Register office terms and conditions
Administrative charge
Once an appointment has been made and confirmed, there will a charge to make any further changes. This relates to the following types of appointments:
- notice of marriage or civil partnership
- ceremonies of all kinds
- re-registrations
- in some circumstances, birth registrations (such as when an appointment has been repeatedly changed or missed)
Birth, death and marriage certificates
When registering an event (for birth, death, marriage and civil partnership), it is your responsibility to make sure all information is correct, including spelling and dates, before signing the register or schedule. You will be required to pay a statutory fee for any corrections, most of which will require the approval of the Registrar General.
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Replacement Certificates
You should make sure that you have given enough information for us to verify that we have found the correct certificate. We will not be held responsible if we supply the wrong certificate because the information supplied is incorrect, incomplete or we do not have enough information to identify the correct entry.
Unfortunately, we are not able to assist with adoption or historic still birth certificates. Please contact the General Register Office for these types of certificates.
If you have requested multiple certificates and we cannot supply them all, you will get a partial refund for the certificates we cannot provide.
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Refunds
If you have asked us to make a search on your behalf and the search is unsuccessful we will refund the certificate fee, but not the processing fee.
If you have requested multiple certificates and we cannot supply them all, you will get a partial refund for any certificates we cannot provide.
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Cancelling an order
You cannot cancel or amend an online order once it has been placed. Please ensure you have entered the correct details before submitting your request.
Booking deposit fees (ceremonies)
A non-refundable and non-transferable booking deposit is payable at the time of booking.
The remaining balance is payable as soon as possible, but within five weeks of the ceremony date.
Cancellation of ceremony bookings by the registration service
Your ceremony may be cancelled by the Reading Registration Service if:
- the total fees have not been paid
- legal preliminaries have not or cannot be completed
- unforeseen circumstances arise
Where possible, an alternative ceremony date will be offered.
Cancellation of ceremony bookings by the customer
In the event that you need to cancel a ceremony, we request that you notify us in writing if possible, and with at least 48 hours notice.
If you have already paid the balance in full:
- More than eight weeks before the ceremony date, you will receive a full refund of the ceremony fee (excluding the non-refundable booking fee).
- Between four and eight weeks before the ceremony date, you will receive 50% refund of the ceremony fee (excluding the non-refundable booking fee).
- Less than four weeks before the ceremony date or failure to cancel, there will be no refund.
Notice of marriage/civil partnership
It is your responsibility to bring the correct documents to the appointment. If your notice of marriage/civil partnership cannot be completed due to lack of documents, you may be charged an administration fee to book a new appointment.
A foreign divorce is one which took place outside of the United Kingdom. If you have been divorced in a foreign country, it is your responsibility to bring the documents which confirm the the divorce can be recognised in England and Wales. A certified translation must be supplied if the documents are not in English. If the documents do not confirm your divorce (for example, the documents are incomplete or the legal processes have not been finalised in the country of divorce), the Foreign Divorce Checking Fee will not be refunded.