If you are reading this because someone close to you has died, we are sorry. This is a practical checklist, not legal advice, written to make the document side of the next few weeks slightly less overwhelming. It focuses on England and Wales, with a short note on Scotland and Northern Ireland at the end, since the process differs slightly.
The Documents You Need First
- Medical certificate of cause of death, given by the doctor or hospital, needed to register the death.
- Death certificate, issued once the death is registered. Order several certified copies at once. Almost every institution below will ask for an original, not a photocopy.
- The will, if there is one, and any codicils. Check with their solicitor, bank, or the Certainty National Will Register if you cannot find it among their papers.
- Grant of probate (if there is a will) or letters of administration (if there is not), issued by the Probate Registry once the estate's value has been assessed.
- Their National Insurance number and any pension or benefit reference numbers.
- Property deeds or Land Registry details for anything they owned.
Register the Death, Then Use Tell Us Once
A death in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland must be registered within five days. When you do, the registrar gives you a reference number for a service called Tell Us Once, which reports the death to most relevant government departments in a single step, including HMRC, the DVLA, the passport office, the local council, and DWP for pensions and benefits. It does not cover banks, insurers, or private pension providers, but it saves a significant number of separate phone calls.
Money and Assets: What Each Institution Asks For
- Banks and building societies: usually want the death certificate straight away, and the grant of probate before releasing larger balances. Many have a smaller threshold below which they will release funds without a grant, and the figure varies by bank, so it is worth asking directly.
- Pension providers and life insurance: will have their own claim forms, and typically need the death certificate and proof of who the executor or beneficiary is.
- Mortgage lender: needs to know promptly, particularly if the property is now unoccupied, since this can affect buildings insurance cover.
- HMRC: the estate may need its own tax return for income or gains made during administration, separate from the person's final personal tax affairs. If the estate is large enough, Inheritance Tax paperwork is also part of the probate application.
- Utilities, council tax, and the landlord or letting agent if they rented, all need informing even for small, ongoing accounts.
Property, Vehicles, and Belongings
A car registered in their name needs its V5C updated or the vehicle sold or transferred through DVLA. Home and contents insurance should be told the property may be empty, since standard policies often limit cover on an unoccupied home after a set number of days. If they owned a property outright or with a mortgage, the executor usually needs the grant of probate before Land Registry will update ownership or allow a sale to complete.
Before the Grant of Probate Comes Through
Probate can take a number of weeks after the application is submitted, longer if the estate is complex or Inheritance Tax is owed first. In the meantime, you can still register the death, notify most organisations, get valuations for the estate, and often get a funeral paid for directly from the deceased's account under most banks' bereavement procedures. What you generally cannot do is sell property, close most accounts fully, or distribute money to beneficiaries until the grant is issued.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Scotland does not use a grant of probate. The equivalent is called Confirmation, applied for through the Sheriff Court. Northern Ireland uses a grant of probate much like England and Wales, applied for through the NI Probate Office. The documents you need to gather are largely the same in all three; the application process and terminology differ.
Keeping Everything an Executor Needs in One Place
Executors usually end up juggling certified copies, scanned statements, and emails from half a dozen institutions, often while also sharing updates with other family members and a solicitor. A shared workspace in Orlo gives you one secure place to store the death certificate, the will, and every statement as it arrives, with the option to share individual documents with a solicitor or sibling through a link you can revoke once they no longer need access. It will not make the weeks ahead easy, but it can stop a copy of the death certificate from being the thing you cannot find at the one moment you need it.