For months after a death, the post keeps coming. Bank statements, renewal reminders, catalogues, sometimes a birthday offer from a company that does not know. Each one lands on the doormat with their name on it, and many families find it one of the hardest parts of the first few weeks.
You can stop most of it, and have the rest sent to you wherever you are. Before you do, though, it helps to know that their post is also the most complete list you will ever get of the accounts, contracts and subscriptions they had. This guide covers both: how to redirect or stop a deceased person's mail, and how to make use of it while it is still arriving. It is written for the UK and Royal Mail. In the United States, see our guide to USPS mail for a deceased person.
In short: use Tell Us Once for the government post. Ask Royal Mail to redirect everything else to you, which you do by post or at a Post Office rather than online. Register them with the Bereavement Register to stop the marketing. For anything that matters, contact the sender directly, because sending a letter back does not tell them about the death.
Read It Before You Stop It
Every letter names an organisation that had a relationship with them, which is exactly the list the person sorting out their affairs needs. For the first few weeks, keep all of it in one box, including the envelopes that look like junk. Then go through it looking for:
- Bank, building society and credit card statements. These also show every direct debit and card payment. Look for names like Apple, Google, Amazon, PayPal, Netflix and Spotify, which point to online accounts that never send paper.
- Renewal notices for insurance, breakdown cover, antivirus software, website domains, memberships and magazines.
- Letters from the mobile network and broadband provider. Keep the mobile number active for now, because many online accounts send their security codes to it.
- Pension, investment and savings statements, including accounts the family did not know about.
If you are the executor, or you are the person dealing with their affairs, going through their post is a normal part of that job. If someone else is the executor, agree between you who opens it, so nothing is missed or handled twice.
Our guide to finding out which online accounts someone had covers the other places to look, and the checklist of digital accounts gives you somewhere to write them down.
Start With Tell Us Once
When you register the death in England, Scotland or Wales, the registrar will offer you Tell Us Once. It reports the death to most government organisations in one go: HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Passport Office, the DVLA, the local council, Veterans UK, Social Security Scotland and public sector pension schemes. Once they know, their letters stop.
The registrar either completes it with you there and then, or gives you a reference number to use online or by phone. The reference only lasts 28 days, so use it early.
Tell Us Once does not reach private organisations. Banks, mortgage lenders, insurers, energy and water companies, employers, private pension schemes and landlords all need telling separately. It is also not available if the person lived in Northern Ireland or lived abroad permanently. In Northern Ireland, nidirect.gov.uk explains who to tell instead.
Redirect Their Mail With Royal Mail
If their home will be empty, or you are dealing with everything from somewhere else, Royal Mail can send the mail addressed to them to your address instead. Letters stop piling up behind the door of an empty house, which Royal Mail also points out reduces the risk of identity fraud, and you see every one of them.
You cannot set this up online. Royal Mail's redirection page says that if someone has died you need to complete its Special Circumstances application form, and either post it or take it to a Post Office branch. The same form is used by people with power of attorney or a deputyship. Everything below was checked against the form and Royal Mail's redirection page in October 2026.
The Special Circumstances form, step by step
Download the Special Circumstances application form from royalmail.com/redirection, under "Apply for someone else". The person applying has to be at least 18. You give the old address, the address the mail should go to, your own details, and the name of the person who has died.
The form lets you redirect "all variations of first names", so post addressed to Bill and to William both follow. If you lived at the same address and want your own mail redirected too, there is a box for that as well. Choose 3, 6 or 12 months, or give a date for it to stop.
For someone who has died, the form asks to see the original death certificate, an interim death certificate, or an office copy from the register office, plus identification in the name of the person applying. You do not need the grant of probate unless a solicitor is applying as the personal representative, in which case Royal Mail asks for an original or office copy of the grant as well.
At a Post Office branch, take one proof of your new address dated in the last six months (a utility bill but not a mobile phone bill, a credit card, mortgage, bank or building society statement, or a passbook), one proof of name (a bank card, passport, photo driving licence or building society book), and the death certificate. By post, send the same proof of address and the death certificate, and pay by cheque in your own name, which Royal Mail treats as your proof of name. In October 2026 Royal Mail's page gave the postal address as Royal Mail Redirection Centre, Cooper House, Lakeside, Festival Way, Stoke-on-Trent ST1 5RY. Royal Mail says it returns all the documents, but keep copies of everything you send.
Royal Mail sends you an acknowledgement letter, and sends a security letter to the old address. If you are not at the old address, ask a neighbour to look out for it.
How long it lasts and what it costs
Redirection runs for 3, 6 or 12 months at a time, and you can renew it. In October 2026 Royal Mail's prices started at £45, and the price depends on the length, whether the new address is in the UK, the EU or further away, and how many people's mail is being redirected. Royal Mail offers a lower price to people receiving Universal Credit or Pension Credit, so ask whether it applies to you. Redirected mail is handled as Second Class, so it arrives a day or two later than it used to.
If they lived in a care home or hospital: Royal Mail says it cannot redirect mail from a building where many people share one letterbox, such as a nursing home, boarding house, hotel or hall of residence. Ask the home to pass on anything that arrives, and give the important senders your own address when you tell them about the death.
A few things will still arrive at the old address once a redirection starts, because Royal Mail does not redirect them: post addressed "To the Occupier", and parcels from couriers and other delivery companies. Royal Mail's form also says it may pass the name and address of a person who has died to other organisations so that less mail is sent to them, and that it is required by law to pass redirection details to the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities, which is one more reason to do Tell Us Once first.
Stop the Marketing Post
Catalogues and offers addressed to someone who has died are the post families tend to find hardest, and they are the easiest to stop. Mailing companies call this deceased suppression: they check their lists against registers of people who have died, and you can add your relative to those registers yourself.
The Bereavement Register is free for families, because the direct marketing companies pay to use it. You add their details online at thebereavementregister.org.uk, and companies that check the register remove them from their mailing lists. The register says you should see a significant reduction within six weeks, and virtually none within six months.
Royal Mail suggests also registering with the Mailing Preference Service at mpsonline.org.uk, to reduce direct marketing sent in the person's name. It is free too.
Neither service stops leaflets addressed "To the Occupier", unaddressed mail or post from overseas. Neither stops bills and statements either, which only end when you tell the organisation.
What to Do With a Letter Addressed to Them
Most letters fall into one of two groups, and each needs something different.
From an organisation they had a relationship with, such as a bank, energy supplier, phone network, insurer or subscription: contact the organisation, tell them about the death and ask what they need. Most will want a copy of the death certificate and the executor's details. Sending the letter back does not do this job for you. Royal Mail delivers to addresses rather than names, so a returned envelope only tells the sender the address did not work.
Marketing from companies they never really dealt with: add them to the Bereavement Register, then send back anything that keeps arriving. Royal Mail's advice is to cross out the address, write "Not known at this address" or "No longer lives here" on the envelope, and put it in a postbox. You do not need a stamp.
If you live at the same address, nothing changes about the delivery itself. Their post keeps coming to the house, and it tails off as each organisation is told.
The Online Accounts the Post Points To
Paper only tells you about the organisations that still send paper. Email, social media, cloud storage and most subscriptions show up on a bank statement at best, and each has its own process after a death. Our guides walk through the main ones: Facebook, Instagram, Google and Gmail, Apple ID and iCloud, Amazon and PayPal, as well as cancelling subscriptions.
Or Let Us Handle the Online Side
Departed Digital closes or memorialises a loved one's online accounts for the family. Tell us the accounts you have found, from the post or anywhere else, and send the documents once. We then use each platform's official process for a death, chase every silence until each account is closed or memorialised, and give you a written record of everything for the family and the estate.
Packages start from £149, and the first step takes about a minute.
Found accounts in the post? Tell us which ones and we will take it from there, with the requests, the documents and the follow up included. Start a case →