Body sent to wrong funeral home by care services.

acR

Hello, My Uncle died recently at home whilst under constant care. It was during the night and the carer just rang the nearest funeral director to have the body removed. My Uncle had a prepaid funeral plan from a company which this particular funeral director didn't work with. The next day body then had to moved to the correct funeral director. I have just been told we will be billed for having to have the body relocated. It is a not insignificant sum. 
If the carer had rang the next of kin they could have informed them of this as they had all the details of the funeral plan. Do they have cause for complaint or should they just leave it ?

eskbanker

I suspect that much will depend on the terms of the carer's contract, i.e. if it addresses how this situation ought to be dealt with, and the extent to which next of kin need to be contacted for instructions.

LightFlare

Not sure how they think you are liable.

You didn’t have a contract with them

FlorayG

Surely the carers must have called the next of kin to tell them he had died? So their argument may be that they were not given any specific instructions when they called
If they called the funeral director before calling the relatives that's a bit weird - and even then the relatives could have countermanded their instructions

Undervalued

acR said:

Hello, My Uncle died recently at home whilst under constant care. It was during the night and the carer just rang the nearest funeral director to have the body removed. My Uncle had a prepaid funeral plan from a company which this particular funeral director didn't work with. The next day body then had to moved to the correct funeral director. I have just been told we will be billed for having to have the body relocated. It is a not insignificant sum. 
If the carer had rang the next of kin they could have informed them of this as they had all the details of the funeral plan. Do they have cause for complaint or should they just leave it ?

Are you the next of kin or named in your Uncle's will as an executor?

user1977

FlorayG said:

Surely the carers must have called the next of kin to tell them he had died? So their argument may be that they were not given any specific instructions when they called
If they called the funeral director before calling the relatives that's a bit weird - and even then the relatives could have countermanded their instructions

Or if the death wasn't unexpected - why wasn't the carer left with instructions about the correct funeral directors to use?

Andy_L

When my FiL moved into a home they wanted to be told what funeral director we wanted him sent to if/when he died

Grumpy_chap

acR said:

Hello, My Uncle died recently at home whilst under constant care. It was during the night and the carer just rang the nearest funeral director to have the body removed. My Uncle had a prepaid funeral plan from a company which this particular funeral director didn't work with. The next day body then had to moved to the correct funeral director. I have just been told we will be billed for having to have the body relocated. It is a not insignificant sum. 
If the carer had rang the next of kin they could have informed them of this as they had all the details of the funeral plan. Do they have cause for complaint or should they just leave it ?

Are there gaps in the information here?

If the individual was under constant care, did the Carer present when he took a turn for the worst not call for an Ambulance / Doctor in the first instance?
I would have then expected the Ambulance to take the patient (even if obviously deceased) to the hospital, where a Dr can formally declare life extinct.  Perhaps the Ambulance would transfer direct to the hospital mortuary if the Medics on board were able to declare life extinct. 
Arrangements for transfer to a Funeral Director would then follow in the fullness of day.

So far as I an aware, out of hours calls to Funeral Directors are not really a common thing - at least not in this country and outside of the movie screen.

teaselMay

There are plenty of circumstances where calling an ambulance or doctor is not what happens, or should happen, when someone dies. 

born_again

teaselMay said:

There are plenty of circumstances where calling an ambulance or doctor is not what happens, or should happen, when someone dies. 

Someone has to declare the person deceased. This has to be either a doctor & someone with the correct level of training.

Sad for OP, but was anyone called by the carer from the family, as that would be odd not too, even at anytime of day or night.

teaselMay

yeah sorry I meant not as an emergency as was implied in previous post