Important documents have a habit of going missing when we need them the most. Marriage, birth and death certificates are often needed for important legal processes, such as divorce, child arrangements or probate. Luckily, it is possible to order official replacements for these documents from the Government.
Despite all of these documents being available to order through government-certified providers at a nominal fee, there has been a rise in the number of online companies offering to do this job on people’s behalf. The catch, of course, is that they charge a fee for doing so – a fee which is often widely disproportionate to the work involved in obtaining the document in question.
At Nockolds we have had clients come to us having paid upwards of £80 for an official copy of their marriage certificate, a document that costs £14 if requested through the General Register Office. Additionally, many of these companies also advertise retrieval of redundant documents, such as a National Insurance Number card. HMRC confirmed back in 2011 that these cards were being phased out and were not necessary.
If you need an official document of any type, your first port of call should always be the Government’s main website.
Additionally, we have listed links to the Government-approved ordering platforms for some of the most commonly-requested documents below:
- Order a birth, death or marriage certificate
https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate - Find your National Insurance number
https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number - Find the grant of probate and Will for a deceased family member
https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate - Search for county court judgments made against you
https://www.gov.uk/county-court-judgments-ccj-for-debt/ccjs-and-your-credit-rating