Can you send a letter that has to be signed by the exact named person?

Spendless

Hi, wasn't sure where to put this but it is related to a will. Shortly my Mum will need to send a cheque to an estranged relative as they are a beneficiary of a will that my Mum is sole executor of.

Mum wants to ensure that the person named in the Will (the estranged relative) is the one that signs for the letter containing the cheque. My understanding of sending a letter recorded delivery is that anyone living at that address can sign for it. Is there anyway of sending something addressed to Mr Joe Bloggs and ensuring that Mr Joe Bloggs is the only person that can sign so Mum knows that Joe Bloggs has received it.

user1977

In short, no, not by post anyway. In theory you can probably send a courier with instructions to check ID of the recipient (like they do for some high value items) but what happens if the recipient isn’t in or doesn’t have adequate ID? Why the concern if it’s a cheque anyway?

Spendless

user1977 said:

In short, no, not by post anyway. In theory you can probably send a courier with instructions to check ID of the recipient (like they do for some high value items) but what happens if the recipient isn’t in or doesn’t have adequate ID? Why the concern if it’s a cheque anyway?

Because a cheque  to Joe Bloggs can be paid into a joint bank account  of Joe  Bloggs and Jennifer Smith and just because it's in joint names doesn't mean that Joe Bloggs ever monitors the account. and would be aware that money has gone in and  possibly out - and I realise that the  onus would be on Joe Bloggs to ensure they were watching bank accounts that their name is on,  Mum wished to ensure she'd covered all bases. Unfortunately doesn't look like that's going to be possible, but thanks for the info  (apologies for being cryptic, but as you can guess there's a concern here)

theoretica

You might be able to get this done by a process server - who usually serve court papers and the like.  But it would cost much more than Royal Mail.

Jowwie

How about instead of sending a cheque, you could send a form detailing the amount that is due and asking for bank details. State that account must be solely in the name of the relative. Their signature on the form required to confirm that the amount will be accepted by them as full and final payment in respect of the will. Upon it's return to your mum, she could then make the payment via a bank transfer.

Spendless

Jowwie said:

How about instead of sending a cheque, you could send a form detailing the amount that is due and asking for bank details. State that account must be solely in the name of the relative. Their signature on the form required to confirm that the amount will be accepted by them as full and final payment in respect of the will. Upon it's return to your mum, she could then make the payment via a bank transfer.

Hmmm maybe this could be partly done but I don't think Mum has any legal right to insist that an account must solely be in beneficiary's name (and due to the estrangement Mum is making sure she carefully crosses and dots all t's and i's in her role).
nor to insist it's done by bank transfer. She could certainly ask for the details though and see if they're provided. I'll talk to her and see if she wishes to go down this route. 

Flugelhorn

theoretica said:

You might be able to get this done by a process server - who usually serve court papers and the like.  But it would cost much more than Royal Mail.

Suppose it depends on how much the cheque is for as to whether this is worth it - just checked a site - for non-urgent they charge £75-120 for legal documents - might be worth considering 

Spendless

Flugelhorn said:

theoretica said:

You might be able to get this done by a process server - who usually serve court papers and the like.  But it would cost much more than Royal Mail.

Suppose it depends on how much the cheque is for as to whether this is worth it - just checked a site - for non-urgent they charge £75-120 for legal documents - might be worth considering 

Flugelhorn said:

theoretica said:

You might be able to get this done by a process server - who usually serve court papers and the like.  But it would cost much more than Royal Mail.

Suppose it depends on how much the cheque is for as to whether this is worth it - just checked a site - for non-urgent they charge £75-120 for legal documents - might be worth considering 

I suspect Mum will think it not worth it, because that amount would need to come out of Nan's estate and will reduce what the other beneficiary's receive and she'll consider it unfair on them. I will talk her through the options though, so the replies have been very helpful.  

Spendless

Sorry forgot to ask - it's a long time since I sent one but am I correct in thinking that if you do send something RD the sender sees whose signature has signed for it, or do you just receive a notification it's been delivered? 

Jowwie

The post office gives you a receipt with info on to check on the web who has signed for it. The signature could just be an X though.

When I have used this service I take a picture of the signature on my phone as a record.

user1977

Since Covid there haven’t been signatures collected anyway, and before that it was just a squiggle on a touchscreen pad, so no chance of being sure who signed.