Service
At the end there is a folder with everything in it.
Most families only discover in an emergency how much cannot be found. The land register extract dates from 1998. Nobody ever fetched the building file. Whether a power of attorney exists, no one can say for certain — let alone where it is kept. The File puts that in order before anyone needs it: obtained, ordered, with a list of what is still missing and who will get it.
And what follows from it?
One appointment at your home, then a folder in which everything is written down. What is missing, we obtain. What we cannot obtain goes on a list — with the route to it and a name behind it.
Nothing follows from it. Nobody has to sell, move, or talk to their siblings because of it. The file is yours afterwards. Whether you ever come back to us with it is your affair. Anyone who first wants to understand the subject itself will find it explained in our guide to the emergency file — including the honest question of what you can manage well on your own.
The contents
What is inside — the six sections
The property part comes first. It is the core, not an appendix: when something is missing in an emergency, it is almost always missing here.
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1 of 6
The house
A current land register extract. Cadastral map. Building file and permit. For a flat, the declaration of division. Energy certificate with type and validity, floor-area calculation, invoices for larger works.
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2 of 6
Representation
Whether a health-care and property power of attorney exists, when it was issued, whether it is notarially certified, whether it covers property, banking and health matters. Plus the entry in the central register and the separate bank mandate.
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3 of 6
The last will
Whether there is a will, where it is kept, handwritten or notarial, in official custody — and whether the registration confirmation is with it.
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4 of 6
Contracts and running costs
Insurance policies. Electricity, gas, water, refuse, telephone, broadcasting fee. All recurring direct debits. Registered land charges.
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5 of 6
Accounts and access
Accounts with bank and IBAN, securities accounts, the safe deposit box and who may open it, digital services — expressly without passwords.
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6 of 6
People
Who is to be informed in an emergency: relatives, the family doctor, the tax adviser, the notary, the bank — and the neighbours who hold a key.
Two limits that make the file usable
No access credentials in the file. That is the point where a file turns from protection into risk: a folder on the living-room shelf containing passwords is no longer provision. For passwords there is a sealed emergency envelope, kept separately — the file merely records where it is and who may open it.
We ask where something is kept. We do not interrogate registers. During a person’s lifetime, only notaries and courts obtain information from the central register of wills — we do not, and we do not pretend otherwise. What stands in the file stands there because you told us or showed us.
Three stages — you decide where to stop
The survey stands on its own. Whoever carries on alone afterwards does so with a list in hand rather than a vague feeling.
The survey
A preliminary talk and the survey at your home. At the end there is a one-page list of gaps: what is missing, who obtains it, by when.
The file
The survey, plus obtaining the missing documents, the sections set up, an overview sheet and a handover conversation with the children or attorneys.
The refresh
Once a year: what has changed, what has expired, what has newly come along.
What it costs
We state the amounts in writing in the free compass conversation, before any engagement. This page deliberately carries no figure: a price without the scope behind it says nothing. The survey is one appointment and a page of findings; the file is weeks of obtaining papers from offices that take their time. Which of those applies to you we say once we have heard what you already hold. How we charge in general is set out on our fees page.
The refresh matters more than it looks
A file from seven years ago is as worthless in an emergency as none at all. Contracts expire, an energy certificate loses its validity, one bank is absorbed into another, an attorney moves away or dies before the person they were to stand in for. None of that announces itself.
That is why the refresh stands here and not in a footnote. Once a year a short pass through, and whatever has changed is correctly filed again. It is the part that turns a folder into genuine provision.
“Emergency folders are free, though.”
True. As a PDF to fill in yourself, and as a template pack for a few euros. If you have the time and the patience to gather it all yourself, that is the right way — and we would rather tell you that beforehand than afterwards.
What you get from us is not the template but the work: the land register extract actually fetched, the building file actually requested, the gap actually named and given an owner. A building file can take weeks — in an inheritance case, exactly the weeks nobody has.
The limit
We record whether a health-care and property power of attorney exists and where it is kept. Whether it suffices in an emergency is for your notary to judge — that is legal advice, and we do not provide it. A paid examination of whether a power of attorney is adequate would be a legal service under § 2 RDG. The file records and orders; it does not judge.
Nor do we produce reports of our own, and we give no tax advice. Where such a question arises, we note it on the list of gaps and name the office allowed to answer it. That is not caution for its own sake but the condition on which the file holds when it is needed.
Free initial consultation · without obligation · reply within two business days
Frequently asked questions
- Does this commit me to anything?
- No. The compass conversation is free and without obligation; only afterwards do you decide whether anything is commissioned at all. The survey also stands on its own — the list of gaps is yours even if you then obtain everything yourself.
- Who should be present at the appointment?
- You alone are enough. Where there is an attorney or adult children, it usually helps if at least one of them attends the handover: a file nobody knows about works, in an emergency, like none at all.
- Where do we keep the file?
- Where it can be reached in an emergency, and not in the safe deposit box that nobody may open without the file. We record on the overview sheet who knows where it stands. Access credentials stay separate in the emergency envelope.
- And if we have already inherited the house?
- Then the file is no longer provision but reconstruction — the same documents, obtained under time pressure. For that case the inheritance roadmap leads further, and we say openly in conversation which of the two fits your situation.
- Do you also work outside your region?
- The survey takes place at your home, so the journey matters. We work in the Hanover region, the Osnabrücker Land, the Weserbergland and Ostwestfalen-Lippe; whether your town belongs is settled by a look at our region page — and if it does not, we say so rather than billing a journey.
The File
Shall we look together at what is missing?
The compass conversation is free of charge and without obligation. We get back to you within two working days.