far from home: dealing with unexpected loss in Spain

What happens if a family member dies in Tenerife?

It is a scenario that no one likes to think about and that no one ever expects: the death of your loved one when abroad.

You set off on a well-deserved holiday with your partner, family member or best friend, but when tragedy strikes – for example, a sudden heart attack, a fatal accident or an unforeseen medical complication – that person is not returning home as planned.

The question then is not only how to cope with this loss, but above all how to bring your loved one home. This immediately raises important questions about coverage, procedures in Tenerife and the often high costs of transfer.

After working for 10 years in a large hospital in the south of Tenerife, I have encountered this situation many times. I will explain what is required in such a distressing case and how working with a reliable funerary service is crucial. 

How did your loved one die?

The type of death must be determined. There are two types:

Natural:

The person dies in a hospital or at home from natural causes and a doctor certifies this by issuing the ‘medical death certificate’ (which has nothing to do with the civil registry death certificate, which I will discuss later).

Judicial:

The deceased shows signs of injury, has died a violent death (whether or not caused by others; for example, drowning is seen as a violent death) or the causes are unclear and a doctor does not certify this. The police, ambulance or hospital calls in the coroner or magistrate to have the body collected and taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where an autopsy will be performed.

What documents will the funeral director present to you for signature?

In the case of a natural death, family members usually have to sign at least two documents:

Questionnaire for registering the death:

• commonly known as the “blue” document, because of its colour. This questionnaire must be completed with the details of the deceased, the place and date of death and the details of the person making the declaration, i.e. the person signing the document, who is usually a close relative. The details from this document are accurately copied into the civil registry for the subsequent issuance of the official death certificate. It is therefore very important that there are no errors.

• After signing, this form, together with the medical death certificate collected by the funeral home (without this certificate, the body may not be transported), is taken to the civil registry of the municipality where the death occurred (nowadays this is done electronically).
  
  
• This registry office then issues a permit, known as a “licencia”, which is the official document authorising burial or cremation on Spanish territory.

• The registry is also the body responsible for registering and issuing death certificates, which are valid domestically (for Spain) and/or internationally (for countries that have signed the 1973 Strasbourg Convention). For other locations, an apostille is required and, depending on the country, a translation and verification by that country’s consulate may also be necessary.

• The general authorisation is a document from the funeral home, in which the person making the declaration authorises the funeral home to act on their behalf and submit the documents to the competent authorities.
  
  
• If you wish the deceased to be cremated, in addition to the above documents, you must also complete and sign a document expressly requesting cremation. This document is submitted to the registry office together with the other documents.
  
  
• Spanish law stipulates that a minimum of 24 hours must elapse before the final destination, burial or cremation, can be carried out.

In the case of a judicial death certificate, the procedure is assigned to the court on duty in the judicial district to which the municipality where the person died belongs.

In this case, the questionnaire for registering the death does not need to be completed. The family only needs to sign the authorisations giving the funeral home the power to act on their behalf, and they must provide the information necessary for registration in the civil registry.

It is necessary to wait until the autopsy has been performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine and the preliminary report has been submitted to the court. Once this report has been issued, the funeral home, with the consent of the family, can apply to the court that assigned the procedure so that a letter (official document) can be issued authorising the funeral home to collect the body from the Institute of Legal Medicine and complete the funeral service, whether it is a burial, cremation or transfer.

The court is responsible for issuing a document called an exhortation (supplemented with information from the police report, the report from the Institute of Legal Medicine and information from the funeral home itself), which is sent to the registry office for the subsequent registration of the death by this authority and the subsequent issuance of death certificates (domestic and/or international).

A transfer to the country of origin

In the case of tourists, it is normally the tour operator with whom they are travelling who notifies the insurance company in order to initiate repatriation. Sometimes the hospital interpreter will take care of this for you and inform the insurance company by telephone and by sending the medical report.

Most funeral homes have an international department that deals exclusively with requests from insurers and international emergency services. In addition, this department has an international network of funeral homes in most countries around the world, should this be necessary.

The deceased person’s insurance company will work with the family and the funeral home to determine how the body will be transferred back to the home country.

Once permission has been obtained from the registrar or the investigating magistrate in the case of a judicial death, the embalming required for each type of transfer, whether provincial, regional or international, will be carried out.

Depending on the country, in some cases permission must also be obtained from the consular service for the deceased to leave the country.

It is absolutely necessary to obtain permission from the foreign health service for the transfer of the remains.

What are the costs of transferring the remains?

The cost of repatriation depends mainly on the country of destination, as the most expensive part of repatriation is air freight.

The time frame depends on the formalities which must be completed in the country of destination and on the speed with which the court handles the case if it is a judicial death.

Normally, a European citizen can be transferred within a period of one week to one and a half weeks.

If you wish to have a local cremation, this can take place 24 hours after death, provided you already have the relevant legal authorisation. The costs can vary greatly, depending on the number of days the deceased remains in the funeral parlour, the choice of coffin, the urn, and so on.