Backtrack on city burial fees

Rotorua district councillors voted to amend the Cemetery and Crematorium Policy. Photo / File

Rotorua funeral directors will not have to pay their clients' burial fees after district councillors changed a policy potentially forcing them to cover those costs.

Rotorua district councillors voted to amend the Cemetery and Crematorium Policy at a meeting of its infrastructure services committee after pressure from local funeral directors.

The new policy was approved by councillors, with the addition of a minor change to crematorium opening hours and the removal of a clause that would have seen funeral directors having to collect burial fees from their clients.

The policy will now revert to the status quo where the council will separately invoice the family of the deceased for its burial fees. Fees vary depending on whether a body is buried or cremated.

If a body is buried a family would pay at least $2889, including plot purchase and maintenance. If a body is cremated a family would pay at least $472. Additional fees are charged if the crematorium chapel is required.

Gray's Funeral Services director Richard Bennison told councillors he was asked to speak on behalf of the city's funeral directors.

Mr Bennison said funeral directors already made it clear to clients the council would seek payment of its burial fees separately and due to Rotorua's lower socio-economic situation were already writing off between $40,000 and $60,000 a year in bad debt. "This can add up to a lot of money if you are doing between five and 10 funerals a month.

"Some estates take up to six months to be settled and we can't afford to carry that amount," Mr Bennison said.

Councillors discussed if fees could be added to rates bills and paid off over time, if ratepayers should be footing the bill for bad debts, or if it was fair for funeral directors to be collecting council fees and charges on the council's behalf.

The council's new Cemetery and Crematorium Policy covers Rotorua (Sala St), Ngakuru, Reporoa and Mamaku cemeteries and the new cemetery at Tarukenga when it becomes operational.

It does not include Kauae Cemetery, which is run by a trust and would have to formally adopt the new policy.