Having a partner, parent or close relative pass away can be a very upsetting and stressful time of your life. It is also not a situation that many of us are familiar with and that can be very overwhelming.
Depending on the circumstances or the planning that your loved one had in place, there may be various different steps you need to take if you are the person responsible for dealing with their estate and managing the formalities around their death.
Our Private Client team, sadly speak to bereaved families on a daily basis and truly understand the pain and pressures that they are going though. Whilst we are here to take care of all the legal aspects relating to someone’s death, there are quite a few more practical aspects to take care of too.
Our Probate Experts have broken the process down into 3 stages, to help families navigate what they need to do next and make everything easier to digest.
Step 1: Immediately Upon Death
- If someone dies at home, then you will need to either call their GP or 999 in the first instance. If someone had a terminal illness or was under the close care of their doctor and expected to pass away at home, then you should call the GP surgery to report the death. If they have died unexpectedly, then call for emergency services. A doctor will provide a medical certificate.
- If someone passes away in a hospital, hospice or care home, then a medical certificate will be produced and the next of kin will be informed.
Step 2: Before the Funeral
- You must register the death within 5 days, and it is important to understand that this is a legal requirement, so should not be delayed.
- To register the death, you will need to make an appointment at your local register office. To find your nearest please visit: https://www.gov.uk/register-offices
- When booking they should advise you of what documents you will need to supply, but it is usually the medical certificate showing the cause of death, along with some form of ID. It is best to bring along your own ID along with any of the following (if you have them): the deceased’s birth certificate, passport, driving licence, NHS number, marriage certificate and proof of address.
- After the appointment you will be given a death certificate along with other documentation which allows a burial or cremation to take place and some information leaflets. It might be a sensible idea to request and pay for additional copies, as various places will want sight of the death certificate, so it is handy to have more than one copy.
- Once you have obtained the death certificate you can start the process of administrating the estate and arranging a funeral service.
- If the person who died lived on their own, then it is a good idea to check the property is safe and secure and that any pets are cared for. You should inform the house insurance provider that the property is unoccupied as this could impact on the validity of the home insurance should anything happen to the property whilst it is empty. If you wish to, you could remove any special valuables, turn off the heating / hot water and remove any perishable foods from the fridge and cupboards. There will be more to sort out when a property is involved, but at this stage you don’t need to tackle it all at once.
- Inform close friends and family members about the death.
- Decide on whether or not you will post an announcement of the death in local papers or online.
How to Arrange a Funeral
Firstly, it is important to check if the person who has passed away had any special wishes or a pre-paid funeral plan in place, sometimes funeral wishes may be detailed in a person’s Will. If there are written wishes or a funeral plan in place, then this can be a great source of relief, to know that you are giving them the send-off that they would have hoped for.
In the absence of any funeral plans then the executor or closest relative will usually organise the funeral arrangements, perhaps with the help of other close family members or friends.
You can browse your local funeral directors or find services online or through recommendations. Many will provide a wide range of services to choose from and they will guide you through the process and choices that will need to be made ahead of the funeral date.
A funeral can be paid from the estate of the deceased either using money from their insurance, bank account or savings. There is help available for paying for funeral expenses if you are unable to front the initial costs yourself or do not have access to funds from the estate.
Step 3: After the Funeral
- Once the funeral is over it can create more headspace to tackle the administrative tasks involved when someone passes away. It can be difficult to deal with this when emotions are still running high.
- Now is the time to reconsider the Will if they have one. If they died without having a Will in place, then their estate will be dealt with under the intestacy rules. Speak to a Solicitor who specialises in Probate and they can help you determine weather or not you require probate. This will depend on the value and complexity of the estate left behind.
- If you do not know where their Will is located, then you can contact local firms to see if they hold a Will or contact the Probate Registry.
- The executor/s are those who will manage the administration of the estate, to include paying off any debts, closing bank accounts, withdrawing funds, selling a property etc. Before starting this process, however, they need to calculate the value of all the assets and work out whether tax is due and furthermore whether a Grant of Probate is required. This can be done yourself, if you are confident in doing so, however many people will use a Solicitor to do this as there are consequences of getting it wrong.
- Once you have established what the estate consists of it is time to start contacting any organisations, companies and utility providers to inform them of the death, settle and close any live accounts. It can be daunting knowing where to start, so it would be a good idea to go through their post, drawers or filing cabinets and making a list of all the different providers and working your way through the list. Try to tackle the more important ones first, such as bank accounts, investments and utilities, working your way down the list little by little.
- Pay any outstanding bills, credit cards or loans using funds from the estate and make sure that any monies owed to the estate is claimed back before bank accounts are closed.
- The executor must contact anyone named in the Will or through intestacy who is due to benefit from the estate and ensure that what has been left to them reaches them safely.
- Once personal belongings have been distributed as per the wishes in the Will, then you can make a start on organising the property. If someone has passed away that lived alone, then there will be a lot to sort out regarding their possessions and putting the property on the market or transferring it to a family member, depending on what the Will states. A property can be empty for some time in between the death and the property being sold / transferred, so it will need visiting regularly to make sure it is safe, secure and in good repair and that the insurance policy is complied with. This may include carrying out some gardening, running water to ensure pipes don’t become damaged and opening windows to ventilate the property.
- Whilst you are undertaking all of these steps and the estate has been administered, make sure that you are looking after your own mental health. Often people get by keeping themselves very busy with making funeral arrangements or sorting out the finances and property, that when it is all done they finally allow themselves to feel the emotions and grieve. There is a lot of support available, whether that be through your own friends and family, local groups, counselling or online services. If you are really struggling with day-to-day life after losing someone, then it would be worth speaking to your GP for additional support.
Making Your Own Arrangements
Often it is not until someone close to you dies, that you realise the importance of making your own arrangements and plans for the future. Making a Will, a funeral plan or putting an LPA in place are often tasks that get pushed aside when life is busy, and let’s be honest, there are far more exciting things to spend your money on!
Experiencing a death in the family or seeing how complicated it is to deal with someone else’s affairs can prompt grieving family members to make or update their own Wills.
If you would like to speak to someone about this, please call our friendly and experienced Private Client department on 01256 844888 or email enquries@lambbrooks.com.
Legal Assistance with Probate
If someone close to you has died and you need some help obtaining probate, calculating the value of the estate or managing the process from start to finish, then please get in touch.
Our team are highly experienced in dealing with estates of all sizes and complexities and can be as involved as you need us to be. Our Solicitors are very understanding and compassionate, they appreciate that this is a very difficult and emotional time for the whole family.
Call 01256 844888, email enquiries@lambbrooks.com or speak to our website chat assistant (who is a real person, not a robot) at any time of day, including over weekends.
The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.