---
title: O.C.G.A. § 36-72-3. Authority of counties and municipalities to preserve abandoned cemeteries.
collection: code
id: 36-72-3
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 36-72-3 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72-3
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72-3.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72-3/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t36-ch60-92-(v27a)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=1fad51cc_0#page=322
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72-2.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-72-4.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: LOCAL GOVERNMENT / Provisions Applicable to Counties and Municipal Corporations / ABANDONED CEMETERIES AND BURIAL GROUNDS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 36-72-3. Authority of counties and municipalities to preserve abandoned cemeteries.

Counties, anywhere within the county boundaries, and municipalities, anywhere within the municipal boundaries, are authorized, jointly and severally, to preserve and protect any abandoned cemetery or any burial ground which the county or municipality determines has been abandoned or is not being maintained by the person who is legally responsible for its upkeep, whether or not that person is financially capable of doing so, to expend public money in connection therewith, to provide for reimbursement of such funds by billing any legally responsible person or levying upon any of his property as authorized by local ordinance, and to exercise the power of eminent domain to acquire any interest in land necessary for that purpose.

## History

Code 1981, § 36-72-3, enacted by Ga. L. 1991, p. 924, § 3; Ga. L. 1992, p. 2508, § 2.

## Law Reviews

For annual survey article discussing local government law, see 51 Mercer L. Rev. 397 (1999).