Law Commission recommends transparency for funeral costs

The law currently does not recognise a deceased person's wishes as to how their funeral should be carried out. Photo / Getty

Surprise funeral costs for grieving families means there should be a law change to require undertakers to clearly set out what will be provided and what the cost will be, the Law Commission says.

Other recommendations include making sure unclaimed ashes are retained for at least 10 years, and creating a new offence for lower-level examples of improperly treating a dead human body.

That would enable convictions and fines for behavior such as the inappropriate storage of bodies - such actions are often not prosecuted because the current penalty is imprisonment of up to two years.

The law currently does not recognise a deceased person's wishes as to how their funeral should be carried out. The commission wants that rectified by allowing people to appoint a trusted person as a "deceased's representative".

In cases where there is both a deceased's representative and an executor of the will, the deceased representative will make decisions about the funeral and body, leaving the executor to administer the estate.

A wide-ranging and five year review, released today, examines New Zealand's burial and cremation law and recommends the current Act be repealed, and a number of changes be made.

Trends noted by the commission include increasing demand for alternative funeral options such as eco-burial and biodegradable coffins, and more people opting for "DIY funerals" - where families undertake some funeral elements themselves.

Dr Wayne Mapp, the lead Commissioner on the review, said the review did not reveal widespread problems in the funeral sector - however, there were concerns in some areas which the commission believes justifies changes.

"We encountered widespread concern about the communication of the costs of funeral services. Consumers often felt it was unclear to them what was included in the cost of a funeral, especially regarding the 'professional services fee' element of funeral invoices and funeral packages," Dr Mapp said.

Another issue was that Kiwis expected the current law to provide assurances of high standards in the industry.

"That is inaccurate," Dr Mapp said. "While funeral directors must be registered with their local authority, there are no preconditions to registration, and there are no duties on funeral directors once registered."

The Law Commission's report, Death, Burial and Cremation: A new law for contemporary New Zealand, has now been tabled in the House of Representatives and contains recommendations including:

• Limiting registration as a funeral service provider to those who meet low-level conditions, including that the person does not have convictions for certain serious criminal offences, including dishonesty, and those who have previously had their licence cancelled or suspended.

• Making providers provide customers with an itemised statement of costs before a contract is signed.

• Requiring owners and managers to perform basic statutory duties, including in record keeping, supervising unregistered employees - and making sure they retain unclaimed ashes for at least 10 years.

As well as the Law Commission's recommendations in relation to the funeral sector, its report covers death certification, cemeteries and crematoria, and burial decisions.
On death certification, the commission says nurses should have the power to determine the cause of death in some circumstances, which would be useful in places such as rest homes.

There should also be a national audit system for cause of death determinations - that would see medical practitioners to review a random sample of all deaths, except those referred to the coroner. This would detect errors, and pick up cases that should have been referred to the coroner.

The commission's recommendations around cemeteries and crematoria include establishing a new statute to treat a dead human body with respect, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000.

Currently, the offence of improperly or indecently interfering with any human body is imprison-able, and lower-level offending such as inappropriate storage of bodies is often not prosecuted.

The commission also thinks families wishing to disinter remains or relocate them should only require the permission of the cemetery manager - not the Minister of Health.

Growing diversity also means local authority cemetery managers should consider applications from any group of people for separate burial areas within a cemetery.

Currently, they are required to only consider applications from religious groups.

Any group should be able to apply to set-up a cemetery, and apply for burial on private land if it is rural and the cemetery won't be larger than five plots.

As well as allowing the establishment of deceased's representatives, the commission said the rules and processes should be clarified when there is a dispute between family as to how or where a person is buried.

Currently, only the High Court can resolve such disputes. This should be widened to include the Family Court or the Maori Land Court, the report states.