Choosing a casket or an urn to hold the remains of a loved one is a very personal decision. Did you know there’s a section in BC’s funeral services law that speaks to your rights when it comes to making this type of purchase?
To understand Consumer Protection BC’s role with regards to the funeral and cemetery sector in BC, let’s first take a second to talk about the law. Our office is responsible for regulating the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act and the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Regulation – these are laws that are in place to protect vulnerable consumers as it relates to the cemetery and funeral services sector. In this blog post, we’re going to focus on a small part of this law – your rights when selecting a casket or an urn.
You can supply your own casket or urn
Your licensed funeral home will have a selection of caskets and urns for you to choose from. By law, you are allowed to supply your own casket or urn (as long as it meets certain specifications). Now whether you choose to purchase it from another supplier or make it yourself is up to you, but do know it has to meet the requirements found in the Public Health Act, and it has to be strong enough to hold and move the human remains and can’t pose any health hazards. For full details and specifications, check out this part of the law. You will also want to ask the cemetery if they have size restrictions or charge extra fees.
You have the right to pricing information
A funeral provider’s showroom has to display at least six different containers (either as full or partial replicas), and one of them has to be their lowest-priced model. All of the containers must have clear price tags, too. If the funeral provider doesn’t have a separate room to display their caskets and urns, they have to share pricing information about the containers they sell in a public manner, such as in a book, in a brochure or online. Here’s the section of the law if you want to learn more.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Steps to take following a death
Your preneed cemetery or funeral services contract rights
Cemetery and funeral services: do you know your rights?
Have you had “The Talk?” Top 5 things you need to know about funeral services
After-death care: who gets to decide?
Respectfully Shoko – typically in British Columbia and per the definition under the Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act, consumers choose caskets or containers. Coffins are not widely used in North America and by design are quite different from a casket. The article advises to check with the Cemetery regarding size however it does not inform the consumer that a casket or container is required by law prior to the deceased being cremated – an important fact considering BC has the highest cremation rate in North America at 86%. Cremation containers or caskets must meet the requirements set in the regulations under Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act.
Hello Janet,
Shoko is away this week so I’m responding on her behalf. Thank you for taking the time to comment! You are correct, the legislation uses the term container and it does specify that a container is required prior to cremation. The funeral law also speaks to the requirements – saying that it must meet the regulations and any requirements under the Public Health Act (including that it must be rigid and not leak).
When assisting a friend in choosing a casket for her deceased husband, we chose the least expensive option available at the time – an OSB container as he was to be cremated. A day later we were informed that her husband did not fit. He was an average-sized, 50 year old man; not overweight or overheight. I had a suspicion that this was a standard ploy to force people to choose a more expensive container. Much more expensive. She was emotionally unable to return to the funeral parlour to choose again, so I went with her cousin. The price went from $100 for the simple wooden container, to the next least expensive fancy casket at $1800. Are there regulations around this possible scam?
In regards to the expenses for preparation of remains, purchasing a container, and having a viewing: Since the death occurred unexpectedly at the place of work, a dollar amount of $2500 was available for these expenses. This amount was transferred to the funeral home. When asked if the full amount was not needed, would there be a transfer to the widow/executor afterwards, and was told ‘no’. Only to find out later that this was not true. Where/How would one know about this in advance?
Hi Barbara, I will respond to both of your questions in this reply. With regards to the cost of the containers, the law requires funeral homes to display prices of all available containers. The law also states that you are allowed to bring in your own container (as long as it meets the requirements). It may be hard to prove but if you think that the funeral home had falsely told your friend that the $100 container didn’t fit, please do submit a complaint form (the form is located on this page) providing as much detail as possible.
In terms of the $2500 coverage, was this provided by the province or Work Safe or another organization? I’m not familiar with the program, I’m afraid. I don’t believe that is set by our law we administer so your friend may have to contact the governmental body that oversees it. I hope this bit of information helps.
Anyone familiar with, or working in the death and dying industry would know the difference between a casket and a coffin. The more traditional coffin is extremely rare in North America.
The coffin is the tapered hexagonal or octagonal box, and the casket is rectangular.
Also, the inconsistency in wording is annoying, since most of this website does use “casket”.
I am surprised this was not updated.
Hi Rana, this has been updated!
The Funeral home I am dealing with right now says their lowest price for casket is $1200. This seems excessive as we are having our deceased cremated. Should they not supply a more basic cheaper option for cremation?
Hi Barbara, by law, you are allowed to supply your own casket or urn (as long as it meets certain specifications). Now whether you choose to purchase it from another supplier or make it yourself is up to you (if you choose to make one, please know it has to meet the requirements found in the Public Health Act). In any case, you are not obligated to purchase one from that particular funeral home. I hope this information is helpful to you.
There’s a casket store in surrey that we purchased from when my father passed away. Their prices are good and they sell directly to the public. It’s called casket depot Vancouver. It might be useful to add some links so people are aware of their options.
Hey John, thanks for that recommendation. As a regulator, we do not promote any businesses. However, your comment will remain up for anyone to see. I hope that makes sense. Thanks!
Hi I just stumbled across this post and wanted to ask this. We have had a few deaths already in our family and everyone has bought a spot in the mausoleum at the cemetery. I assume that’s also a Columbarium, since it’s just a whole bunch of glass displays for putting an urn in.
My question is: are we allowed to buy or use our own urns when placing them in these display cases? The cemetery insists that we are absolutely not allowed and must purchase one of theirs to use.
They also ended up telling us during a recent death that sometimes ashes might not fully fit and we might have to purchase another urn from them if we wanted to keep all the ashes together. (It fit in the end)
Are they allowed to do that?
Thanks
Hi C, thanks for reaching out to us. You have the right to supply your own urn or grave marker, but there may be restrictions under the cemetery’s bylaws. It is important to make sure you understand any restrictions before purchasing these items. So essentially, you should be able to get the requirements from the cemetery and then purchase your own urn within those parameters. I would suggest reiterating this fact to the cemetery and if you run into issues, you can submit a complaint to us so we can look into it.
Thanks!
My late mother-in-law, my late wife and I were prepaid members of First Memorial Funeral Services of Victoria.
Their remains were cremated in cardboard boxes and She were to be scattered so a simple plastic container was provided.