Redirecting Post After a Death

Letters keep arriving long after someone dies, bills, bank statements, and the occasional surprise from an old account nobody remembered. Setting up mail redirection catches these before they pile up at an empty property, and it's worth doing sooner rather than later.

It's Not the Same as a Standard House Move Redirection

This trips a lot of people up: Royal Mail's ordinary redirection service, the one you'd use if you were moving house yourself, isn't the right one here. For a bereavement, you need the Special Circumstances Redirection, which includes extra identity checks to protect the deceased's information. Because of these added checks, it must be applied for in person at a Post Office branch, not online, using a different form from the standard service.

You'll need to bring a certified copy of the death certificate and proof of your authority to act, such as your role as executor or next of kin.

How Long It Lasts

Redirections can be set up for 3, 6, or 12 months at a time, and renewed for up to 4 years in total. Given that estate admin can easily stretch beyond a few months, it's worth choosing a longer initial period rather than needing to renew repeatedly.

Why It's Worth Doing Promptly

An empty property with post visibly piling up is a signal to opportunistic fraudsters that nobody's home, which makes it a target both for burglary and identity fraud. Getting a redirection in place within the first week or two significantly reduces that risk.

There's a practical upside too: as forwarded mail arrives over the following weeks and months, it often reveals accounts, policies, or subscriptions you didn't know existed, old insurance policies, Premium Bonds, or a forgotten savings account, for example. Keeping a simple list of anything new that surfaces is a useful habit while you're settling the estate.

Stopping Other Kinds of Mail

Redirection only handles mail that's already addressed and sent. A few related services handle other categories:

• The Bereavement Register: removes the deceased's name from marketing mailing lists, reducing unwanted post addressed specifically to them.
• The Mailing Preference Service: a similar opt-out specifically for direct marketing mail.
• Royal Mail's Door to Door opt-out: stops unaddressed promotional leaflets delivered as part of local distribution runs, separate from anything addressed to the deceased by name.

What It Doesn't Cover

The Special Circumstances Redirection only covers Royal Mail. If the person regularly received deliveries from Parcelforce, Evri, DPD, or other couriers, those need to be contacted separately, there's no single service that catches everything.

If the person was in a care home or hospital when they died, it's also worth asking the facility directly to forward any post that arrives there in the meantime, while the redirection is being set up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set this up online?

No, not for a bereavement. The standard online redirection is for people who are moving themselves. The Special Circumstances version requires an in-person application at a Post Office, due to the extra verification involved.

Who is allowed to apply?

Generally an executor, administrator, or close next of kin, as long as you can provide a death certificate and evidence of your role in dealing with the estate.

What if mail is going to a business address instead?

If the person ran a business or was a sole trader, correspondence may arrive at the business premises rather than a home address. You'll need to contact the business's mail contact separately, this isn't covered by a personal redirection.

Does this stop everything, including junk mail?

Not entirely on its own. Redirection forwards addressed mail to your chosen address, but for marketing mail specifically, the Bereavement Register and Mailing Preference Service are the more targeted tools.

Related reading: Notifying Utility Companies After a Death · Using the Tell Us Once Service After a Death