Farra is a death administration assistant for UK families. Get step-by-step guidance for registering a death, applying for probate, notifying banks, and managing bereavement admin. From essential documents to practical checklists, Farra simplifies estate paperwork and funeral-related tasks so you can focus on what matters.
Register within five days at any district registration office in Northern Ireland. The registrar will usually telephone you to complete the registration once the doctor has sent the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death to GRONI. Registration is free; death certificates cost £8.00 each at the time of registration. Tell Us Once does not cover Northern Ireland — the Bereavement Service is the equivalent for benefits and pensions.
In Northern Ireland, a death should be registered within five days of the date of death, except where it has been referred to the coroner. This matches the registration window in England and Wales. A death may be registered at any district registration office in Northern Ireland.
The funeral normally cannot proceed until registration is complete and the Certificate for Burial or Cremation has been issued to the funeral director. Where a death has been referred to the coroner, the coroner can give consent for burial or cremation before the death is registered.
If the death has been referred to the Coroner (Northern Ireland has coroners, as England and Wales do; Scotland instead uses the Procurator Fiscal), registration must wait until the registrar has received the necessary certificate from the coroner. Funeral arrangements should not be made before the coroner has given consent.
The person responsible for registering the death is called the "informant". In Northern Ireland, the informant may be:
You do not usually have to attend an office. The doctor or hospital sends the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death electronically to GRONI, which passes it to a registration office; the registrar then telephones you to arrange the registration. That can be done over the telephone, or at the registration office if you prefer, and the registrar may ask you to complete a death registration form and email it back.
A death may be registered at any district registration office in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has registration offices across each of its eleven council districts, and nidirect publishes their contact details. Where the doctor or hospital gives you the medical certificate directly, contact the registration office covering the area where you live.
If the death occurred in hospital, the hospital bereavement team will normally advise on the registration process and may be able to assist with arranging an appointment at the relevant register office.
Whether you register by telephone or in person, the registrar needs:
You should also bring:
The more information you can provide, the more complete and accurate the registration will be. Errors in the death certificate must be corrected through a formal process.
The official certified copy of the entry in the death register. Each bank, insurance company and government department will typically need its own copy. Registering the death costs nothing; certificates, short form or full, cost £8.00 per copy from the registrar at the time of registration. Bought afterwards from the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI) they cost £15.00 for the first copy and £8.00 for each further copy bought at the same time. A short-form certificate, available for deaths registered after 17 December 2012, does not show the cause of death.
The registrar issues this to the funeral director so the burial or cremation can go ahead. Where the death has been referred to the coroner, the coroner can instead give consent for the funeral before the death is registered.
If the body is to be cremated, the GP or hospital arranges for a second doctor to sign the cremation certificate.
Tell Us Once — the service that reports a death to most government organisations in one go — is not available here. GOV.UK states that you cannot use it if the person was living in Northern Ireland when they died. Anything you read about a registrar completing Tell Us Once with you, or giving you a Tell Us Once reference number, describes England, Scotland and Wales.
The nearest Northern Ireland equivalent is the Bereavement Service, which reports the death to the Department for Communities. It records the date of death, tells each office that paid the deceased a benefit, and can check entitlement to Bereavement Support Payment, a Funeral Expenses Payment or a Children's Funeral Fund payment. It does not cover HMRC, DVLA, the Passport Office or your council, which must be told separately.
Neither service notifies banks and financial institutions — for those, the Death Notification Service can be used to notify multiple banks simultaneously.
Some deaths in Northern Ireland must be reported to the Coroner — including sudden or unexplained deaths, deaths where the cause is unknown, deaths occurring during an operation or anaesthesia, and deaths that may have resulted from an accident or violence.
Where a death is referred to the Coroner, the doctor cannot issue the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death until the Coroner is satisfied with the cause of death. A post-mortem examination may be ordered. The death can only be registered once the registrar has received the necessary certificate from the coroner — though the coroner can give consent for the burial or cremation to take place before then.
A single Coroners Service for Northern Ireland covers the whole of Northern Ireland. Where registration is delayed, the coroner can issue an interim certificate — a "Coroner's Certificate of Evidence of Death" — to help with administering the estate, though not every financial organisation accepts one.
After registering the death, the main estate administration steps are:
For a comprehensive overview of the estate administration process, see our estate administration checklist.
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