Who pays for a funeral

ArtaneGuy

Probably the wrong category but I couldn't find a suitable one. But just on a point where a person dies, is there a legal requirement for a next of kin to pay funeral costs? Not a moral one. If so who decides or what metric is used to say who that person is? If someone dies that is estranged from all the relations what happens then?

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334931/who-pays-for-a-funeral

The funeral costs are usually paid from the deceased persons estate. If the deceased has no money or estate then I guess the responsibility of paying rests with the person who arranged the funeral with the funeral director.

banie01

As Deeec has said, the funeral costs are usually taken from the estate. That said, whomever arranges the funeral is on the hook for the cost with the undertaker. They contracted for the service, not the deceased. As such, the liability lies with reps of the estate. The usual practice is that the reps recover their costs from the estate in the course of settling up affairs.

If the deceased has no assets, the State does offer assistance via the exceptional needs payment.

Other steps I'd advise to anyone in such a position would be to check if the deceased had any credit union accounts, as well as checking for any accounts at banks.

Credit union accounts generally carry a death benefit that can be assigned to the undertaker.

If your question isn't a hypothetical, and I hope that it is. I am sorry for your loss.

ArtaneGuy

Thanks for the replies and yes it's just a hypothetical.

zell12

If there is no-one else, the DSP or the Council pays for a pauper's funeral

https://www.thejournal.ie/paupers-funerals-2699366-Apr2016/

ArtaneGuy

Yes I saw this while searching, but I suppose to clarify my question, if a husband dies, is there any legal obligation on behalf of his wife/ children, to pay for any funeral if all are estranged from him?

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121729603#Comment_121729603

The only means of there being an obligation IMO, would be if any of the aforementioned contracted with an undertaker to arrange the service.

If they didn't arrange the funeral, they don't pay for it and aren't liable.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121729603#Comment_121729603

As above.

Merely for clarity, there is an obligation to dispose of human remains properly. If someone doesn't have the financial or emotional / mental wherewithal to do so, there should not take custody of the remains.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121729603#Comment_121729603

There's no requirement to even have a funeral.

The only requirement is to have a burial or cremation, or other hygiene-approved disposal. Ie you cannot just leave the body to rot at the bottom of the garden.

Next question: is there any legal requirement to claim the body?

ArtaneGuy

I suppose the question is who that requirement falls to? And if nobody was to come forward, is there some system that is used to declare a person responsible?

iniscealtra

It would be sensible to get a divorce. So the couple have no legal ties.

ArtaneGuy

But regardless of the circumstances, is there actually a legal requirement? Say I die and leave no estate, are my children legally responsible to dispose of my remains? Or if nobody claims the body does the state dispose of it? It's something I can't get an answer from the web although say a homeless person would be disposed of by the state given that they had nobody to claim them.

Water John

No, the local authority is the agency charged with burials.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121730242#Comment_121730242

Still costs them legal fees

iniscealtra

I honestly don’t know but if married you might have property in common i.e. a house. That would belong to the couple and be part of the estate. Are there no assets?

iniscealtra

https://m.independent.ie/news/new-cost-of-irish-funeral-revealed-as-they-are-not-immune-to-inflation/42163654.html