Removing One Account Holder from Joint Account

Ms_Chocaholic

My mum and dad held a joint current account at the Halifax, my dad has recently died and my mum would like to take my dad's name off the account and put my name on it (to make things easier in the event of her death).

We will need to make an appointment at my mum's local branch, probably this week. Can anyone foresee any problems in doing this, what documents might we need to take with us and would we need to explain the reason for the appointment when we ring up to book. Also my mum does not have any photo ID (she does not drive and her passport is out of date) but would she need photo ID with her if she had her debit card/utilities bill with her.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

jonesMUFCforever

She will probably be ok as no ID will be needed as an existing customer.
You will probably need to confirm ID and address. A passport and driving licence is ok for this.
If you also bank at the same bank as your mum then you should not need ID.

My condolences.

doelani

make sure your mum takes your dads death certificate with her.

demonicangel

When i took my exes name of my joint account, because he was the lead name, they wanted written proof and his card to say that he agreed to this. This was on top of filling out a form.

As doelani said, make sure your mum takes the death certificate with her.

Voyager2002

Beware: the account might be frozen.

Since (some of) the money in the account might be considered to be part of the estate of a dead person, the bank may well freeze it until probate has been completed. So try to find out about their procedures by telephoning without giving a name, or whatever. If necessary, be prepared to withdraw enough cash to get by while probate is being done before telling the bank.

Anyway, condolences on your recent loss, and I hope that you don't have problems with the bank to make matters even worse.

Ms_Chocaholic

Rang them today, there appears to be no probs in taking my dad's name off the account but if mum wants my name put onto the account, the account number will have to be changed. Has anyone else heard of this? If that is the case will have to leave adding my name to the account for now.

doelani

I used to work for a bank and with them you would only allowed one change of title, so a joint becoming a single account would be the one change even though the account holder has died. Sounds like your mums banks operates the same way.


If you wnat a joint account with your mum go ahead and arrange it a new account number should not stop you. As your mum is an existing customer teh ID requirments will be different so she may not acually need photo ID some banks onlly require 1 form of ID for existing customers and the fact she has no photo ID will not stop her as there are plently of other things she can use. When she goes into get dads name off the account she should as about this.

regularsaver1

To add someone the branch can not do it - and it can take weeks by the business centre

it is easier to do a new joint account there and then

obviously the change of the account to your mothers sole name would still need to happen when they register your fathers death

jonesMUFCforever

Ther must be some really odd banks out there.
We can take someone 's name off to make it a sole account and add another person to it all in the space of a few minutes!!

regularsaver1

With a deceased it would always take longer though. Interview in branch - but all paperwork sent up incase probate was needed ect

It beats me why can''t add a name though in branch - but a credit score would be done on the other person. and then to remove, a credit score on the remaining person.

That is what the business centre is for - the admin

Bossyboots

Voyager2002 wrote:

Beware: the account might be frozen.

Since (some of) the money in the account might be considered to be part of the estate of a dead person, the bank may well freeze it until probate has been completed. So try to find out about their procedures by telephoning without giving a name, or whatever. If necessary, be prepared to withdraw enough cash to get by while probate is being done before telling the bank.

Anyway, condolences on your recent loss, and I hope that you don't have problems with the bank to make matters even worse.

Joint accounts are not frozen upon the death of one account holder. That was why my parents had a joint account, to make sure all the direct debits continued to be paid if one died. When my dad passed away I sent a certified copy of the death certificate to the bank with a letter asking them to take his name off the account.