Keys, codes and the bank safe

Start with a key list for the house, the shed, the letterbox, the gate and the car. For each key note how many copies there are and who has one. Ask the partner, the children, the domestic help and a neighbour who came in during holidays the same question. Agree who must go in during the coming weeks and collect the rest. You change a lock if a copy is missing and the home stands empty, and you note the date and the invoice with the home. If a partner still lives there, agree first before you take that person's access away.

Codes do not belong in a group message and not in a note that all the heirs see in a portal. Keep an alarm code with the person who manages the home, outside the shared file. In the task list the sentence that the code lies with the executor is enough. A password from the life file you do not continue to use after the death as if the power of attorney were still running. Asking the bank or the provider for access is something other than continuing to log in. Write down which codes exist, not what they are, unless the office's place for keeping secrets covers that.

You do not open a bank safe on your own initiative. The bank has a procedure, often with an appointment and a certificate of inheritance or another authorisation. Ask for that procedure and follow it. Take a second person with you if the bank allows that, so that the contents are described with two pairs of eyes. On the spot make a list with a description and a number, and a photo only if the bank allows that. The contents are an asset only once you have seen them; until that day the safe is a task without an amount and without a guess.

A home safe or a drawer with envelopes you treat just as carefully, even if no bank is involved. Open it with a second person present if that is possible. Count cash and record it with the date and two names, or pay it into the estate-inventory account as soon as that exists and keep the proof. You describe jewellery piece by piece, unless the family deliberately wants a collective line for pieces without a separate value. A will or a policy that lies in the safe goes to the document folder the same day. The safe is a place where things are found, not an archive that may stay closed.

Keys of a rented home or of a room in an institution you hand in against an acknowledgement of receipt. Ask whether a deposit is still open and put that question as a task. The deposit is an asset only once the landlord names the amount and any set-off in writing. Do not invent a damage amount. The car key stays with the car until the sale or the change of registration has been arranged. You note who drives it for the time being, including the question whether the insurance covers that, and the insurer confirms that cover. Until the acknowledgement of receipt has come in, the key stays in the name of the person who has it.

This is an administrative checklist, not legal advice. The notary, the bank or the body concerned decides what this file needs and in which order. Ervazo keeps the tasks, the letters and the recorded values. The program does not send the letters, does not pay any debts and does not file a return. For each step, note the date, the person and the document you have received. What is still missing stays an open task. A ticked line means only that the administration has been updated. Do not put a value on a safe that is still closed, and follow the bank's procedure.