Riga City Funeral Service
Information service 24/7
Obtaining a burial plot in Riga is an administrative procedure with clear steps, and a family has to go through it at the moment it has least strength for it. The good news is that there are not many steps and most of them can be settled without travelling between offices. This article sets out who takes the decision, which documents are needed in each situation and which deadlines apply.
Riga City Funeral Service arranges the plot together with the rest of the funeral arrangement, so the family does not have to deal with the cemetery keeper itself. Advice around the clock: +371 2208 4540
A plot is allocated by the cemetery keeper on the basis of a written application. Two practical things follow. First, the matter is not settled in conversation — an application is required. Second, the decision rests with the particular cemetery, not with any central body, so the cemetery is chosen first and the application written afterwards.
An application for a plot in an open cemetery may also be submitted electronically, through the e-service KP-1. This is the most convenient route for families who are not in Riga. If you come in person, note that keepers receive from Tuesday to Saturday from 8.30 to 16.00, closed on Mondays.
Families meet this unexpectedly. Of the 22 cemeteries of Riga municipality, new plots are allocated in only two: Jaunciems and Bolderāja. The other 15 are partially closed — burials there take place only in existing family plots — and 5 are closed, where only the burial of an urn in an existing plot is possible.
In practice this means the choice is usually between a new plot in one of the two open cemeteries and a burial in the family plot where relatives already lie. The status and address of every cemetery are in the list of cemeteries, and where a family plot already exists, the article on a further burial in a family plot will be useful.
The set of documents depends not on the cemetery but on the family's situation:
| Situation | What is required |
|---|---|
| A new plot in an open cemetery | A written application to the cemetery keeper, or the e-service KP-1; the death certificate |
| Burial in an existing family plot | The written consent of the plot holder and a copy of the death certificate |
| The plot is registered to a relative who has died | First an application to the keeper to take over the rights of the plot holder; in a dispute, precedence goes to whoever filed first |
| Urn burial in a closed cemetery | The holder's consent; the keeper is informed of the placing of the urn 24 hours in advance |
The full list of documents needed for a funeral as a whole — from the death certificate to the permissions — is on the page documents for burial.
This is where people are most often mistaken: Riga municipality makes no charge for the allocation of the plot itself. It acts so following the Constitutional Court judgment of 5 March 2019. The phrase "buying a burial plot" therefore does not describe Riga — a plot is not bought, it is allocated on application.
The paid services are others, and it is they that make up the bill: grave digging, use of the chapel and grave care. To these are added the ordinary funeral costs — coffin, transport, ceremony. Part of the cost is covered by the funeral benefit.
If you would prefer a specialist to take on the arrangement of the plot and the dealings with the keeper, that is what we do — the service is described on the page cemetery plot.
