What to Do When Someone Dies: A Step by Step Checklist

Last updated: 4 September 2026. Applies to England and Wales.

When someone dies, the order of events is fixed. A doctor or NHS medical examiner issues the medical certificate of cause of death, you register the death at a register office within five days, and that registration produces the death certificate. Almost nothing else, including applying for probate, can begin until you are holding certified copies of that certificate.

This checklist sets out what happens, in order, and what it costs.

The first five days

1. Get the death formally verified. In hospital this is done by staff. At home, call the GP surgery in working hours or 111 out of hours. If the death was sudden, unexplained or the deceased had not seen a doctor recently, the coroner is involved and the timeline stretches.
2. Wait for the medical certificate of cause of death. Since September 2024 every death in England and Wales that is not referred to a coroner is reviewed by an independent NHS medical examiner before the certificate is released. This adds a short delay that families often do not expect.
3. Book the registration appointment. The register office for the district where the person died sends the certificate electronically. You cannot register until it arrives.
4. Register the death within five days of the certificate being issued.
5. Order your certified copies at the appointment. More on how many below.

What you need at the registration appointment

Information	Why it is needed
Full name, including maiden name	Goes on the certificate exactly as recorded
Date and place of birth and death	Register entry
Last address	Register entry and Tell Us Once
Occupation, and spouse or civil partner details	Register entry
NHS number, National Insurance number	Speeds up Tell Us Once
Whether they received a state pension or benefits	Stops overpayments becoming a debt on the estate

Registration itself is free. The certificates are not.

How many death certificates should you order?

Certified copies cost £12.50 each in England and Wales. Photocopies are not accepted by banks, pension providers or the Land Registry, so you need originals, and several organisations will hold on to one for weeks at a time.

Estate	Copies to order
One bank account, no property	2 to 3
Property, two or three accounts, a pension	4 to 6
Several accounts, investments, insurance, more than one property	6 to 10

Ordering extras later is possible but slower, and delays tend to compound because organisations work in sequence rather than in parallel.

Use Tell Us Once

The registrar will offer you a Tell Us Once reference. It notifies HMRC, the DWP, the DVLA, the Passport Office, the local council and the Public Sector Pension Schemes in one go. It is free, it takes about ten minutes, and it removes a meaningful amount of admin. It does not cover banks, insurers, private pensions or utilities, which you still need to contact yourself.

Arranging and paying for the funeral

Check the will first, because it may record funeral wishes and, occasionally, a prepaid plan. There is no legal obligation to follow those wishes, but most executors do.

You do not have to wait for probate to pay for the funeral. Banks will usually release funds directly to the funeral director from the deceased's own account on production of the invoice and the death certificate. Funeral costs are the first call on the estate, ahead of any other debt.

Find the will and confirm who is executor

The original will, not a copy, is what the Probate Registry needs. Look at home, with the solicitor who drafted it, at the bank, or on the National Will Register. The people named as executors have the legal authority to act. If there is no will, the intestacy rules decide both who inherits and who can apply.

Value the estate

You need a figure for everything owned and everything owed at the date of death. Property is normally valued by an estate agent or, where inheritance tax is in play, a RICS surveyor. Write to each bank, pension provider and insurer for a date of death balance. Include debts, including the funeral bill and any outstanding tax.

This stage is where most estates lose time, because you are waiting on third parties who each work to their own schedule.

Inheritance tax

The nil rate band is £325,000. Where a home passes to children or grandchildren, a residence nil rate band of up to £175,000 may also apply. Anything a spouse or civil partner inherits is exempt, and an unused nil rate band can usually be transferred to the survivor.

Where tax is due, it must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the month of death, and you generally cannot get the grant until at least some of it has been paid. That ordering catches executors out, because the money to pay it is often locked inside the estate.

Apply for probate

Fee	Amount
Estate of £5,000 or less	No fee
Estate over £5,000	£526
Extra sealed copies ordered with the application	£2 each
Extra copies ordered after the grant is issued	£16 each
Second application for the same person	£22

The £526 fee took effect on 13 July 2026, up from £300. A number of firms and comparison pages are still quoting the old figure, so check any estimate you are given against the current fee.

Realistic timeline

Stage	Typical time
Medical certificate and registration	3 to 10 days
Funeral	1 to 3 weeks
Valuing the estate	4 to 12 weeks
Grant of probate issued	8 to 16 weeks from application
Collecting assets and distributing	2 to 6 months after the grant

Common questions

Do I have to register the death within five days?
Yes, in England and Wales, counted from when the medical certificate is issued. If a coroner is involved the clock works differently and the register office will tell you what applies.

Can I access the bank account before probate?
Only in limited ways. Most banks will pay the funeral invoice and some inheritance tax directly. Beyond that, accounts are frozen until the grant is issued, though many banks release smaller balances without one.

What if there is no will?
The intestacy rules apply, the closest relative applies for letters of administration instead of probate, and unmarried partners inherit nothing automatically however long the relationship.

Do I need a solicitor?
No. Executors can apply themselves. Whether that is sensible depends on the size and complexity of the estate and on how much personal liability you are comfortable carrying.

Related reading: how much probate costs in 2026, whether you need probate at all and executor duties and personal liability.

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General information about England and Wales, not legal advice. Correct as at 4 September 2026. Probate Compare is a trading style of Estate Assist Ltd, company number 14495587, registered in England and Wales. ICO registration ZB470272.