What happens when you die with no family in West Berkshire

Two people died this year in West Berkshire, and because they had no family, they were buried by the council.

This means the council will have tried to trace relatives, and then organised a cremation with a simple service.

Eleven public health cremation enquiries were received by the public protection partnership in West Berkshire last year.

Officers were able to locate the next of kin for the other nine, and supported them in funeral arrangements.

There is a list called the unclaimed estates list compiled by the government, which lists all the people who have died, but have no traced relatives.

There are 5,962 names on that list currently, and five of them are from Newbury.

One of them, an Austrian lady called Franzisker Rettenbacher died in Thatcham as a spinster in 2023. She would have been 100 this year.

Others are Doris Agnes Butcher, a widow to Sydney, died 2011 and was reported to the list by West Berkshire Council.

Gerald Barnard Walsh, a bachelor from Oxford was reported in 2006, while Robert Chatfield, a bachelor in 2019, died in Clacton-on-Sea.

Frank Readyhoiugh was reported by Berkshire NHS Trust. Radojica Veselinovic, was a widower who died in Newbury in 1996, and Jean Paul Henry Sands, also died in Newbury, in 2022.

Where it appears that no suitable arrangements for the disposal of a body have been or are being made, the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) has a duty under section 46 of the Public Health Act 1984 to ‘bury or cremate a body of any person who has died or found to be dead’ within the district.

Notification of a deceased person may be received from the police, coroner, registrar, or a member of the public.

In reality, and unless expressly wished for, a cremation would be carried out.

Details of the individual’s home and belongings are passed to the Treasury Solicitor’s Bona Vacantia division, which collects information for the purposes of dealing with estates worth more than £500.

‘Bona Vacantia’ means vacant goods and is the name given to ownerless property, which by law passes to the Crown.

The Treasury Solicitor acts for the Crown to administer the estates of people who die intestate (without a will) and without known kin (entitled blood relatives).

If nobody claims the estate after 12 years, then it passes to the Crown.

Family members aren’t legally required to pay for the funeral. If the person’s next of kin refuses to cover funeral costs, the local authority will pay for a public health funeral instead.

But before organising the funeral the local council will try to track down other family members to see if they’ll pay for the funeral. This is because a public health funeral is seen as a last resort.

It’s only done to make sure that people who pass away without family are still taken care of and treated with respect.