What to do when someone dies at home and the death is unexpected

Call 999 immediately to inform the emergency services.

Following your call, the police will be notified as a matter of course and will carry out a routine visit to the property in order to identify the circumstances of the death. (In the cases of unexpected deaths, a coroner has to be notified so that they can establish the cause of death and police investigations can help this process.)

Depending on the circumstances of the death, the coroner may need to arrange for a post-mortem examination to be carried out which can lead to some delay in arranging a funeral.