Bereavement

We understand that dealing with a bereavement can be a difficult time, and we would like to make this process for you as easy as possible.  This guide below gives you information about how to notify us that someone has passed away, what will happen to their account and how to release money to help with probate fees, funeral costs and inheritance tax.

Registering a death with us

A) Before you have the death certificate

If you don’t have the death certificate yet and want to safeguard the account and stop any correspondence being sent out and addressed to the person who has passed away, you can inform us in any of the ways detailed below:

• You can visit us in any of our branches
• Or call our Member Services team on 01582 765411
• Or complete our ‘Notice of Bereavement’ form and send it to us at Member Services Team, Harpenden Building Society, FREEPOST SB165, Mardall House, 9-11 Vaughan Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4HU

Here’s what we will need from you:

1. Full name, date of birth, date of death and the Harpenden Building Society account details of the person who has passed away. This will enable us to identify their account;
2. Full name, address and one piece of identification of the Personal Representative. This is the person we will be corresponding with.  If we are to contact a Solicitors at any time, then their contact details will be sufficient;
3. The passbook(s), or a completed ‘Lost Passbook’ form to be completed for each account. Please note the £1.00 administration fee will be waived.

What happens once your notification has been received?

We will update our records. If we have not received the death certificate within 30 days of receiving your notice, we will write to the Personal Representative or Solicitors as requested.

B) If you have the death certificate

We will require a certified copy, or original death certificate, once you have obtained it. This can be sent to us by either;

• You can visit us in any of our branches
• Send it to us at; Member Services, Harpenden Building Society FREEPOST SB165, Mardall House, 9-11 Vaughan Road,  Harpenden, AL5 4HU

Here’s what we will need from you:

• Full name, date of birth, date of death and the Harpenden Building Society account details of the person who has passed away. This will enable us to identify their account;
• Full name, address and one piece of identification of the Personal Representative. This is the person we will be corresponding with.  If we are to contact a Solicitors, then their contact details will be sufficient;
• The passbook(s), or a completed ‘Lost Passbook’ form to be completed for each account. Please note the £1.00 administration fee will be waived.

We will write to the Personal Representative or Solicitor, as requested within 7-10 days with details of how to close the account(s).

Releasing funds to pay for Probate fees/a funeral inheritance tax.

Once we have received notification of the passing of one of our members, and we are in receipt of the death certificate, you can request funds to help pay for probate fees, a funeral and/or inheritance tax.

In all cases we will require the original invoice (IHT423 form in the case of inheritance tax) and a completed ‘Request for Probate, Funeral Fees, Inheritance Tax’ form to be completed by the Personal Representative.

Where to send these details to:

• You can visit us in any of our branches
• Send it to us at; Member Services Team, Harpenden Building Society, FREEPOST SB165, Mardall House, 9-11 Vaughan Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4HU

Closing the account(s)

To close the account(s) we will require the relevant sections of the 'Request to close account form' to be completed and returned to us.

You can send the completed form to us either by:

• You can visit us in any of our branches
• Send it to us at this address; Member Services Team, Harpenden Building Society, FREEPOST SB165, Mardall House, 9-11 Vaughan Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4HU