What to do in the first 24 hours
Arrange care for dependants and pets
If the deceased person had any children or adults whose care they were responsible for, make sure they are safe and being cared for. Similarly, make sure any pets have someone looking after them.
Check and secure the property
If the person lived alone, you need to make sure their home is protected, and cancel any deliveries or planned work.
What to do in the first week
Arrange the Death Certificate
After someone dies in Scotland, you need to register the death with a council Registration Office within 8 days.
When you register someone’s death, you will be given a Death Certificate. You will need this certificate to be able to organise the funeral and sort out the person’s affairs.
Tell people that the person has died
After a death, you need to inform a mix of people and organisations, including:
family and friends
places of work or study
their GP
government agencies, through the Tell Us Once service
banks and private companies they had a financial relationship with
Gather personal documents
As you go through the process of sorting out someone’s affairs, you’ll need a lot of documents and pieces of information.
This might include their:
birth certificate
marriage certificate or divorce decree (if applicable)
National Insurance number
UTR (tax reference) number (if they were self-employed)
property title deeds
financial paperwork
Find details of their Will
If the person had a Will, you need to find the most recent copy of their Will. If they didn’t, the law dictates who needs to sort out their affairs.
Start arranging a funeral
We recommend you start making funeral arrangements within a week of someone dying. Some people leave specific instructions for their funeral or even use a prepaid funeral plan. Check through their paperwork if you’re not sure about this.
If there aren’t specific instructions, you can get in touch with a local funeral director, or search online for newer, alternative options.
Download our First Week Checklist for more details on each step
Looking for more details on each of these steps? Download our tickable First Week Checklist document.
Next step
After the immediate items on the First Week Checklist, someone will need to sort out the person’s financial, legal and tax affairs. This is called ‘estate administration’.
Around 50% of people need to apply for Confirmation (Scottish Probate) as part of estate administration. We specialise in taking you through the Confirmation process with expert support.
Get help with estate administration
Our Confirmation specialists can help for a fixed fee.