If someone dies at home or outside, first tell a natural death from an unnatural one: for an accident, an unknown cause, or a death found only after the person lived alone, call the police at once and do not move the body or the scene

For a death by accident, a death nobody can explain, or a death found only after a long time living alone, if there was no treatment at a hospital, the police issue the death certificate. If the scene has been moved, what happened cannot be explained, and the certificate is hard to get. Without that piece of paper, cremation, canceling the hukou (户口 — household registration), and the insurance claim all get stuck. If you cannot tell which kind of death it is, call 110 first. After the police finish checking, they still issue the certificate.

Cost

It costs nothing. 1 phone call is enough.

Benefit

Article 8, paragraph 2 of the Regulations on Household Registration: "Where a citizen dies in an accident or the cause of death is unknown, the head of the household or the person who discovers it shall immediately report to the local police station or the people's committee of the township or town." That means: if there was an accident, or nobody knows how the person died, the head of the household and the person who found them must report at once to the police station or the township or town government. Article 23 of the Funeral Management Regulations: "Where a natural person dies a natural death, the medical institution shall issue a death certificate promptly. For a deceased person in an unnatural-death case handled by the public security organs according to law, who was not treated by a medical institution, the public security organs issue the death certificate." That means: a natural death from illness is certified by the medical institution that treated him. A death with no hospital treatment, which the police are handling, is certified by the police. If the scene has been disturbed, you can neither explain it nor get the certificate easily. Cremation, canceling the hukou, and the insurance claim all wait on this one piece of paper.

Notes

A death after a long illness, or dying at home at the end of life, counts as a natural death. You can ask the institution that treated him while he was alive to issue the certificate, or the community health service center or township health center for the area where he lived. Who issues the death certificate, the one that provided the treatment, is in item 2 (death certificate). If you cannot tell which kind it is, treat it as unnatural and call 110 first. After the police arrive and finish the investigation, they can still issue the certificate. If you tidy the scene before calling the police, no one can help you. Do not move the body yourself, wash him, or change his clothes, and do not take away medicine bottles or notes.

Sources · 1

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）. gd.gov.cn/zwgk/wjk/zcfgk/content/mpost_253196…（广东省人民政府门户网站刊登）；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）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202601/content_70541…