Beware of Co-op Bank's illegal internal policies following notification of death of a customer

Robert_McGeddon

OP, did you contact the organisations collecting the DDs promptly and request they stop doing so?  If so, the “direct debit guarantee” should then come into play with the CoOp crediting your father’s account and then obtaining reimbursement from the DD holders.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx

Malthusian

V8SAH said:

Malthusian said:

One of those involuntary processes of law is the death of the customer and receipt of notice of death (not the actual date of death) revokes the paying bankers authority to make any further payments from the bank account. This is well established in English law and applies equally to all payment instructions including standing orders and direct debits since it is the bankers authority that is revoked upon receipt of notice of the death of the customer.

Is it well established in English law that some random dude ringing the bank up and saying you've died constitutes notice of the death of the customer? Genuine question. From where I, and most other posters are standing, it appears to be up to the bank's discretion whether they accept a phone call as notice or require the death certificate.

The banks that accept notice via phone (as in poppystar's case) are running the risk that it's a malicious hoax and they have to recompense the angry accountholder. Which would be very rare, but not unheard of.

Lots of banks chancing it on notification via phone does not mean that every bank is legally required to trust a phone call.

I'm afraid the answer to your question is Yes. Notification of death can come from a variety of random sources and the bank does not have the luxury of choosing to ignore such notification without proper investigation. It should investigate the accuracy of the notification but, in the meantime, it must stop the account to protect both itself and the account holder.  

As the Financial Ombudsman Service disagrees with your interpretation of the law, the onus is on you to cite case law or legislation that establishes that a bank has a legal duty to freeze all a customer's accounts if some dude rings them up and says the accountholder has died.