A Deed Poll is a legal document that is used along with someone’s birth and marriage certificate, sometimes both, citizenship certificate, Decree Absolute, and sometimes an adoption certificate, depending on the case. A Deed Poll allows one to use a different spelling of his or her name that was given at the time of registration or abandon and assume a completely different name. Deed Polls provide legal documentary evidence so that every one that you have dealings with changes their records with out questioning.

Before you register the Deed Poll, you must ensure that it has the following:

• The party’s name before Deed Poll
• The party’s name after Deed Poll
• Certified copies of (Birth, Marriage, Decree Absolute, adoption, naturalization certificate) depending upon the case
• Date of Execution are attached to the Deed Poll
• Signatures of parties (Person requesting the name change and the Justice of the Peace/Notary Public)
• Seal of Signatory (Justice of the Peace, Notary Public)
• A Stamp Duty which was paid within 14 days (8 days for Deed Polls) of execution date.  Documents that are not stamped within the prescribed period will attract a penalty.(Stamp duty charge is  $500 and the penalty on late stamp is calculated at 5% per annum + $10.)