Travis County · sourced local information
After a death in Austin, the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office deals with the person and the police release the property. The cleanup itself falls to the owner or the next of kin — here is what applies in Travis County, with the sources.
In Austin
Who releases the property, who to call, and what the housing here means for the work. Every figure below is sourced, and anything we could not verify is left out rather than guessed at.
In Travis County the death is investigated by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The Travis County morgue: address, hours and what it will not do →
“It generally takes 12 to 24 hours to complete our examination. In certain cases, however, it may take longer.” — Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office
None of these offices clean the property. That is arranged by whoever owns it, or by the next of kin.
3-1-1, or 512-974-2000 if calling from outside Austin
Use iReportAustin.com to contact the Austin Police Department’s incident reporting system for non-emergency incidents.
For anything in progress, call 911. Police do not clean a scene once they have finished with it.
Austin routes non-emergency police reports through 3-1-1 rather than a dedicated seven-digit line. The police department publishes 512-974-2000 for callers outside the city and directs everyone else to 3-1-1 or the iReportAustin.com portal — worth knowing before you spend twenty minutes hunting for a number in the usual format.
Travis County publishes its own timings, and they are worth knowing before anyone quotes you a different number: 12 to 24 hours to complete the examination, the death certificate completed — the examiner’s office working with your funeral home — within 10 working days, and up to 90 days for the autopsy report to be finalized. Those are three separate clocks, and only the first one holds up the funeral.
Austin’s housing is newer than Houston’s, Dallas’s or San Antonio’s: a median build year of 1994, and 1998 for rentals, against Houston’s 1982, with only 28.3% of the stock built before 1980. Newer housing is still not a reason to accept a price quoted before anyone has lifted a floor covering.
72,586 renter households in Austin live in buildings of 50 units or more, so an Austin job is frequently a building-management problem as much as a cleaning one — the elevator, the loading bay and the manager’s schedule often decide when work can start.
The city publishes 65 neighborhood planning areas. Austin’s official areas are planning boundaries, so some names differ from what residents call their neighborhood.
AllandaleBouldin CreekCentral East AustinCrestviewDowntownEast Cesar ChavezGovalleHyde ParkMontopolisNorth LoopWindsor ParkZilker
These offices help victims and families directly, and none of them will try to sell you anything.
The Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Program pays up to $2,250 toward crime-scene cleanup for crimes after July 14, 2016, and it pays last — after any homeowners’ or renters’ insurance. It applies to violent crime, not to an unattended natural death, and it does not cover structural repairs. Claims run within 3 years of the crime, unless good cause can be shown for the delay. Program rules What it excludes Eligibility and deadline
Ranges are what national vendors advertise, not quotes — where the numbers come from.
Austin, TX
The questions that apply to any company anywhere in Texas — insurance, bloodborne-pathogens training, the waste route, a written scope — are in one place: what to check before you hire.
Central Texas
Austin, TX
Biohazard, crime scene, death, hoarding, odor
We are paid by providers, not by families
No company has finished our checks in Austin yet, so there is nothing here we would stand behind. We would rather show you that than a list we cannot vouch for.
Call (866) 697-0754 or leave your number. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do for it. The checks a company has to pass are published in full.
Elsewhere in Texas
Austin is the only city we cover in this part of the state so far. These are the others, each with its own county offices, release process and sources.
Worth reading
Why it falls to the property owner or the next of kin.
Read itWhich office does what, county by county, and what none of them will do.
Read itWhat drives the price, and what insurance and compensation cover.
Read itHelp & advice
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, on (512) 854-9599. It examines and releases the person; it does not clean the property, and neither does the police department or the fire service. That falls to the property owner or the next of kin.
Its published wording is: “It generally takes 12 to 24 hours to complete our examination. In certain cases, however, it may take longer.”
3-1-1, or 512-974-2000 if calling from outside Austin. Use iReportAustin.com to contact the Austin Police Department’s incident reporting system for non-emergency incidents. Anything in progress is still 911.
56.6% of occupied homes in Austin are rented, so this comes up often. Start with the lease and both insurers; the statewide rules on repairs, belongings and the deposit are in our guide to a death in a Texas rental.
After a violent crime, the state Crime Victims’ Compensation Program pays up to $2,250 toward cleanup — after your insurance, never for repairs, and not after a natural death. In Austin, Austin Police Department — Victim Services on (512) 974-5037, and Travis County Victim Witness Division on 512-854-9449 can help with the claim.
You don't have to handle this alone.
Call or leave your number about a property in Austin. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do for it.
Last reviewed 2026-09-25
