Bereavement support

The first thing you'll need to do is notify us of their death. As soon as we've received this notification, we'll put a note on their account(s) and stop any marketing material being sent out. This can take a few days to take effect so it’s possible that some marketing material may still be sent.

You can notify us of the death easily by completing a simple form. However, if you already have the death certificate, please go straight to step 2 below and fill in our more detailed Notification of Death form.

Please note that any Power of Attorney/Court of Protection automatically ceases on the death of the donor. Any authority as attorney/deputy is not valid from the date of death.

Alternatively you can get in touch with us using the following contact details, depending on what type of account the deceased held with us:

Savings account

Mortgage account

For safeguarding purposes, we do need to have received the death certificate before we can provide any confidential information on, or make any changes to the account. 

Once you have the death certificate please send it, or a certified copy* of it to us at:

Family Building Society
Central Services
Ebbisham House
30 Church Street 
Epsom
Surrey
KT17 4NL

We recommend that you send any original documents by recorded delivery.  We'll return all original death certificates, and certified copies, by recorded delivery.

Further information will be required

We’ll also need some information about the deceased and their Personal Representative(s) or if unknown, the next of kin. 

You can provide this information by completing our online form, or alternatively print this form and post it to us at the address shown above with the death certificate, or a certified copy. 

If you’d prefer to get in touch by phone or email, you can give us the following information using the contact details above in Step 1: 

Details of the deceased person including their full name, full address, date of birth, date of death, whether there is a Will or not, and any Family Building Society account numbers (if known)

If known, details of the Personal Representative(s) (executor, administrator or legal representative dealing with the estate): their name, full address, relationship to the deceased person, email address and telephone number. If the person isn’t known then please give us the deceased’s next of kin contact details instead

Any other information that you think would be useful.
We fully understand that due to the coronavirus and self-isolation restrictions, it may be difficult for you to send us either an original or a certified copy of the death certificate, so we may be able to make exceptions or other arrangements. If this is the case, please get in touch with us using the above contact details in Step 1. 


* the death certificate can be certified as a true copy by a solicitor, accountant, bank or building society official, Independent Financial Advisor (IFA), mortgage broker, doctor or a Justice of the Peace. We accept other professionals but it may take us longer to verify their certification.

Once we’ve received the death certificate, we’ll write to the Personal Representative(s) or next of kin, and let them know what account(s) are held with us, how much is in each and if any interest is owed. 

If we need any other information or the legal representative asks for more information, we’ll provide that too. We’ll also confirm what documents we need to close the account(s), including what identification we'll need to verify the Personal Representative(s) or next of kin.

If the account balance, including accrued interest, is under £5,000 we can close it once we receive an acceptable Statutory Declaration (for the duration of coronavirus the limit has been raised and the account balance can be up to £15,000). If this applies, we’ll get in touch to make sure we have the information we need. 

Sole accounts – we'll release account information to the Personal Representative(s) or next of kin, which can be used to apply for the Grant of Representation if required. We’ll confirm what documents we need to close the account, and once we've received them, we'll close the account(s) and release the monies. We won't charge penalties or withhold paying interest for any early account closures. 

Joint accounts – if a savings account is held jointly, it will automatically pass to the other account holder(s) and the terms and conditions of the account will stay the same.

ISA accounts – ISA accounts will stay open until we receive documentation to close the account. If you’re the spouse or registered civil partner of the person who has died, you may be able to inherit an additional ISA allowance. You’ll need to apply for an Additional Permitted Subscription (APS) allowance which will entitle you to a one-off additional allowance to cover the value of your partner's savings as well as your own. Please speak to us on 03330 140144 if you need further information about how to do this. 

Expenses

If you need funds to part-pay or fully pay for funeral expenses or Inheritance Tax, we can release money from the deceased’s account(s) before the Grant of Representation is obtained. We will pay funeral expenses directly to the Funeral Director. For Inheritance Tax payments we can pay HMRC directly. Alternatively, a cheque made payable to HMRC can be sent to the Personal Representatives.

Joint borrowers

If two or more borrowers jointly own the property which is mortgaged with us, our process will be different depending on how the property is held. We can help you identify how it is held (either as joint tenants or tenants in common) and we'll guide you through the relevant process.  

Mortgage terms and conditions will stay the same and it’s important to be aware that the mortgage must still be paid to us, even where one of the borrowers has passed away. If you think you may have difficulty in making these payments, please contact us on 03330 140146.

The mortgaged property must continue to be insured under a comprehensive buildings insurance policy. 

Sole borrowers 

As soon as we receive the death certificate we won't collect any more mortgage payments but interest will carry on being accrued to the account. We’ll release information to the Personal Representative(s) or next of kin which can be used for a Grant of Representation if required. 

The mortgaged property must continue to be insured under a comprehensive buildings insurance policy until the property is sold and we ask to be kept informed about the sale process. 

Knowing what to do when somebody close to you dies can feel very daunting. You may find the government’s step-by-step guide helpful to guide you through the process. 

The government’s Tell Us Once service lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go to make the process easier. You can find on their website.