This is in regards to the state of NJ
Don't know if this should be posted under this thread, I wasn't sure.
Can a funeral home charge for services not authorized? And what are the laws regarding certain services?
There are many different things to this so please read all, thank you.
We have been have contunious problems with a funeral home over the course of a year regarding my uncle. When he died my mother (his sister) and my sister and myself were living in a different state across the country. He never married or had children so his sister, myself, and my sister became his next of kin per his will and insurance policy with my mother being the executrix. The funeral home where they brought him asked us shortly after he was brought there what we wanted to do. Per conversations with my mother, my uncle said he wanted to be cremated and she told them that but she wanted to check with his insurance company to see what was available. She wasn't able to get a definite answer until about 4 days later. It also wasn't helping that they all were in a 3 hour different time zone than us. She got a price list for the cremation service lists and wrote down what she wanted done and faxed an authorization sheet as to what to do. That was on a Fri. One of the directors said they were so busy that following Monday morning they still hadn't done the services authorized. A couple days later they told us they had not cremated him because my uncle and mother's aunt, (who was barely in their lives but that's another story) who was living in a different state as well, wanted a whole funeral service with a mass and everything. Because we could not afford to fly out and we were his only immediate family we did not want them to have a whole funeral like that there and wanted to do that out where we were living at my mother's church with his ashes. Because she was the executrix, my mother said she had the final say. The funeral home said they were "going to do what they feel is right" regarding having a mass and the whole funeral service. On that same day my mother called the insurance company and said not to pay the funeral home because we were afraid they were going to charge for the things we didn't want. They said they were already processing it and we couldn't stop it. We did not find out when they finally cremated him. It wasn't until his ashes came in the mail at least a month later that we knew they had finally cremated him. His ashes came in a plastic bag type thing with a tie on top in a box they mailed it in.
We have been on and off trying to find out how to get the rest of the insurance policy (which is not much anyway but my uncle wanted us to have it and anything helps) and have heard various things as to what to do. We wanted to get an itemized list from the funeral home as to what services were rendered so we know what they actually took from the policy. They finally just sent it over and it was more than my mother authorized and it is labeled as an unpaid invoice asking us to pay. We asked for a basic cremation service. What is says is; sheltering remains 7 days @ $60, alternative container $250 (the plastic bag?), etc. They have embalming listed and it states (family authorized/state law). Well it wasn't family authorized because he was going to be cremated and if they have a refrigeration system why would he need to be embalmed at all let alone a second time that they threatened to do. Is it state law even if they are going to cremate? The state is NJ. My mother also just called the insurance company and they are now saying nothing was put through. We are confused and we do not want to be taken which is what we think they are trying to do.
They also said things to my mother that we think are inappropriate and insensitive and not impartial. Such as it's sad that my mother wasn't taking care of her brother's remains, their words, despite the challenges she was facing trying to get everything taken care of from a distance, and that they would need to do another embalming if a decision wasn't made so that his remains wouldn't make his staff sick, that after already embalming him one time. That's in addition to the comment that they were going to do "what's right" against my mother's wishes. All of this has made my Uncle's death, an already hard thing for many reasons, all the more harder for us.
Can someone please tell us what they think of this situation and what we should do. Can they charge for things we did not authorize? Prior paperwork they sent said that most of those services were included in an earlier quote we were given which was $2,000 less then the current quote. They are also charging for interest at over $600! What are the embalming rules? We really feel we were wronged on many levels. Please help.
I should probably state that the bill is almost $6000, when my mother was originally quoted at $3,515. Is that a normal number for a very basic cremation which is what we said we wanted?
Don't know if this should be posted under this thread, I wasn't sure.
Can a funeral home charge for services not authorized? And what are the laws regarding certain services?
There are many different things to this so please read all, thank you.
We have been have contunious problems with a funeral home over the course of a year regarding my uncle. When he died my mother (his sister) and my sister and myself were living in a different state across the country. He never married or had children so his sister, myself, and my sister became his next of kin per his will and insurance policy with my mother being the executrix. The funeral home where they brought him asked us shortly after he was brought there what we wanted to do. Per conversations with my mother, my uncle said he wanted to be cremated and she told them that but she wanted to check with his insurance company to see what was available. She wasn't able to get a definite answer until about 4 days later. It also wasn't helping that they all were in a 3 hour different time zone than us. She got a price list for the cremation service lists and wrote down what she wanted done and faxed an authorization sheet as to what to do. That was on a Fri. One of the directors said they were so busy that following Monday morning they still hadn't done the services authorized. A couple days later they told us they had not cremated him because my uncle and mother's aunt, (who was barely in their lives but that's another story) who was living in a different state as well, wanted a whole funeral service with a mass and everything. Because we could not afford to fly out and we were his only immediate family we did not want them to have a whole funeral like that there and wanted to do that out where we were living at my mother's church with his ashes. Because she was the executrix, my mother said she had the final say. The funeral home said they were "going to do what they feel is right" regarding having a mass and the whole funeral service. On that same day my mother called the insurance company and said not to pay the funeral home because we were afraid they were going to charge for the things we didn't want. They said they were already processing it and we couldn't stop it. We did not find out when they finally cremated him. It wasn't until his ashes came in the mail at least a month later that we knew they had finally cremated him. His ashes came in a plastic bag type thing with a tie on top in a box they mailed it in.
We have been on and off trying to find out how to get the rest of the insurance policy (which is not much anyway but my uncle wanted us to have it and anything helps) and have heard various things as to what to do. We wanted to get an itemized list from the funeral home as to what services were rendered so we know what they actually took from the policy. They finally just sent it over and it was more than my mother authorized and it is labeled as an unpaid invoice asking us to pay. We asked for a basic cremation service. What is says is; sheltering remains 7 days @ $60, alternative container $250 (the plastic bag?), etc. They have embalming listed and it states (family authorized/state law). Well it wasn't family authorized because he was going to be cremated and if they have a refrigeration system why would he need to be embalmed at all let alone a second time that they threatened to do. Is it state law even if they are going to cremate? The state is NJ. My mother also just called the insurance company and they are now saying nothing was put through. We are confused and we do not want to be taken which is what we think they are trying to do.
They also said things to my mother that we think are inappropriate and insensitive and not impartial. Such as it's sad that my mother wasn't taking care of her brother's remains, their words, despite the challenges she was facing trying to get everything taken care of from a distance, and that they would need to do another embalming if a decision wasn't made so that his remains wouldn't make his staff sick, that after already embalming him one time. That's in addition to the comment that they were going to do "what's right" against my mother's wishes. All of this has made my Uncle's death, an already hard thing for many reasons, all the more harder for us.
Can someone please tell us what they think of this situation and what we should do. Can they charge for things we did not authorize? Prior paperwork they sent said that most of those services were included in an earlier quote we were given which was $2,000 less then the current quote. They are also charging for interest at over $600! What are the embalming rules? We really feel we were wronged on many levels. Please help.
I should probably state that the bill is almost $6000, when my mother was originally quoted at $3,515. Is that a normal number for a very basic cremation which is what we said we wanted?
Last edited:
