
A family burial ground cannot occupy more than 10% of the parcel on which it is established.
It must also be located:
- At least 25 feet from an existing parcel boundary;
- At least 150 feet from a designated critical area;
- At least 100 feet from a public right-of-way or easement;
- At least 100 feet from an existing drinking-water well; and
- At least 200 feet from an existing drinking-water spring.
These requirements make choosing the location important.
For example, someone purchasing 20 acres of forest with the goal of eventually being buried there may want to identify an appropriate burial area before purchasing the property, particularly if the land contains wetlands, streams, steep slopes, wells, easements, or other features that could limit where a burial ground can be established.
What If the Property Is Owned by More Than One Person?
Washington allows a family burial ground to be established on property owned by multiple individuals, but all of the owners must consent in writing.
The statute also contains an important restriction for estate planning: a family burial ground cannot initially be established on property co-owned by a combination of natural persons and legal entities.
That means ownership structure matters.
If establishing a family burial ground is part of a larger estate plan, it may make sense to consider the burial-ground designation before transferring the property into an LLC or other entity.
Can You Create a Natural or “Green” Family Cemetery?
For some property owners, this may be the most appealing use of the new law.
Imagine owning 20 or 40 acres of forest that you intend to leave substantially untouched. Instead of being buried in a conventional cemetery, you designate a small portion of the property as a family burial ground.
The burial area might remain forested and largely indistinguishable from the surrounding property, subject to applicable burial, public-health, and local requirements.
The property could potentially become both a family legacy and the family's final resting place.
The law also allows mausoleums and columbaria on family burial grounds, although those structures are subject to specific construction and local permitting requirements.
Can a Family Burial Ground Help Preserve Land?
Potentially—but the burial-ground designation should not be confused with a conservation restriction.
Suppose someone owns 40 acres of forest and wants two things:
- To be buried on the property; and
- To ensure that the forest remains undeveloped after death.
Creating a family burial ground may accomplish the first objective, but it does not necessarily accomplish the second.
A more comprehensive estate plan might combine a small family burial ground with a separate conservation strategy for the surrounding property.
Depending on the owner's goals, that could involve a conservation easement, a gift or devise to an appropriate conservation organization, restrictions on future development, or another long-term ownership arrangement.
This can create two complementary protections: one dealing with the person's burial and another dealing with the future of the land itself.
What About Someone Without Children or Other Family?
The new statute may be particularly interesting for someone who does not have traditional heirs.
Washington's definition of a family burial ground does not require every person buried there to be related.
Consider someone who owns 40 acres of forest, has no children, and cares more about preserving the property than passing its economic value to beneficiaries.
Their estate plan might contemplate establishing a small family burial ground while they own the property and developing a separate plan under which the larger property is ultimately preserved for conservation purposes.
For that person, the legacy is not necessarily the monetary value of the land.
The land itself can be the legacy.
Instead of the property eventually being sold and developed, the owner's estate plan could seek to preserve the forest, habitat, or open space while also allowing the owner to be buried on the land they chose to protect.
That type of plan requires careful coordination among Washington burial law, real-property law, conservation planning, and the owner's will or trust.
Can You Sell Burial Plots?
A family burial ground is not intended to become a commercial cemetery.
Chapter 68.74 places restrictions on financial transactions involving the burial ground, including selling burial plots or charging for certain burial-related goods and services.
Someone interested in operating a cemetery as a business therefore needs to consider a very different legal framework.
The family burial-ground law is better understood as a way for private property owners to establish a place of interment on their own land.
What Happens When Someone Is Buried There?
The law also creates recordkeeping requirements.
After an interment, information concerning the burial must be reported to the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and recorded with the county auditor.
That record helps permanently document the existence and location of the grave.
This is particularly important because property can change hands generations later. A future owner needs to know that human remains are located on the property.
Washington law accordingly also requires disclosure of an existing family burial ground to prospective purchasers.
Can the Property Ever Be Sold?
Yes.
Establishing a family burial ground does not necessarily mean that the surrounding parcel can never be transferred.
Washington's statute specifically anticipates future sales by requiring disclosure of the burial ground to prospective purchasers.
That is another reason to think beyond the burial designation itself if the owner's objective is permanent preservation of the property.
If the goal is that the land remain forest, farmland, habitat, or open space for generations, the estate plan should address what happens to the entire parcel—not merely the portion containing graves.
Can a City or County Say No?
Potentially.
Washington's new statewide law expressly gives cities and counties authority to regulate or prohibit the establishment of family burial grounds.
As a result, owning enough land and satisfying the state setback requirements does not necessarily mean a burial ground can be established on a particular parcel.
Before purchasing property specifically for this purpose—or before making the burial ground a central part of an estate plan—it is important to investigate the rules of the city or county where the property is located.
A Family Burial Ground Can Be Part of a Larger Estate Plan
For the right property owner, a family burial ground can be about much more than burial.
It can be part of a larger plan concerning:
- Who owns the property after your death;
- Which family members have the right to use the burial ground;
- Who is responsible for maintaining and accessing it;
- Whether the surrounding property can be developed or subdivided;
- Whether the land should remain in the family;
- Whether the property should eventually pass to a conservation organization; and
- How those goals interact with your will, trust, and other estate-planning documents.
The new law creates an option that Washington property owners largely did not have under such a clear statutory framework before 2026.
For someone with a meaningful connection to a piece of land, that creates some unusual and potentially powerful estate-planning possibilities.
Talk Through Your Situation
Establishing a family burial ground involves more than simply selecting a place on your property.
Ownership, local land-use rules, setbacks, future transfers, conservation goals, and your estate plan can all affect whether the arrangement works the way you intend.
If you own property in Washington—or are considering purchasing land with the goal of creating a family burial ground—Queen Anne Law can help you think through how the property fits into your broader estate plan and what should happen to the land after your death.
