Help regarding next of kin death

[ayceejay]

My brother lived in England he died last December. We were not close so it was only due to a birthday card I sent him that the police located me today. I spoke with the coroner who explained the cause of death etc and he said that because no next of kin or family could be located his body was cremated and the cost was covered by his effects.
As you can imagine I find it very stressful finding out this way but my question to anyone who might know about these things is - is this normal procedure? I find it hard to believe there was no evidence of me and what normally happens with personal effects bank accounts etc not to mention his remains?

 

[Jayaly]

I'm afraid I have no idea whether this is normal, but it must be a horrible thing to experience. I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[summerdays]

Sorry about the death of your brother and learning of it that way.

I have watched a program that was sort of to do with sorting out wills that was on first thing in the morning (mainly because I like finding out about my family history, and seeing the methods that they used.

From what I remember the assets are frozen, and they try to search for who might inherit them, they try to cherry pick those that they think might have left a bit because they got a percentage of it for finding them? (It's a long time since I've seen the program so that may be wrong). Have you tried contacting either the local authority or his neighbour's who may be able to tell you a little more?

 

[TVC]

Sorry to hear this. I can understand your shock and distress.

I believe that in the event where nobody is in place to organise the funeral and all the matters surrounding that then the responsibility falls to the council where he lived, it is known as a Public Health Funeral. There must be an officer at the council that was assigned his case, perhaps you should try to find them, either from your Police contact or visiting the council website and searching public health funeral.

 

[Rezillo]

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Generally, the local authority, after making efforts to trace relatives, will arrange the funeral and deduct costs from the estate. The estate used to then go to the Treasury Solicitor but I don't know if that is still the case. Technically it is up to the coroner to trace relatives but when I was involved in this process many years ago, the coroner's attempts could be fairly cursory and it was best for the council to search the person's home. I can assure you that the people involved in this process deal with everything sensitively - I used to find it quite upsetting.

There's a fairly good explanation of the process here : http://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/200437/public_health_funerals

I think your next step is to contact the local council. Unfortunately, you will have to be prepared to be passed round departments as it is a fairly obscure service and may go under rather inappropriate names such as paupers funerals.

 

[ayceejay]

Thank you very much everyone, I am at least getting a clearer picture of procedure.

 

[Mrs M]

Can't offer any practical advice but sorry to hear this.

 

[DCLane]

My condolences to you; I hope you're able to find out more than this.

 

[cyberknight]

Its normal. my sister died and as she had lived in sheltered accommodation due to her health we were not informed for maybe 2-3 weeks afterwards, the cost of the funeral was taken from her bank/ possessions and then an inquest was done .
It took maybe 6 months after the funeral before her remaining saving were released to next of kin.