Senate Bill No. 499
(By Senators Sprouse and Ball)
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[Introduced February 11, 1999;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section five, article five-b, chapter
thirty-five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring that
preneed cemetery contracts contain an itemized price
listing.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article five-b, chapter thirty-five of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5B. PRENEED CEMETERY COMPANY PROPERTY, GOODS AND
SERVICES; RELATED CONTRACTS.
§35-5B-5. Requirements for preneed cemetery company contracts.
A preneed cemetery company contract shall:
(1) Be written in clear understandable language and printed in easy-to-read type, size and style;
(2) Identify the seller, the contract buyer and the person
for whom the contract is bought if other than the contract buyer;
(3) Contain a complete description of the property, goods or
services bought;
(4) Clearly disclose whether the price of the property,
goods or services bought is guaranteed;
(5) Provide that if the particular property, goods and
services specified in the contract are unavailable at the time of
delivery, the seller shall be required to furnish property, goods
and services similar in size and style and at least equal in
quality of material and workmanship and that the representative
of the deceased has the right to reasonably choose the property,
goods or services to be substituted; and
(6) Clearly disclose a complete and descriptive itemization
of the cost for all property, goods and services that are the
subject of the contract; and
(6) (7) Be executed in duplicate and a signed copy given to the buyer.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the cemetery
industry to disclose itemized pricing in preneed cemetery company
sales contracts.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.