Calls for tougher regulations to stop rogue funeral directors

The president of Belgium's funeral sector federation has called for “clear and uniform regulations” after reports of rogue funeral directors taking dead bodies "hostage" to get a better chance of directing their funerals.

On 21 January, Teresa Sdralevich found her ex-partner had died after a fall. As the police could not reach the relatives, they asked the funeral director they worked with to take the body to the municipal morgue. After that, Sdralevich could choose a funeral director.

However, she then received a call from a funeral director in Jette funeral director proposing to take care of the funeral. When Sdralevich opted for someone else, she found that the director who first contacted her had already taken the body to his own funeral home, without permission, and then demanded payment before letting it go.

He did negotiate his price down from €400 to €275. But the police said that he should only have taken the body to the morgue, not kept it himself.

The funeral director in question told Het Laatste Nieuws that he had worked correctly: “I offered the lady two options: she could transfer the body to the municipal mortuary, but this would be without frills and the possibility of visiting. Or, we could bring the body to us and ensure it is kept in a decent state.

"The lady chose the latter. The fact that she eventually decided to choose another entrepreneur is her business. My costs must also be reimbursed. It is true that the price was negotiated. I had the impression that she did not have enough money and I lowered the price accordingly."

Following this debacle, the director was expelled from the Brussels federation. “He did not act correctly, he always tried to bring bodies back to his business and was anything but collegial,” said Brussels Funeral Directors’ Union president, Marc Wouters.

And cases such as this are not uncommon, according to Johan Dexters, president of the royal federation of Belgium’s funeral sector, Funebra.

“Since these reports, we have received additional complaints about similar situations,” he said, adding that the problem lies with the framework contracts funeral directors conclude with municipalities.

These contracts are used when a body needs to be transported urgently and the next of kin cannot be reached immediately. This can be the case when the police are called in, but also in situations where a CPAS (Belgium’s welfare service) is responsible for the funeral. The municipality then works with a funeral director who performs this task through a contract.

“Sometimes that’s only €75,” said Dexters. “You cannot even cover transport costs with that. Nevertheless, funeral directors choose to conclude these framework contracts, because then they are the first to arrive, and so have a better chance of taking on the funeral as well. In this way, they can recover the low cost of the framework contract.”

Dexters said that the above-mentioned case – where the initial price was greatly reduced – reveals the problem of unclear and fluctuating prices. According to Belgium’s economy ministry, in 2023, some 70% of the 216 funeral directors inspected broke the rules.

In Brussels, eight out of 17 funeral directors inspected were found to be at fault, mainly for providing incomplete price information on websites, unclear quotes and incorrect sending of the order forms. One entrepreneur was also receiving cash payments above the legal limit of €3,000, resulting in 10 warnings and two official reports.

For Dexters, more controls and stricter regulations governing who can become a funeral director are essential. He highlighted that the abolishing, in 2018, of the 1988 Establishment [of businesses] Act in Flanders, stating that only qualified entrepreneurs could practise the profession “has led to quality problems,” as now anyone can take on the role without training.

"I hope Brussels doesn’t make that mistake," he added.