Cleaning Up After an Unattended Death: Who to Call and Who Pays
An unattended death is one where the person died alone and was not found straight away. Sometimes it is hours. Sometimes it is days or weeks. If it was more than a short time, the home will need cleaning by a specialist company, not by you and not by an ordinary cleaning service.
The short answer to the two questions families ask first:
- Who to call: a bio-recovery company (also called trauma, biohazard or crime-scene cleaning). Your insurer, the landlord, the funeral home or the police officer who attended can usually name local ones.
- Who pays: often a homeowner's or renter's insurance policy, sometimes the landlord's insurance, sometimes a state crime victim compensation program if a crime was involved, and otherwise the estate. Ask before you sign anything.
The rest of this page goes through the order of things, what to ask, and what to keep in mind about yourself while it happens.
First: Nothing to Clean Until the Home Is Released
When someone is found after an unattended death, the police and the medical examiner or coroner come first. They take the person into their care and may hold the home while they work out how and when the death happened. Until they say the home is released, nobody cleans anything. If you do not know whether it has been released, ask the officer or the medical examiner's office directly.
If you are still at the stage of making those first calls, our page on what to do when someone dies covers them in order, and what families should know about an autopsy explains why the medical examiner may be involved even when nothing suspicious happened.
Why You Should Not Clean It Yourself
It is a natural instinct to want to go in and put things right, to spare someone else from seeing it. Please do not.
After a death that was not found quickly, body fluids can soak into flooring, subfloor, mattresses and furniture, and the smell travels into walls and fabrics in other rooms. Specialist companies remove the affected materials, disinfect, and deal with the odour at the source. Their workers handle blood and body fluids under the federal OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard, which requires protective equipment and training that ordinary cleaners and family members do not have. Home cleaning products cover the smell for a while; they do not remove the cause.
There is a second reason. What you see in that room can stay with you. Families who went in to clean often say it is the image they cannot shake, more than the funeral or the news itself. You can love someone and still decide that this is a job for strangers.
Choosing a Company: What to Ask
You may get calls or messages from companies soon after the death, sometimes before you have had time to think. You do not have to use any of them. Take a day if you can, and compare two.
Questions worth asking on the phone:
- Do you work directly with insurance companies? Many will bill the insurer and only charge you the deductible, if the policy covers it.
- Can you give me a written estimate after you see the property? A fair company will inspect first. Be wary of a firm price over the phone for a job no one has seen.
- Are your technicians trained for bloodborne pathogens, and are you a member of a trade body? In the US, the American Bio Recovery Association runs a voluntary certification for member companies. Membership is not required, but a company should be able to describe its training clearly.
- What will you remove, and will you ask before you throw anything away? Ask them to set aside photos, papers, jewelry and anything that looks personal, even if it seems damaged.
- Do you handle odour removal, and do you guarantee it? Some charge separately for this.
- Will you work discreetly? Unmarked vans matter to many families, especially in an apartment building.
Get the agreement in writing, including what happens if the work turns out bigger than the estimate.
Who Pays
This varies a lot by policy and by state, so treat the list below as questions to ask, not promises.
Homeowner's insurance. Many policies treat the damage from an unattended death as a covered loss to the home. Call the insurer, report the claim, and ask whether they have a preferred company. Do this before work starts if you can.
Renter's insurance and the landlord. If the person rented, the landlord is responsible for the building and often has their own insurance for this. The deceased person's renter's policy, if they had one, may cover their belongings. If you are the landlord reading this, our guide for landlords when a tenant dies covers your side, including how cleaning interacts with the security deposit.
Crime victim compensation. If the death was a homicide, every state has a crime victim compensation program, and many will reimburse part of the cleanup cost. Our page for families after a homicide explains how to apply.
The estate. If none of the above applies, the cost is usually paid from the estate, like other expenses of settling it. If you are the executor, keep the invoice with the rest of the estate paperwork; our guide to the executor's first 30 days explains what to track. Family members are generally not personally responsible for the estate's bills unless they signed for them. The page on debts after death covers that in more detail.
Their Belongings
Porous things in the affected area, like mattresses, upholstered furniture and carpet, often cannot be saved. Hard objects usually can. Before the company starts, tell them in writing what matters most: photo albums, letters, a particular chair, the box of papers in the closet. A good company will clean and return what can be returned.
Sorting the rest of the home can wait until it is clean and you are ready. When you get there, our guide to what to do with a loved one's belongings may help you go at a gentler pace.
The Part Nobody Talks About
When someone dies alone, families often carry a particular kind of guilt. Why didn't I call that week. Why didn't anyone notice. Those questions are understandable and almost always unfair to you. People living alone are often fiercely independent, and the gaps between calls that look long in hindsight were ordinary at the time.
If that guilt is sitting with you, guilt after a death is worth reading, and grief support resources lists people you can talk to.
And when the practical work is done, it can help to put the focus back on the life rather than the way it ended: the photos, the stories, the things they cared about. That is what most of their friends will want to remember too.
GetMemorial helps families build lasting online memorials in minutes, a place to remember the whole of someone's life, not the way it ended. Start one at GetMemorial.com.
