Legal Questions and Answers by
Jonathan Stones of John Barkers
Question :-
I am happily married and have no need to change my name but as my
parents both died at fairly young ages I have been thinking about adding my original
family name to my current surname - hyphenated, I suppose - as a tribute.
I realise there is nothing to prevent me signing letters using the additional name but I
wondered about the situation regarding my bank account, cheque book and other legal
documents?
Answer :-
There is nothing legally to prevent you changing the name on your
bank account or any other any other day to day matters such as medical records etc. so
long as you are not doing it deliberately to deceive anyone!
To change your passport it is necessary to have a statutory declaration prepared by a
solicitor, setting out the facts. Apart from helping on the passport matter, it can be
passed to your bank, doctor, dentist and so on.
The statutory declaration does not change the records held by the Registrar of Births,
Marriages and Deaths but this not usually a problem.
The solicitor’s fees for such a declaration are relatively inexpensive. Ask a couple
of firms for a quotation.
|
