What to do in the event of death?

Alerting the doctor

In the event of death, the first thing to do is to call the doctor. In the first instance, call your own physician or the substitute physician on duty.

The A statement and B statement

After determining death, the doctor will issue the A-declaration and the B-declaration. The A-declaration is the document that shows the deceased's name, date of birth and date of death.

This form is available for all to see. The A statement usually does not include the time and cause of death.

The B statement is a form on which the physician enters the cause of death. This form is for statistical purposes and is closed and signed or initialed by the physician. Both forms are taken by the funeral director for registration with the civil registry.

Reporting the death

Nast alerting a physician, a funeral director should be called to arrange the funeral. Two ways to get in touch with a funeral director are:

• There is the phone number 0080-STERFGEVAL(0800-7837343825). This phone number is easy to remember, the letters represent numbers on the keypad. If you call this number you will be transferred to a funeral director in your area.
• A funeral director of your choice. It is better to be well informed in advance and keep the number of the funeral director of your choice handy (both in the phone clapper and with the death papers).

Certificate of death - extract from the death register

The A-declaration and the B-declaration are brought by the funeral director. With these forms and the declaration form (the form on which the personal details of the deceased are listed), the funeral director makes the declaration of death in the municipality where the death took place.

From the civil registry, the funeral director receives the extract from the death register (also called the certificate of death) and the authorization for burial or cremation. The extract from the death register will be given to you after the funeral; the original certificate of death always remains with the civil registry.

The civil registry passes the death on to the interested agencies, for example, the Social Insurance Bank, Tax Office, the major pension funds, the UWV, the National Office for Road Traffic, Real Estate Tax, waste collection and sewerage charges.

Would you like to know which agencies receive information from the Basic Registration of Persons (BRP), and when? Then check out Rijksoverheid.nl.

What else do I need to arrange? For example, with other agencies?

The central government has created a checklist so you can get an overview in arranging things with other agencies.