Bereavement support

Buy to let mortgages

Any money owed needs to be paid back from the estate. Find out how to pay off the mortgage in full.

Other options for paying back the mortgage

It is important to get independent financial and legal advice if you’re considering any of the following options:

• Payment from the estate funds or savings.
• Selling or remortgaging the property/properties.
• Consider lending options. The Mortgage Works provide Buy to let mortgage lending. To learn more, call us on 0345 606 4060.
• Voluntary surrender the property/properties to The Mortgage Works. If that happens, we will try to get the best possible price for the property. Any money left over from the sale will be released to you. If you decide you want to do this, we will issue the voluntary surrender forms for you to complete. This confirms you would like us to take possession and that the property is vacant.

Residential mortgages

Any money owed needs to be paid back from the estate. Our probate partner, Phillips & Cohen Associates (UK), will be in touch to discuss this once the payment concession has finished. Or you can call them on 0333 555 1050. Please wait 10 working days before calling them.

More about Phillips & Cohen Associates.

This is the executor or administrator managing the person’s estate. Often, this is the spouse or closest living relative. In Scotland both the administrator and executive are called the executor.

The tasks of the personal representative can include:

• collecting all the assets of the estate
• dealing with any paperwork
• settling any debts, bills, taxes, funeral costs and administration costs
• appointing a solicitor.

If the personal representative is not an existing customer, we will need to verify their identity. This is to protect the person’s assets from potential fraud or other forms of economic crime.

Anyone can tell us about a death online, at a branch, on the phone or by post. You’ll just need to provide a few details to prove you knew the person. However, it's important for us to know who the personal representative is. We need their details, so we can contact them and tell them what they need to do.

We must see the death certificate. It's not an issue if you don't have it at the time when you tell us about the death. If you don’t have it, our bereavement services team will try and verify the death through the government database. When you have the death certificate you can either:

• bring it to one of our branches where one of our staff can take a photocopy
• upload a photo or scan securely online. We use the Docusign service.
• post it to us at the address shown at the bottom of Nationwide's bereavement page.

You don’t need to send Nationwide copies of the death certificate. You can bring it into a branch or take a photo or scan and upload online. If you choose to send it online, you can use the secure DocuSign link.

Be aware that getting extra copies of the death certificate from the register office comes with a fee. Check with other organisations if you can send the certificate online, or take a photo to help keep costs down.

The Death Notification Service (opens in a new window) is a free, external website that lets you notify all participating banks and building societies (opens in a new window), including us, at once.

The other financial providers will update their records and should contact you within 10 days to let you know the next steps.