Guidance

New Zealand: bereavement guide

Updated 28 September 2022

Disclaimer

This information is not meant to be definitive, nor is it to be taken as a substitute for independent legal advice. Neither His Majesty’s Government nor its staff take any responsibility for the accuracy of the information, nor accept liability for any loss, costs, damage or expense that you might suffer as a result of relying on the information. Some of the information may not be relevant to your circumstances. The language used is intended to be general and factual and is not meant to cause offence.

Introduction

The death of a relative or a friend is always a distressing experience. When the death occurs overseas, family and friends can feel additional distress as they are unfamiliar with procedures abroad. You may be uncertain about what to do next or who to contact for advice. Consular Directorate of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and our Consulates in New Zealand are ready to help and provide advice as far as they can. We offer help which is appropriate to the individual circumstances of each case. We will make an assessment of your needs, based on who you are, where you are, and what other support is available to you. Our assessment will help us define the type of support that we can offer.

Guidance on practical support British consular staff can provide in the event of an accidental death, death in hospital, murder or manslaughter abroad, and what you will need to do, can be found in our publications ‘Death overseas’ and ‘Guide for bereaved families’.

Whilst care has been taken in compiling this document, the contents are not meant to be a definitive statement of the law, nor are they to be taken as a substitute for independent legal advice.

The use of the terms body, body parts, remains, deceased etc. are not meant to offend you in any way. We realise that we are referring to your loved one and we mean no disrespect to the person you have lost.

Please note, as each country has its own laws and customs when a death occurs, it may not be possible to make the arrangements that you prefer, or at the time you would like.

How to contact the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

There is a lot of information below, but you may have questions. You can speak to someone by phone 24/7, any day of the year by contacting the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in London on 0207 008 1500.

If you are not in the UK, you can find the contact details of the nearest British embassy, high commission or consulate online.

The priority of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is to provide assistance to British nationals overseas who need the most help. The level and type of assistance they can offer is tailored to the individual circumstances of each case.

Next of kin

When someone dies in New Zealand and the next of kin is in the UK or abroad, New Zealand authorities normally notify the British Consulate in the area where the person has died. British Consulates will do whatever they can to trace the next of kin as soon as possible and would ask the UK police to pass on the sad news. However you might also be notified about the death directly by someone else, for example a doctor, a social worker or a police officer.

In New Zealand the seniority of next of kin is usually as follows:

  • spouse/partner/civil partner
  • adult child (i.e. over 18 years old)
  • parent
  • adult sibling
  • an adult with sufficient relationship to the deceased

An ex-partner is not regarded as next of kin.

Formal identification of the deceased is carried out by Police normally through having the body viewed by someone who knows the deceased. It doesn’t have to be done by the NOK. The next of kin of the person who died will usually need to make decisions and practical arrangements. The next of kin can sometimes appoint another person to act on their behalf.

Release of information to next of kin

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will try to obtain as much information as possible after your relative or friend has died abroad. Some of this may be only available to next of kin. Consular officers may be able to obtain this themselves, or they may put you in touch directly with the authorities overseas. They may be able to provide you with details of others who can advocate on your behalf such as lawyers, charities, or other organisations.

Insurance

It is very important to check if the person who died had insurance. If they had insurance, contact the insurance company as soon as possible. They may have a list of approved funeral directors to help you make arrangements, or be able to cover some of the costs.

If the person who died did not have insurance, the next of kin will usually have to appoint a funeral director and will usually be responsible for all costs. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office cannot help with these costs.

Appointing a funeral director

A relative or a formally appointed representative must instruct a local funeral director in New Zealand or an international funeral director in the UK for a body to be repatriated to the UK, or buried or cremated in New Zealand. However if the deceased was insured you should immediately contact the insurance company to establish if they are able to cover for the repatriation expenses and make the necessary arrangements. You may need the insurance policy number and the associated 24hr medical emergency contact number to do this. If the travel insurance company confirm that there is a current policy, you should not appoint your own funeral director or be pressurised by local funeral agencies to do so. It will be the insurance company that will appoint the funeral director both locally and in the UK.

If there is no insurance cover, unfortunately funds for repatriation or burial will need to be met by the family. Neither the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office nor our Consulates in New Zealand have budgets to meet these costs. See our separate list of UK international funeral directors and Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand. In New Zealand the funeral sector is not regulated, the largest industry group is the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand.

If you decide to bring the deceased to the UK for the funeral or cremation, you may only need to appoint an international funeral director. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office produces a list of international funeral directors based in the UK.

Registering the death and obtaining a death certificate

Local undertakers will register the death with the relevant authorities and will arrange for a New Zealand death certificate to accompany the remains.

In order to register the death the funeral director will ask you for some information.

This is likely to be:

Full name of the deceased, gender, date of birth (if born outside New Zealand, town and city of birth), date and place of death, residential address, usual occupation, whether married, father’s full name and occupation, and mother’s full name and occupation.

If you need to obtain a death certificate direct from the New Zealand authorities, please contact:

Death Certificates in New Zealand are issued by the Department of Internal Affairs - Births, Deaths and Marriages Section. You can order a certificate online, by post, in person or by phone.

Postal address is:

P O Box 10526,
Wellington 6143, New Zealand
Phone number: +64 9 339 0852

Online application: Department of Internal Affairs

In person: Find nearest DIA office

The cost for the certificate is $NZ33.

You are not able to register the death at the High Commission in New Zealand.

British passport cancellation

In order to avoid identity fraud a deceased person’s passport should be sent to His Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK, or to the nearest British Consulate in New Zealand, together with the death certificate and D01 form. Next of kin can request the passport to be returned after cancellation. Likewise, if the passport has been lost or mislaid, relatives should get in contact with either the nearest Consulate or passport office for instructions on reporting the loss of the passport.

Clothing and personal belongings

Personal belongings found on the deceased at the time of death are either handed over to the family, if they are present, or taken by the police. If the next of kin chooses repatriation, it is advisable to instruct the local undertaker to collect the belongings from the police and to ship personal belongings together with the body. If there is an investigation into the death, the deceased’s clothing can be retained as evidence and is not returned until the court case is finished.

Burial, cremation, repatriation

Local burial

If you choose a local burial, you will need to instruct a local funeral director, they can make the necessary arrangements with either a private or local authority owned cemetery. Natural burial options are available in New Zealand, please contact the local city council to find out if a certified natural cemetery is available within your location. A ceremony can be organised by the funeral director or a registered celebrant. You can make specific arrangements depending on your cultural and/or religious beliefs.

Local cremation

Cremation is common practice in New Zealand. If you are thinking of arranging a local cremation, please take advice from your local funeral director. Most crematoriums in New Zealand are able to host a funeral service, you can make specific arrangements with your funeral director depending on you cultural and/or religious beliefs. Many local council authorities allow for ashes to be scattered in publicly owned areas but you should contact the presiding council to comply with any local restrictions.

Repatriation to the UK

If the deceased was covered by travel insurance, the insurance company will normally have a standing agreement with an international funeral director in the UK to arrange repatriation. If the deceased was not covered by insurance, you will need to appoint a local undertaker in New Zealand or an international funeral director in the UK.

The majority of undertakers in New Zealand are equipped to carry out repatriation procedures and will provide full information about the process. Although the undertaker cannot begin preparing the body until the local Coroner has released the body, the funeral director can provide guidance and can organise the necessary New Zealand documents.

Please note that in the case of a sudden death, when a UK Coroner might request an autopsy in the UK, embalming might hinder some of the autopsy results.

If the decision has been made to cremate locally and the next of kin wish to transport the ashes to the UK in person this is possible. Please see our death abroad guidance. We also advise to check in advance with the airline about specific airline restrictions. If the decision has been made to transport the ashes unaccompanied you will need the assistance of a funeral director as neither NZ Post nor the International courier companies will carry human remains.

Autopsy / Post-Mortem

An Autopsy, which is also known as a Post-mortem, is normally performed when the death is not by natural causes.

Post-mortems are carried out by a pathologist (specially trained doctor) who will try and do the post mortem as soon as possible – usually it’s the next working day. . Where deaths need to be investigated by the coroner, the deceased will be transferred to the hospital morgue or nearest coronial mortuary, depending on location. At this point the coroner will require formal identification of the person who has died.

During a post-mortem, small tissue samples and organs may be removed and retained for testing, including toxicological studies. This is done in order to better understand the cause of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that might be present. It can be crucial to establish cause of death in cases where criminal or civil legal procedures may eventuate.

It is possible for the next of kin to object to an autopsy taking place or to request an external only or partial autopsy. The Coroner will take into account cultural or religious sensitivities. Coronial staff will often contact next of kin to explain the need for an autopsy and to inform them of the possible complications in the event that one is not undertaken. This can result in a death certificate having limited information as to cause of death which can impact on matters involving travel insurance and estate settlement. A body can normally be released for burial, cremation or repatriation once the autopsy is completed.

A brief autopsy report summarising the cause of death is usually available within 24-48 hours and is available through the Coroner’s Office.

Inquests

In New Zealand a Coroner will hold an inquiry to find out more about when and how the person has died. Inquiries are usually opened soon after the death but sometimes it can take weeks for the coroner to decide if there should be an inquiry. There has to be an inquiry in New Zealand if the person appears to have died from unexplained, violent or suspicious circumstances. Such as accidents, suicides or homicides; deaths that have occurred in prison, police custody, under a mental health compulsory treatment order, in a drug and alcohol institution or in care.

A Coroner may decide to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death to find out the identity of the deceased person, when and where they died, how they died and the medical cause of death. The Coroner may decide to hold an inquest to gather more information about the cause and circumstances of a death. An inquest must be held in certain circumstances, for example, if the death is in custody. In other cases, the Coroner might decide to hold an inquest if it is in the public interest. For example, where there is significant doubt about the facts or if holding an inquest might help prevent future deaths. It may take one to three years for the Coroner to release the final report.

Release of information

Access to information concerning a death is restricted until a Coroner has reviewed the evidence such as post-mortem and police reports. The New Zealand authorities will usually not provide this information directly to next of kin, or to third parties, including our Consulates, until after the conclusion of the preliminary investigation. The release of any information will usually take several months and in some more complicated instances, years.

Organ donation

In New Zealand there is no official register to donate organs. Following a death, health professionals will ask family if they are aware of the deceased wishes about donation. The New Zealand driver licence indicates whether you are a donor.

Please contact the Organ Donation New Zealand or a health professional to discuss further.

UK Coroners

The Coroner in England and Wales is obliged by law to hold an inquest into the cause of any unnatural or violent death of a person whose remains lie in his or her area, even if the death occurred overseas and a post-mortem has already been carried out before repatriation of the remains to the UK.

Coroners may order a second post mortem (i.e. subsequent to the first post mortem carried out abroad), as part of the inquest and it is at this stage that families are often made aware that organs have been removed and not replaced.

Coroners can request copies of post-mortem and police reports from the New Zealand authorities via the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. However, these will only be provided once any judicial proceedings abroad are completed. In some instances this can take many months. UK Coroners can compel witnesses to give evidence from England and Wales but not from abroad.

In Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) deals with the investigation of all sudden, suspicious, accidental, unexpected and unexplained deaths which occur in Scotland. However, the COPFS does not have the jurisdiction to investigate deaths that occur outside Scotland apart from in a few limited circumstances. Generally, those circumstances include terrorism, cases where the death may have been caused in Scotland but the person died outside Scotland and cases where the death was as a result of murder or culpable homicide caused by another British citizen or subject.

Coroners in Northern Ireland are not obliged to hold an inquest into cause of death.

However, next of kin can apply for a judicial review if no inquest is held.

There will be no Coroner’s inquest when the remains are buried or cremated overseas. Further information about the role of UK Coroners is available on the FCDO publication: Guide for Bereaved Families.

Legal Aid is a Government legal service dealing mainly with family law and criminal legal matters. They provide free legal advice as well as court representation, and grants of legal aid funds to pay for a legal aid lawyer or a private solicitor. For further information on this, or how to find a lawyer if you need one, see our list of lawyers.

If the cause of death was accidental, there may be financial assistance available from ACC to help with funeral costs. A one-off discretionary grant is available to assist eligible family who have lost a loved one to a homicide through Victims Assistance Scheme (VAS). In some cases, this grant is also available after a death which results from another criminal act for which charges have been laid by Police. Work and Income (MSD) may help if the deceased was on a New Zealand benefit or low income. Either agency can be contacted direct or by the funeral director.

Mortuary facilities

New Zealand mortuary facilities are of similar standard to the UK. If someone dies while in hospital, the attending doctor is able to complete a death certificate and the hospital has ensured all legal documentation and procedures are completed, the deceased can be released immediately to the nominated funeral director. However, if you wish, the deceased can be taken to the hospital mortuary to allow you more time to make decisions.

Cold storage facilities are readily available throughout New Zealand, however in rural locations where the funeral home does not have such capabilities the deceased will need to travel to the nearest centre that does have such facilities for burial preparation.

Steps to take in the UK

You can find more information on the steps to take in the UK online. This includes information on arranging the funeral, telling the government about the death, UK pensions and benefits, and dealing with the estate of the person who died. There is a step-by-step guide on gov.uk.

Deaths investigated as murder or manslaughter

If the local police have confirmed that they are investigating the death as a murder or manslaughter a dedicated team within the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will be available to provide support, including by referring you to a specialised organisation. You can find more about what they can do online.

If the cause of death is unknown or the death is unexpected or suspicious the coroner will open up an inquiry to decide if an inquest is needed.

In New Zealand the Police will provide you with a family liaison officer (FLO) who will be your main point of contact while the death is being investigated. You will also be provided with a case manager from the coroner’s office.

You should note that if the deceased is repatriated to parts of the UK a coroner or procurator fiscal may decide to hold an inquest. See the section on UK Coroners and inquests below.

UK coroners and inquests

If you repatriate the person who died to England and Wales, there may be an inquest. The decision on when to hold an inquest is made by His Majesty’s Coroner. Please note, an inquest will usually only happen in certain situations, for example, when someone has died in suspicious, unnatural, and violent circumstances or whilst in detention. If the person who died is cremated and only their ashes are brought home, there will not be an inquest.

If you repatriate the person who died to Scotland, the Procurator Fiscal may decide to call for a Fatal Accidents or Injuries Inquiry.

If you repatriate the person who died to Northern Ireland, there will be no coronial inquest or further inquiry.

Please note, Procurators Fiscal and Coroners do not have jurisdiction in another country, nor do they seek to apportion blame to a named individual.

You can find more information on Coroners and the Procurator Fiscal in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s guide on Death Abroad.

Compensation

If the cause of death was accidental, there may be financial assistance available from Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to help with financial costs.

You can find information on UK compensation for victims of terrorism overseas online.

Additional support

There are a number of organisations in the UK that can help bereaved families and friends come to terms with their loss, whether the death was natural or otherwise. Where the death was a result of murder or manslaughter, if you wish, we can put you in touch with the Victim Support National Homicide Service, who will allocate a named caseworker to give you free and confidential help. Charities such as Support after Murder and Manslaughter (SAMM Abroad) – https://www.sammabroad.org.uk - can help you face the problems and difficulties that arise from a death overseas under suspicious circumstances.

We also have a leaflet called ‘Victims of crime abroad’ which you may find helpful.

New Zealand Coronial Services

Victim support

Accident Compensation Corporation

Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand

UK International Funeral Directors (for repatriation of deceased back to the UK)

List of local lawyers

Ministry Social Development – funeral grant

Support organisations in the UK

In the UK, there are many organisations that can help bereaved families. Some of these are listed in the guide ‘coping with death abroad’.