Who is responsible for informing family of death?

513 Posts


I am wondering if anyone knows who is responsible for informing family when there has been a death. Does anyone know?
My brother died at home 3 years ago and I only found out a few months ago. I had tried to contact him during that time to no avail. I even searched the death register at one point but could not see his name, so was assured he was still alive. I assumed he had gone off somewhere without telling me as his life could be somewhat chaotic at times.
My brother died at home 3 years ago and I only found out a few months ago. I had tried to contact him during that time to no avail. I even searched the death register at one point but could not see his name, so was assured he was still alive. I assumed he had gone off somewhere without telling me as his life could be somewhat chaotic at times.
It has been a massive shock and made grieving difficult. There would have been a council cremation with no family there. The police attended but could not explain why we weren’t informed. I have been in contact with the Coroner’s office for 5 months now trying to get more information without success so far.
Does anyone know if the responsibility to inform family rests with the police or Coroners please?
Thanks.
Does anyone know if the responsibility to inform family rests with the police or Coroners please?
Thanks.
0
Latest MSE News and Guides
Replies
But if the deceased has not left anything / nothing can be found then they are not able to spend ages hunting for someone - for example, they won't employ an agency to find someone
Most times someone knows something - I have been to a few where you might think there was no-one but then "oh there was a niece in the north east and the lady down the road knows where she is" etc etc
Police did a brief search of Aunt's flat & found a name & phone number of some friend or other & rang to tell her instead. We found that out weeks later, & she said she'd explained to Police that she knew nothing at all of Aunt's family, & didn't even know her very well. It seems Police couldn't care less & considered 'job done'.
My equally elderly mum found out about her sister's death some 24 hours later, when the neighbour rang to offer condolences, instead having to tell her that her sister was dead. Both were horrified!
It may well have been like that, the Police didn't bother even when handed NoK details, I had to try to find out where Aunt's body was myself, coroner was very kind & it's not their job, they have the body but Police have access to the personal things & accomodation.
Is it possible he didn't have your details easily found? Or anyone (neighbour/friend) who could have directed them to you? Not all Police are as stupid or as lazy as the ones who were handed my mum's details on a plate.
I guess I will just have to get over it. Thanks again.
Just thinking this thing about phone contacts, old fashioned address books are there and easily accessible by anyone (if they can work out who is who from it ) but suspect most people have some sort of password / unlocking on their phone so maybe tricky to get the details, not sure what the answer is
No one has a legal duty to tell anyone about a death other than notifying the registrar and there is a list of people that can do that.
There is other legislation for the medical profession for when to refer to the coroner
I'm in a similar situation but in reverse. My friend passed away few months ago and her only living relative is her sister in Canada. They were estranged and all the while my friend was ill with terminal diagnosis, she did not want the sister to know. According to her, they had not spoken for 10 years. When my friend passed away, I wanted to let the sister know but the only phone number appeared to be an old landline (not working) and we could not find the sister on the social media. I also asked if the Embassy would offer a tracing service but they do not. In the end I found someone else in the phonebook who knew the sister but did not have her contact number but knew of someone else who might have them - so I left the message with this person to pass to that person. To date I have not heard anything back so I don't know if the message ever reached her sister. I don't know why they fell out in the first place but regardless, I think the sister had a right to know of her sibling passing but it's not always so straight forward with families.
As has already been said, there's no standard procedure for notifying nok, simply because those dealing with the death don't always find a list of people to contact 'in the event', and public funds don't run to employing a tracing service.