Unattended Death Cleanup in Austin, TX
What is specific to Austin: which office releases the property, who to call, and where the material can go. The general process is on our Texas page.
- Travis County
- Call or request a callback
- Advertised $1,500 – $20,000+
In Austin
What is specific to Austin
Austin in particular
Travis County publishes three separate figures about its own timing, and they are different clocks that families confuse. On the examination: “It generally takes 12 to 24 hours to complete our examination. In certain cases, however, it may take longer.” On the paperwork: the Medical Examiner's Office “will work with the designated funeral home to complete a death certificate within 10 working days” — the office and the funeral home together. And on the file: “depending upon the complexity of such tests or investigations, it may take up to 90 days for the autopsy report to be finalized.”
The office does not give you copies of the certificate: they come from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the city where the death occurred, from the justice of the peace, or from your funeral home. The office is at 7723 Springdale Road, on (512) 854-9599, and invites calls at any time.
Austin's non-emergency policing catches people out. There is no seven-digit non-emergency line for callers inside the city: the department directs you to iReportAustin.com or to 3-1-1, and publishes 512-974-2000 specifically for callers from outside Austin. If you are standing outside the property, 3-1-1 is the number; if you are arranging things from another city, it is the seven-digit one.
Austin has 30,504 households that are a person aged 65 or over living alone — 6.7% of households, below Houston's 9.2% and San Antonio's 9.8%. Its housing is comparatively new: a median build year of 1994, the same as Fort Worth, a rental median of 1998, and only 28.3% of homes predating 1980. Newer housing is not a reason to accept a price quoted before anyone has lifted a floor covering. 56.6% of occupied homes are rented and 72,586 renter households are in buildings of fifty units or more, so access is often through a manager rather than a family.
Who releases the property in Travis County
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office examines and releases the person. The property is a separate matter, handled by the police, and neither office offers to clean it.
What happens next in Austin, in order
The Travis County version, with the local offices named.
- 1 The police release the property Not the medical examiner. Ask the officer at the scene who to contact about access — the Austin non-emergency number is 3-1-1, or 512-974-2000 if calling from outside Austin. Nobody should go back in, family included, until it is released.
- 2 The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office handles the person Separately from the house. In the counties this site has read, the release of the person waits until the next of kin has named a funeral home, so choosing one early is what moves this clock.
- 3 Call the insurer before any company Ask whether the policy covers biological contamination remediation, whether it pays a contractor directly, and whether restoration is covered as well as the cleanup. Some policies exclude it.
- 4 Get a written scope after someone has seen it Itemized, with the cleanup separate from any rebuild, and saying what will be lifted rather than only what will be sprayed.
- 5 After a crime, file the compensation claim Austin Police Department — Victim Services, on (512) 974-5037, can help. The state program pays up to $2,250 toward cleanup after insurance, and separately up to $1,000 to replace property police took as evidence.
Providers serving Austin
No company has finished our checks in Austin yet, so there is nothing here we would stand behind.
Request a callback in Austin
Leave your number and the address you are asking about in Austin. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do for it. No obligation, and we are not a cleanup company ourselves.
Sources for Austin
Worth reading
Before you call anyone in Austin
How long does a Texas medical examiner take?
Five counties: four published answers, and one that publishes none.
Read itWho decides in Texas: the next-of-kin order
Seven tiers in § 711.002, and the one most summaries leave out.
Read itWhat a Texas county office will not do for you
No certificate, no storage, no viewing, no cleanup — quoted from each county.
Read itUnattended Death Cleanup elsewhere in Texas
The other services, for Austin
More about unattended death cleanup
Costs, process and what to expect, written for Texas as a whole.
Elsewhere in Texas
Other Texas cities we cover
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.