How to Cancel Contracts, Subscriptions & Insurances After Death

Determine if utilities such as water, electricity and gas are still needed at the deceased person's residence. Follow the instructions provided by the utility company in response to your notification as outlined in Step 12.

If the deceased owned the home, you may continue paying the standard connection fees or check with each provider what options are available to reduce the ongoing costs to a minimum.

If the deceased leased a property, then all utility companies should be notified by you or the agent to stop incurring charges once the lease contract is terminated.

If a real estate was or will be transferred to the surviving joint owner or tenant, then that person is responsible for changing the name on utility bills after the death and pay for utilities.

Utilities can’t always be disconnected from a property. We recommend checking with the utilities providers in the area.

All contracts for the landline, internet and mobile phone can be officially cancelled immediately or transferred into another person's name.

• Telstra
• Optus
• Vodafone
• Virgin mobile
• iinet
• BigPond

Follow the instructions provided by the communication company in response to your notification as outlined in Step 12 – Notification of Government Departments & Service Providers of the Death.

If a real estate was or will be transferred to the surviving joint owner, then that person is responsible to pay for telecommunication services.

All media related services can be cancelled immediately or transferred into another person's name.

• newspaper subscription (paper or online)
• magazine subscription (paper or online)
• paid TV subscription (e.g. Foxtel, Netflix, Stan)
• music streaming services (e.g. Spotify)

Follow the instructions provided by the media company in response to your notification as outlined in Step 12 – Notification of Government Departments & Service Providers of the Death.

• Home & contents insurance
• Vehicle insurance
• Roadside assist
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Pet insurance etc.

Note: You should maintain or put in place insurances on behalf of the Deceased Estate to ensure no negative financial impact on the Estate in the case of a theft or damage.

If life insurances were in place, there may be an insurance claim benefit payable. Check with the relevant insurer about this before cancelling to make sure you can still claim at a later stage as described in Step 25 – Claiming Life Insurance & Other Benefits.

If a real estate or vehicle was or will be transferred to the surviving joint owner, then that person is responsible to pay for insurance from the transfer date onwards.

If the deceased had a vehicle lease agreement, you will need to check with the leasing company about the lease obligations after death to determine your options.

If the deceased person was renting their home and you have not dealt with the rental agreement yet, you should read Step 16.6 – Rental Property. You should notify the relevant parties and end the agreement if you can, depending your state/territory legislation as outlined in Step 16.6, to stop paying rent as soon as possible.

There may be a raft of other services and subscriptions the deceased may have utilised. A good way to find out about such regular payments is to check the bank statements as outlined in Step 19.10 – How to Get Bank Statements of the Deceased.

• Sport Clubs
• Gym Memberships
• Sport Season Memberships
• Social Clubs
• Travel Clubs
• Professional Memberships etc.

Australian consumers are protected by law and it is always good to know your rights under these and the terms and conditions of an agreement.

You can check what applies to your state/territory based on the common information compiled below: