Who is required to sign to certify death certificate copy of original?

[stoneshelter]

My sister's husband recently died in South Africa and a death certificate has been given to her. Halifax Building Society says she needs to have any copy made of the death certificate certified by a lawyer for the copy to be valid at the bank. Is this necessary as it is an expensive exercise? Can it not be certified by a Commissioner of oaths as that can be done for free? Further would a scanned copy of the death certificate signed by whoever be valid if sent via the internet or does it have to be sent by post?

[HowardKennitby]

I imagine that if those are Halifax's rules then people will just have to accept them.

[factor-fiction]

An alternative is to ask whoever issued the death certificate to issue extra certified copies- or maybe extra copies have to be requested at the time the initial certificate is requested. I don't know how it works in South Africa. I know when I dealt with a death I ordered around 5 copies of the certificate

[dzug2]

It's not clear from your post where the death certificate is - here or in South Africa.

If here then I would have thought that taking it in to a Halifax branch for them to copy and certify it would be sufficient

If there then I doubt if Halifax would know the difference between a lawyer and a Commissioner for Oaths given that here the latter IS a lawyer

I really doubt if a scanned copy would be accepted - far too prone to forgery/frauud from their point of view

But ultimately it's Halifax's say so. There are no laws on what they must accept - just a general requirement that they must make adequate checks on ID and entitlement.

[tonywiltshire]

It should not be expensive to have your local solicitors certify a document as being a copy you may need more than one copy so worth having a number done. A commissioner for oaths is appointed by the Lord Chancellor to administer oaths or take affidavits, by statute every solicitor who holds a practising certificate has the powers of a commissioner for oaths but many do not exercise these powers where they are acting for one of the parties.

The original certified copy should be sent.