Funeral Nightmare

wilma1

My father recently passed away and as next of kin i have been organising the funeral and other arrangements. Unfortunately we had a major problem in that a funeral director has been and collected the body today without permission which i am infuriated about and want to know if theres anything i can do about it.

On the day my father died my mother called a recommended funeral director to inquire about what needs to happen. They spoke briefly and the director suggested a face-to-face meeting. My mother replied that as i was the person organising everything she would talk to me and leave it me as to whether we needed to get back in touch. There was no talk of fees, arrangements anything - just an initial phone inquiry.

I had managed to find a different director and never needed to contact this or any other director but then today when i went to the hospital to meet the registrar and get the death certificates, body release form and cremation form i was told that the body had already been collected that morning..!

The funeral directors my mum had inquired with had been and collected the body without even having the cremation form or release forms. I spoke with the mortician who said it was Halifax hospitals policy not to need the green cremation form or the release form to allow the body to leave their mortuary but other hospitals do require these forms. I called the funeral director at fault who only told me what my mum had told me that they had an initial chat but no fees or arrangements made but for some reason took that as if they were handling the funeral?!

I am currently trying to sort out getting the body back in time for the cremation but as you can imagine i am furous and want to know legally where i stand with this situation - mainly with the funeral directors actions but also with the hospital releasing the body without any correct consent.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance. Lee

shellsuit

Hi Lee, So sorry about your Father.

I have no advice to offer you I'm afraid, but I wish you luck with this ~ what happened is absolutely shocking!!

whitewing

Lee,

I know how hard I found it when my grandparents died, so this current situation must be extremely hard for you.

I think you have enough on your plate for now to sort out the funeral and your grief. I think you should just leave you complaint until a couple of weeks or more after the funeral when you have less on your plate. Then just put your complaint in writing to both sets of people and see what response you get back.