What happens if you don't have funeral insurance? If you do not have funeral insurance, the municipality will take care of the funeral in the first instance. The municipality will then investigate whether someone of your next of kin could not have paid for the funeral (duty of care). You can roughly distinguish 3 persons or groups of persons who have to pay for the funeral: 1. The principal of the funeral. He or she may of course set off against the estate, but if this is insufficient, he / she is contractually bound to the funeral director and must make the payment himself. 2. The heirs. The principal as referred to under 1) usually belongs to the heirs. 3. A group of relatives by blood and affinity. Sometimes they are heirs, sometimes they are not. If they are not a client, they are still approachable.

If the municipality - if no one else is the client - arranges and pays for the funeral, the municipality can recover the costs from these people. Anyone other than the municipality cannot recover the costs from relatives by blood and affinity who are not heirs. This last group of people who are ultimately accountable for the costs of funeral services of a (ex) family member is mentioned in the law (Article 392 et seq. Book 1, Civil Code). They are the parents, children and children in marriage, parents-in-law and step-parents, but they are only discussed after the spouse or former spouse (or registered partner) has taken his or her coat.

There are still some exceptions and limitations. The natural father of a child and the mate of the mother, who herself is not the procreator but agreed to the act that resulted in the conception (the Civil Code is , as you can see), are also approachable. You can read it yourself; this law can be found in various places on the internet.

It would not be nice for your surviving relatives (children) to be faced with a major financial problem, children often work, have their own family, a house for sale. The municipality can have your children's income or their own home seized.