Security and Insurance of Property

If the person who has died lived alone, someone should go to his or her home on the day of the death. Take the security precautions that you would take when leaving your own home empty for a while, such as locking all doors and windows, stopping deliveries of papers and milk and moving valuable items so that passers-by cannot easily see them.

Everything in the home should remain there. This makes it easy to arrange for all the person's property to be valued. (It has to be valued for inheritance tax purposes.). If there are very valuable items and you believe they are not adequately insured, consider moving them to a more secure place but consult the executors or close relatives of the person who has died or the person's solicitors before you do this.

If you know that the person who has died had a gun licence and kept firearms at the property, report the death to the police so that they can make arrangements for the guns to be kept safely.

If the person had a pet, make temporary arrangements for it to be looked after by family or friends or through an animal rescue charity.

On your first visit to the home of the person who has died, look for papers relating to the insurance of the property and its contents, even if you don't have time to look for other important papers at this stage.

Ring the insurers, tell them about the death and make sure that there is adequate home and contents cover in place. Keep a note of your conversation with the insurers and put it with the papers relating to the insurance.

Hand all these papers over to the executors or their solicitors as soon as possible.