What to do in the event of a death

Yes. In many cases, a deceased person can be laid out at home or at another suitable location. This can be a familiar environment where family and friends can say goodbye in peace. A home viewing often offers more freedom regarding visiting times and can help make the farewell a more personal and intimate experience.

Thanks to modern techniques such as care and thanatopraxy, a home viewing may be possible for several days, depending on the circumstances and the condition of the deceased. During a personal consultation, we will review together which options best suit your wishes.

In addition to a viewing at home, a viewing can sometimes also take place at another location, such as a residential care center, a specialized farewell location, or another place suitable for this purpose.

Cromboom Funeral Care is happy to advise you on the practical, legal, and hygiene requirements and provides the necessary guidance and support so that everything proceeds serenely and respectfully.

• Upon the death of a family member, it is important to follow the following steps:

  1. Call a doctor: Contact a doctor immediately to officially pronounce the death. The doctor will report the death digitally, which is necessary for further processing.

  2. Contact a funeral director: As soon as the death has been officially confirmed, you can contact a funeral director. They will guide you through the next steps and help arrange the funeral.

  3. Inform family and friends: Notify close family members and friends of the passing. This can be done by telephone or in person.

  4. Arrange the funeral: Together with the funeral director, you can plan the funeral and make the necessary decisions, such as the choice of coffin, the location of the ceremony, and any mourning cards.

  5. Administrative matters: Ensure that you handle the necessary administrative matters, such as notifying authorities and settling the estate. This may include contacting a notary or legatee, among other things.

• The invoice is payable in cash, without discount, within 30 days of issue, as we do not intervene in the liquidation of the inheritance tax.
• If this invoice has remained unpaid and no payment has been made after a reminder of 15 days,
• In the event of non-payment on the due date, the customer is also obliged to pay compensation for non-payment, equal to 10% of the invoice amount, with a minimum of € 125.00, and this apart from the interest compensation determined in the previous article.
• The delivered goods remain our property until full payment of our invoice.
• Any complaints must be made immediately and by registered letter, no later than eight days after delivery or receipt of the invoice.
• In the event of a dispute, only the Courts of Leuven shall have jurisdiction, subject to Belgian law.
• In the absence of a correctly executed delivery of our services, the same conditions apply in favor of the customer, as stated in article 3 of our invoice conditions.

In Belgium you are legally obliged to take a coffin or shroud for burial or cremation.
Both the coffin and shroud will be used for burial or cremation and will not be replaced by a cheaper one. When a coffin or shroud is closed, it may not be opened again without permission from the Mayor.

Coffins must meet a number of conditions:

they are made from a natural material
the glues and lacquers used are biodegradable
the handles are made of perishable material or can be easily removed from the outside
the inner lining consists of natural and biodegradable substances
If the coffin is intended for cremation and is not made entirely of solid wood, then the materials used give at least comparable results in terms of emissions and ash remains during cremation.
There are also a number of requirements for corpse casings:

they are made from a natural material
they comply with a number of technical standards so that the moisture permeability, strength and degradability of the material used is assured
the bottom plank used for transport and that is buried and cremated meets the same conditions.
Coffins and body casings that have come into contact with remains may not be reused.

All funeral insurances in Belgium are independent. This means that you always decide who the funeral director is. Even with a Dela funeral insurance, you can go to a non-Dela funeral home.

We accept everyone and every type of funeral insurance.

Naturally, the family chooses in which crematorium the funeral and/or cremation takes place. We have certain crematoria that we visit often, but we can go to any crematorium in Belgium. A crematorium is an intermunicipal company and therefore owned by the state, which means that every funeral director in Belgium can go there. If the municipality where you reside is part of a specific intermunicipal company, you will receive a discount on the cremation.

It is common to have a funeral take place in an auditorium of the funeral home or crematorium. In addition, it is possible to hold a funeral at other locations, so it is possible to rent an event location, party room, etc. to hold a service. It is also possible to organize a funeral at home or in the garden.

Upon notification of the death, the bank account of the deceased and the joint accounts of the spouses are immediately blocked. However, the funeral costs and the costs of the last illness can always be paid on presentation of the invoices.

No, this is not mandatory. It is advisable to do this when filing a declaration with immovable property, because ownership titles change.

Each municipality has its own regulations for their cemetery. For example, it is possible that this is allowed in one municipality and not in another. Usually this must be provided for the partner who dies first. Ask us, we will help you.

Only the flexibility of the funeral director plays a role here.

If you can better deal with your loss in this way, you should simply report it.

No, the family decides whether to stay at home for one or more days.

When the deceased is laid out at home for a longer period of time, specific measures must be taken. (embalming/thanatopraxy)

One would think that a cremation is cheaper than a traditional burial.

Indeed: a cremation in itself is not that expensive. But there is more to it: the urn, interment or burial with possibly an urn/columbarium stone, the extra hours of the staff and the extra travel.

But all this usually does not outweigh a large grave monument at a traditional burial.

This is a question that concerns many people. In principle, you determine the price of a funeral yourself. Every funeral director has a number of fixed rates and costs that everyone pays, regardless of how large or small the funeral is. These rates are more or less at the same level, depending on which service is provided. The different “variables”; which coffin, which mourning print (and how much), a cremation, a coffee table, the stone and flowers determine the final price.

From July 1, 2004, you can take home the ashes or part of the ashes of first-degree relatives. The ashes may also be buried or scattered in a place other than the cemetery, with the permission of the land owner. To be clear, this concerns the ashes of your children, parents, spouse, adoptive children, adoptive parents, brothers and sisters. For this purpose, you must complete a model declaration and sign it by all first-degree family members.

Yes

There are many people young and old who decide to arrange their funeral themselves in advance.
This can be for various reasons. For example, because one no longer has a family or to spare the surviving relative all this.

You can arrange a funeral in advance by taking out funeral insurance or by recording your wishes in a will. This ensures that your wishes are clear and that your family has less worries during the funeral arrangements.

Yes,

There is no legal provision that obliges the family to choose a particular Funeral Home.
The family itself decides which Funeral Home they go to.