What to Do When Someone Dies in Western Australia

Nobody hands you an instruction manual when a family member dies. One moment you're grieving; the next, a bank is asking for paperwork you've never heard of, and someone is reminding you about probate deadlines. If you're the executor or next of kin of someone who died in Western Australia, this guide walks you through what happens next — in the order it actually needs to happen.

The First 48 Hours: Medical Certificate and Funeral Arrangements

Before anything else can happen, a medical practitioner must issue a medical certificate of cause of death within 48 hours. This document is what allows the funeral director to proceed with arrangements.

When you contact a funeral director, know your rights before you sign anything. Western Australia has a mandatory Funeral Pricing Code enforced by Consumer Protection WA. Under this code, funeral directors must provide clear, upfront, itemised pricing — including the cost of a basic funeral package — before any agreement is signed. If you call and ask for a price list, they must provide it within two business days. Don't let urgency or grief pressure you into signing a contract without reading a full itemised quote first.

One critical legal point many families are caught off guard by: any Enduring Power of Attorney or Advance Health Directive held by the deceased is extinguished at the moment of death. If you were acting under one of those instruments, that authority ends immediately. From the moment of death, legal authority over the estate vests exclusively in whoever is named executor in the will — or, if there's no will, it remains in legal limbo until the Supreme Court appoints an administrator. No one can access accounts, transfer property, or manage estate assets until that authority is formally established.

Within Two Weeks: Get the Death Certificate

The funeral director is legally required to notify the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages WA (BDM WA) within 14 days of the funeral service. But here's the part many families miss: the funeral director does not automatically obtain the death certificate for you.

You — as executor or next of kin — must separately apply to BDM WA for the Certified Death Certificate. The standard fee is $58. If you need it quickly, a priority service is available for an additional $44. Order multiple certified copies in one go. Every bank, Landgate, and the Supreme Court will want their own copy, and ordering them individually later costs time and money.

The certified death certificate is the single most important document in the entire estate administration process. Nothing meaningful moves forward without it.

Weeks Two to Four: Locate the Will and Assess the Estate

Once you have the death certificate in hand, your next job is to locate the original will and conduct an honest inventory of what the deceased owned and owed.

Handle the original will with extreme care. This is not an exaggeration. The Supreme Court of Western Australia will scrutinise the physical condition of the original document. If the will has rust marks from a paperclip, staple holes, or indentations from a bulldog clip, the Court will legally presume that another document — a codicil — was once attached and has since gone missing. To overcome that presumption, you'll need to file a sworn "Affidavit of Plight and Condition and Finding" explaining exactly when and how those marks appeared. If you can't explain them adequately, the validity of the will may be challenged.

Store the original in a clear plastic sleeve. Only provide certified copies to banks and other third parties until the Supreme Court requires the original.

Assess the assets. This is where you work out whether probate is actually needed. The two biggest questions:

1. Does the estate include real property in WA? Run a title search through Landgate ($32.60). If the property was held as joint tenants with a surviving co-owner, it passes automatically by right of survivorship — no probate required, just a survivorship application with Landgate. If it was held as sole owner or tenants in common, probate is mandatory before Landgate will allow any transfer.

2. What's in the bank accounts? Thresholds vary by institution. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and ANZ typically require probate for solely held accounts over $100,000. NAB's threshold is around $50,000. Credit unions often set the bar much lower — as little as $15,000–$25,000. Check directly with each institution's deceased estates team. Most banks will pay funeral invoices and court filing fees directly from a frozen account before probate is granted — just present the invoice.

Applying for Probate or Administering the Estate

If probate is required, you cannot file immediately — there is a mandatory 14-day wait from the date of death before an application can be lodged.

For straightforward estates with a valid will and named executor, you can apply through the Supreme Court of Western Australia's eCourts Portal. The portal includes a "Probate Wizard" that generates the required documents. Important caveat: this online tool is restricted to simple cases. It cannot be used if the will is unsigned, if you are not the named executor, if the original will is missing, or if the deceased held no assets in WA.

The court filing fee is $408. Once lodged, a flawless application typically takes three to six weeks to process. If the Court finds any errors — a mismatch between the death date on your affidavit and the phrasing on the death certificate, missing signatures on every page, any mark on the will that isn't explained — it will issue a formal requisition. That pauses the process entirely. You cannot respond with a phone call or a simple letter. You must draft a supplementary affidavit addressing the Court's specific concerns, have it sworn before an authorised witness, and resubmit. Registry staff are legally prohibited from advising you on how to fix the problem.

The Western Australia Probate Process Guide covers the exact formatting requirements for affidavits, the complete list of authorised witnesses, and the most common requisition triggers with step-by-step responses.

Protecting Yourself from Unknown Debts

Before you distribute anything to beneficiaries, strongly consider publishing a Section 63 notice under the Trustees Act 1962. This involves placing a notice in the Western Australian Government Gazette and a newspaper, calling on any unknown creditors to submit claims within a specified period — at minimum, one month from the date of publication.

This step is technically optional, but skipping it is a significant personal risk. If you distribute the estate and an unknown creditor surfaces afterward — an unpaid tax bill, a medical debt, a disputed loan — you as executor may be personally liable to repay them. The one-month wait is cheap insurance.

Real Estate: Two Steps After Probate

Once the Grant of Probate is in hand, transferring real estate involves two separate Landgate applications:

1. Transmission Application (Application by Personal Representative): This moves the property title from the deceased's name into the executor's name, in their official administrative capacity. You'll need the original Grant of Probate and must complete identity verification (VOI) in person at an Australia Post outlet. The Landgate fee is $216.60. Executors based overseas cannot use the self-represented pathway and must engage a lawyer or licensed settlement agent.

2. Transfer of Land: Once the title is in the executor's name, a second document transfers the property to the beneficiary named in the will, or to a third-party buyer. Before this can be lodged with Landgate, it must be presented to Revenue WA for stamp duty assessment.

When to Escalate to a Lawyer or the Public Trustee

Most straightforward estates — valid will, simple assets, no disputes — can be administered by an organised executor with the right guidance. But certain situations call for professional help:

• No valid will: intestacy requires Letters of Administration, and the eCourts Wizard cannot be used. The Administration Act 1903 governs distribution according to complex formulas, and written consent from all eligible beneficiaries is required before the Court will act.
• Contested will or family provision claims
• An insolvent estate (liabilities exceed assets) — there is a strict legal order of priority for paying debts, and getting it wrong can expose you to personal liability
• Overseas assets
• The named executor has lost legal capacity

The Public Trustee of Western Australia can take over administration, but operates on a substantial fee structure that can erode smaller estates. For estates under $100,000, the Trustee typically declines to act.

If you're navigating a WA estate and want a complete reference — including exact affidavit templates, a bank threshold matrix, the Section 63 creditor checklist, and Landgate transmission instructions — the Western Australia Probate Process Guide covers the full process from death certificate to final distribution.

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