SAR/GDPR Requests for Deceased Family Member

[LittleCrow]

An organisation is claiming they wrote to myself (representative of the relative upon death) and/or the deceased relative. They've never written to me and I don't believe they wrote to the relative either.

Can I request any records held for this relative?

If so, is it a SAR?

I’m sorry for your loss.

Can’t you just ask them to provide copies of the letters they say that they sent to you?

I don’t think you can do a SAR for another person without their consent, but not sure if the fact that the person is now deceased changes anything.

However I would have thought that the organisation should be able to provide you with copies of letters it says it sent to you.

Ask them for copies of what they sent to you.

If the person is deceased, you can't do a DSAR for them as the GDPR only applies to living people.

If the letters relate to healthcare and you're in the uk you can, however, in most cases, use the access to health records act to request a copy

No you can’t - GDPR applies to information about a living person.

Sorry for your loss.

If it about a contractual agreement which needs to be resolved after death eg life assuramce you may have a contractual right if you are collecting money owed or are paying off a debt owed by the dead persons estate.

Is there a specific reason the organisation will not give you a copy of what was sent to you?

You can apply for the letter under your own name as it contains your name and address and date of creation. But if the company are a-h they could supply a redacted version.

If it is a state organisation the freedom of information act still covers a decesed persons records.

It relates to monies owed by my late relative which they claim they chased me/relative for and then it went to court without my knowledge until, very bizzarely, debt collectors wrote to me re monies due and I did receive that correspondence. They definitely didn't contact anyone at all previously but are saying they have evidence they did.

I've asked for them to provide me with copies however it sounds like they have played this very underhand and I wouldn't be surprised if they only produced documents in order to take it to court and make out they had been writing to us when that's not the case.

Would a FOI request for my late relative work?

I've put in a SAR for myself already.

Btw, the monies became due after death, so my late relative was not aware of this.

Ok it looks as if this is not money owed to a government body but a company. If so the FOI would not be relevant.

if it went to court and they won, my initial focus would not be on, if or when the letter was sent.

If it went to court the company should have provided the court with suficient documents to satisfy the judge that the debt was owed or at least that there was no defence submitted against the debt.
But that is the documentation you should look to obtain as that is what the court ruled on when deciding the money was owed.

Your only option to remove the court order would be to go back to court for that you would be best served by getting legal advice.
You could check if you have insurance cover which provides an advise line or try posting on a debt managemet website or contact a debt managemet charity.

The first item to reopen the case can be proving that proper notice was given, which is what I am going to assume is the disputed letter?

There is a question on how the debt happened.
Some contracts can bind your relative's estate after death so depending on details on how and when the debt happened. There would also be a question around the passage of time between the death and the reliance on the contractual obligation to pay the "new" debt.

If the estate has been paid out and there is no money left the issue becomes can the court judgement be transferred to the people who settled the estate.

Depending on the amount of the debt and the ethics of the people involved getting the court documents may be faster and once you have that, you can decide if you need to contact a legal adviser