Death Certificate

suffolkbadger

Hello,

Got a question around Death Certificates.

Can somebody accessing somebodies personal stuff held with a bank or solicitor just with a death certificate? A cousin of mine has a official copy of the certificate and we are worried he might be doing stuff whilst we all are grieving.

Thanks

newbutold

A bank or solicitor will want to see proof that the person is the executor. Either by seeing the will or letters of administration from the probate office.

dzug1

But if the cousin says there is no will and signs a statement that they are the only relative then they might get access - particularly for small estates.

Mojisola

dzug1 wrote: »

But if the cousin says there is no will and signs a statement that they are the only relative then they might get access - particularly for small estates.

Who is named as the informant on the death certificate?

If that's a different family member to the cousin, it would be hard to claim that she was the only living relative.

fluffymuffy

dzug1 wrote: »

But if the cousin says there is no will and signs a statement that they are the only relative then they might get access - particularly for small estates.

And if it's not true then they will have committed fraud.

dzug1

fluffymuffy wrote: »

And if it's not true then they will have committed fraud.

Correct - but in reality fraud can be very easy to get away with

Shelldean

yes they can and do.

My Nan died and my sis and I dealt with everything, from registering the death to closing the bank accounts (and transfering the money into a new account in my name but re Nan dec'd)
At no point was I asked to prove i was next of kin.
There was no will and a very very tiny estate, think there was £2000 in the bank plus a small insurance ( used to pay funeral)

Her three daughters were still alive and technically NOK, but none of them wanted to deal with it, so I did.

The only thing I did wrong was to give the residue to her Gt grandchildren ( they got about £20 each). Everything else was done by the book as if I was NOK.

So yes it can be done and done with ease. I was never questioned or ask to prove anything - but like I said the estate was tiny.

Goldiegirl

How much is in the bank accounts of the deceased?

If it's a very small amount, a person could produce the death certificate and sign a declaration to say they are entitled to the monies, and the bank would pay the monies to them. But this is for very small balances.

For larger amounts, a solicitor would have to counter sign the declaration to confirm that the person was entitled to the monies.

For even larger sums of money probate would be needed before money was released.

So the cousin would potentially only have access to very small sums of money.

suffolkbadger

Thanks all for your thoughts.

There is approximately £15k in one bank account with minimal in others. I have already requested that these all be frozen.

Perhaps i am overly paranoid but i know when it comes to money te cousin can be quite sneaky. It would surprise me if she had wandered the streets with death certificate in hand looking for what she could find. This is my major concern, beat the estate to it.

Fingers crossed weve got everything covered but you never know (and may never know!)

RAS

Check the Lost Assets Register. You need name DOB and previous addresses.