What to do when someone dies in the UK

There is a fixed order to the first week, and almost nothing outside it is urgent. Get the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, register the death within the legal deadline, order several certified copies of the death certificate, and then use Tell Us Once. That is the whole of the first week.

Everything else — probate, the estate, closing accounts, the house — waits. It is meant to wait. If you are reading this in the first few days, that is the part worth hearing.

The first week, in order

1. If the death was expected and at home, contact the GP. If it was unexpected, call 999. In hospital or a care home, the staff handle this and will guide you.

2. Obtain the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. In England and Wales it is reviewed by a Medical Examiner. In Scotland it is Form 11.

3. Contact a funeral director. There is no rush to choose. They will collect and care for the person while you decide. You can check NAFD or SAIF membership before you commit.

4. Find the will, and any pre-paid funeral plan. Try the solicitor, the bank, and home filing.

5. Register the death — deadlines below.

6. Order extra certified copies of the death certificate at registration. Allow roughly one per major asset-holder: each bank, each pension, each share registrar. Ordering more later is slower and usually dearer.

7. Use Tell Us Once, within 28 days of registration.

Registering the death

Registration itself is free. Certified copies are charged per copy — in Northern Ireland, £8 each at registration. The registrar gives you the document the funeral director needs, and, in England, Wales and Scotland, a Tell Us Once reference number.

Tell Us Once

A free government service that notifies most of the public sector in one go, using the reference the registrar gave you. Apply at gov.uk/tell-us-once or call 0800 085 7308.

It notifies HMRC, the DWP, HM Passport Office, the DVLA, the local council, Veterans UK, public-sector pension schemes and Social Security Scotland.

It is not available in Northern Ireland. There, each department has to be contacted individually.

What Tell Us Once does not cover

Everything private. Banks, pensions, insurers, the mortgage lender, the landlord, the employer, utilities, broadband, TV Licensing, the GP, subscriptions and online accounts all need telling separately.

For banks and building societies, the free Death Notification Service — run by UK Finance — lets you notify 40-odd participating firms with a single form. It is the single biggest time-saver in the whole process and very few people know it exists.

Do you need probate?

Often, no. Probate is the legal authority to deal with the estate, and whether you need it depends on what the estate holds and how it was owned.

Usually needed where there is a property in a sole name, or holdings above the bank's own threshold — which varies by institution, typically somewhere between £5,000 and £50,000.

Usually not needed where everything was jointly owned. Joint accounts and property held as joint tenants pass automatically by survivorship.

In England and Wales the application fee is £526 for estates over £5,000, and nil for estates of £5,000 or less. That fee rose from £300 on 13 July 2026, so any guidance still quoting £300 is out of date. Extra sealed copies of the grant are much cheaper ordered with the application than afterwards — order enough up front. Straightforward applications typically take 8 to 16 weeks.

In Scotland the equivalent is Confirmation, applied for at the Sheriff Court, with a small-estate route for estates of £36,000 gross or less where the Sheriff Clerk's office helps with the inventory free of charge.

A note on the person doing this

Someone ends up holding all of it, and it is usually the same person who is most bereaved. The admin is not a distraction from grief and it is not a substitute for it. Do the seven steps above in the first week, let the rest sit, and let someone else make the phone calls where they offer.