Case 19 of 19 · Level 1

Bank account · letters addressed to a customer who had died

The letters that kept coming

The file · about 5 minutes

The complaint

After her husband died, she and her family wrote to every bank and financial business where he had held an account, an investment or a policy. All of them but one were helpful and efficient, and settling his affairs helped her find some closure. One bank kept sending letters addressed to him. Each one distressed her. Each time she phoned, explained again that he had died, and asked the bank to stop. Each time someone assured her it would, and nobody could say why it kept happening. After several months of this she complained to the bank about the distress. She was not satisfied with its response, and brought the complaint to the ombudsman.

The firm's answer

The published case does not set out what the bank said in reply to her complaint, only that she was not satisfied with it. Its side is in what the file shows it did: its staff apologised on each call and promised that no more letters would come, and the letters came anyway, for several months, including after she had complained.

Evidence in the file

• Exhibit A · The letters

  Letters from one bank addressed to her late husband, arriving over several months after she had told it that he had died. The letters did not stop when she complained.

• Exhibit B · Her calls

  Her account of the calls: each time a letter came she phoned the bank, explained again that her husband had died, and asked it to stop writing to him. Each time a member of staff assured her that it would. Nobody could explain why the mistake kept happening.

• Exhibit C · The other firms

  Every other bank, investment firm and insurer the family contacted dealt with the death quickly and helpfully. The ombudsman noted this because it showed what she could reasonably have expected.