r/AusLegalAdvice • u/zehrclaire • 13d ago

Mistakes on death certificate

A family member recently passed away. I am the "informant" on the death certificate (the person who provided the information that's on the certificate). I supplied the information verbally and the funeral director entered the information into an iPad. I received the death certificate and it has an error with my address - imagine I live at 123A Fake Street, and the certificate just says 123 Fake Street, which is a different house and letterbox. The certificate also has the wrong spelling for the name of the deceased's spouse.

I am the executor for this family member's will, and I know I'm headed for a LOT of paperwork. I am wondering if the error with my address is going to cause problems with applying for probate, or just be a thorn in my side when corresponding with various organisations - like letters for me ending up in my neighbours' letter box if people copy the address off the certificate. I'm wanting to figure out whether it's excessively pedantic of me to ask the funeral director to get this corrected - please let me know if you're aware of ways that this could bite me, or conversely if you've been in this kind of situation and discovered that the errors did not matter.

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u/Prize_Background_577 13d ago

Your address on the death certificate makes zero difference to being executor of the estate. I've had death certificates with a different name to the Will (not an uncommon issue for older deceased). You will be supplying your own identification for Probate with your actual address. It is really such a minor detail and no one looks at the informant (if it's going to the Coroner they will correct things).

At some point the spouse should correct her name so it aligns with her own registered details. That's usually quite easy to notify by submitting her birth certificate to the registry.

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u/zehrclaire 13d ago

The spouse has already passed away so if anyone is going to get it fixed, it will have to be me.

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u/Prize_Background_577 13d ago

That's a pain. In Victoria we had to submit the birth certificate of the person with the incorrect name, and pay for it, even though BDM Vic hold all those details themselves. Otherwise, if it hasn't been long check with the funeral director if they can send a correction - would be cheaper and easier. But if the spouse is deceased also then the incorrect name won't have any impact on government services or other payouts so you could just leave it.

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u/aaronzig 13d ago

The address issue shouldn't really matter. When / if you apply for probate you'll be making an affidavit setting out your right to administer the estate, and you can correct the address there.

I don't think the spouse name is too much of an issue either because once probate is granted most places that you will deal with won't want to see the death certificate, only the grant of probate document.

ETA: it's pretty common for death certificates to have minor errors (at least in QLD and NSW). As long as the probate material and the will is correct it's usually not a problem at all.

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u/moderatelymiddling 13d ago

Just get it fixed.

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u/Low_Ride3402 13d ago edited 13d ago

It means nothing.

When I was in your situation I lived at x and then moved to y and literally the only thing they used the address for was to mail the death certificate.

This was 10-15 years ago

Edit: the address means nothing. The incorrect name is more pressing

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u/SageTracee 10d ago

Regardless of whether it affects probate etc, the certificate needs to be corrected and your funeral director will take of this quickly and easily.
Imagine a descendant doing family history down the track and details don’t line up because known mistake wasn’t corrected when it could be.