When selling interment rights on a preneed basis, it was once very common for cemeteries to include a forfeiture clause in the sales agreement.  If the consumer used installment payments to pay for a grave space and defaulted on that payment plan, the terms of the contract would declare all payments applied to the contract to have been forfeited.  The cemetery retained all payments and the consumer received nothing in exchange.  The forfeiture clause has long been a source of criticism against the cemetery industry, and it should be ditched.  Instead, cemeteries should allow defaulting consumers a credit that may be used against a future purchase of interment rights or at-need services.  The credit will serve as an inducement to the consumer to eventually return to the cemetery, even if for cremation scattering services.