If someone dies at home or elsewhere, first tell a natural death from an unnatural one: for an accident, an unknown cause, or someone found after living alone, call the police right away and don't touch the body or the scene

Cost

Free. One phone call is all it takes.

What you get

Household Registration Regulations (《户口登记条例》), Article 8, paragraph 2: “Where a citizen dies by accident or from an unknown cause, the head of the household or the person who finds the body shall immediately report to the local public security police station or the township or town people's committee.” This means that after an accident, or when no one knows how the person died, the head of the household and whoever finds the person must report at once to the police station or the township government. Regulations on Funeral and Interment Management (《殡葬管理条例》), Article 23: “Where a natural person dies a normal death, the medical and health institution shall promptly issue a death certificate. For the deceased in an abnormal death case (or incident) that the public security authorities are handling according to law and who did not receive treatment from a medical and health institution, the public security authorities shall issue the death certificate.” This means that for a normal death from illness, the medical institution that treated the person issues the certificate. For someone who was not treated at a hospital and whose case is handled by the police, the police issue it. Only the police can issue a death certificate for an abnormal death. If the scene has been disturbed, the case is both unclear and hard to certify. Cremation, deregistering the household registration and insurance claims afterward all hang on this one piece of paper.

Notes

Someone who was bedridden for a long time and died at home counts as a normal death. You can ask the institution that treated the person while alive to issue the certificate, or the community health service center or township health clinic (乡镇卫生院) for the area where the person lived. Whoever treated the person issues the death certificate; see §25.2 (death certificate). If you can't tell which kind it is, treat it as abnormal, call 110 first, and the police will still be able to issue the certificate after they investigate. If you clean up the scene before calling the police, no one can help you. Don't move the body yourself, wash or dress it, and don't take away pill bottles or notes.

Evidence grade

A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.

Sources

1. 全国人大常委会 (1958). 中华人民共和国户口登记条例（第八条）. http://www.gd.gov.cn/zwgk/wjk/zcfgk/content/mpost_2531969.html（广东省人民政府门户网站刊登）
2. 国务院 (2026). 殡葬管理条例（国务院令第 824 号，自 2026 年 3 月 30 日起施行，第二十三条）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202601/content_7054169.htm

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 25, tip 1. This section describes legal rules, mostly mainland China’s. It is general information, not legal advice; for your own case, talk to a lawyer. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer