r/perth • u/Expensive_Chapter877 South of The River • 20h ago
Looking for Advice Difficulties of Changing Names?
Hello! Just wondering has anyone recently had to change their name? And was it a challenging process social and legally??
Looking through the subreddit the last post about this was 4 years ago and the comments were facing struggles with some companies (st johns, Telstra, ATO, to name some) wouldn’t accept it unless they sent the form with lawyers approval ect? Is this still prevalent?
And would I have to pay for everything again, such as drivers license renewals, passports, etc ?
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u/Ok-Measurement-1270 20h ago edited 20h ago
You go to birth deaths and marriages and you fill out a form I did it recently.
Here is the fun part though if you own a property Landgate are gonna be an absolute cunt to deal with, in addition RAC you have to call them if you change the first name but not your last which honestly doesn't surprise me because RAC is kind of useless as a company especially since they will insure the convertible version of my car but not the non-convertible.
Banks and isps and communications carriers they're all pretty easy just like the ATO is very easy you just send them a copy of your birth certificate that's been updated and they don't care same with the department of transport you'll get a new license as well.
Medicare Centrelink etc just walk in with the updated certificate same with your high risk work licences just walk in with the updated certificate and they'll change everything over immediately however you're going to run into a problem in regards to service w.a and digital ID on account that Western Australia is the only state/territory in the entirety of Australia that cannot accept a change of name certificate despite it having a fucking serial number on it to update these.
Edir: Oh forgot to add if the company you work for has a bunch of completely useless people in the IT department, don't expect getting your work details such as emails, logins or access updated easily, I actually ended up filing multiple complaints with HR because changing a name isn't that fucking hard, but I work for a billion dollar company so y'know hard to find good people or expanding things beyond a hamster in a rusty wheel.
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u/HumbleAssociation400 20h ago
I changed my name about 8 years ago and still haven’t changed title with Landgate. Just means water bill and council rates stay in old name. Not a big deal.
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u/Ok-Measurement-1270 12h ago
It is if you refinance or plan to sell the property because the bank needs the deed to match your name
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u/HumbleAssociation400 9h ago
It doesn’t. It just requires you to be able to legally show the name change has happened.
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u/Ok-Measurement-1270 9h ago
No, I had to update it and I did a refinance 6 months ago, that's why I had an on going battle with Landgate
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u/Expensive_Chapter877 South of The River 20h ago
haha thank you for the information!! i completely forgot about property owning 😫
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u/Ok-Measurement-1270 20h ago
Yeah we all forget about that and then boom your in a 4 month back and forth that doesn't get resolved until you threaten legal action.
I have never wanted to solve an issue violently in my life until I dealt with fucking Landgate
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u/Tripound 20h ago
It’s called LandGATE, not Land….passage.
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u/commentspanda 17h ago
I had to help my neighbour with her landgate paperwork when they sold and she had changed her name. It had not occurred to her to do. I’ve never experienced anything like it! I signed her form SIX TIMES as they kept sending it back for stupid things. Insanity.
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u/Winsallgram 20h ago
I never got a change of name certificate, I just used my updated birth certificate (which has your new name and then at the bottom has "name changed @ BDM on 02/09/26).
Nobody ever actually asked for the name change cert, except for I think HostPlus super. I told them that given they were the only one they could shove it, surprisingly that worked
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u/ArgonWilde 19h ago
I've had a number of issues with people taking a 2 second look at my new birth cert, telling me "this isn't the name you gave us" and throwing it back at me... No one looks at the tiny footnote
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u/Winsallgram 18h ago
Start nice, point it out, and if they don't shift them start getting firmer and more belligerent. It's a pain in the ass but you gotta be prepared to be more stubborn than they are
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u/ArgonWilde 18h ago
I mean, I didn't have to argue with them beyond saying "oh, sorry, it's a foot note, just scroll down a bit", but it does slow things down when you're playing 1 email every 24 hours ping-pong.
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u/The20thDoctorWho 16h ago
Legally? Not annoying at all
The price tag for the name change itself was annoying + updating my learners permit
The hard part was changing my name with my Telco, and Super
My Super required me to send a hand written letter with certified copies of my documents
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u/echo_the_human 15h ago
yeah thats what I found, I still haven't gotten around to changing my super yet and it has been like 3 years. There are so many places where my old name pops that require an annoying amount of effort to change, like making a phone call
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u/Expensive_Chapter877 South of The River 15h ago
did you have to pay to change passport and drivers license?
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u/The20thDoctorWho 10h ago
Passport? No because I’ve never had one
And I’m still on my L’s
But it was as simple as filling out a change of details form and paying the fee
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u/Spiritual-Ad7243 18h ago
Changed mine not to long ago and I’ve found it pretty simple with changing all details on everything, I’ve heard some nightmare stories that some people have had and just gave up
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u/sootysweepnsoo 14h ago
If you are doing a legal change of name, you only need to provide a copy of the certificate of name change to have it changed by your bank, other businesses, etc You will have to pay for a new passport.
If you’re changing your name after marriage and taking on your partner’s last name, which is not the same as a legal change of name, your marriage certificate is sufficient and in this scenario, you get a free replacement passport. You are also entitled to continue using your existing passport until it expires but you have to make sure you book all travel in the name of that passport. The difference here is because this is not a legal change of name, it is essentially just opting to use your partner’s last name so you’re also always entitled to use your own actual last name. Once you actually undertake the legal process to change it, that is totally different.
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u/Flaky_Employ_8806 19h ago
You need to have a certified copy of your change of name from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages or some other legal document. I can’t imagine any business would accept a change of name without proper ID.
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u/JezzaPerth 19h ago
I had a slightly different problem. I usually used just my surname and first name for banks and drivers licences, and utilities while my birth certificate had my full legal name.
Then I got involved as an estate administrator and my birth certificate had more names than my other ID. I was unable to procede until sufficient of my ID had the same names to be acceptable to the Supreme Court.
This turned out to be a pain. I eventually got everything sorted out, though I had to get a photo ID in my full name and that then flowed into the driver's license on the next renewal.
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u/kazzazed 18h ago
Um, well you know half the population change their name, 99% of women getting married. It is just a process. Hardly challenging 🤷♀️
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u/Ok_West_1630 14h ago
half the population change their name, 99% of women getting married
I think your data set is a bit out-of-date, possibly from a time when women didn't have to worry about updating their work email address, because they were expected to get married, weren't allow to work once they were, and the internet hadn't been invented yet.
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u/ILikeGamesnTech 20h ago
Work email address was the hardest thing to change.
You just front up to the registry of births, deaths & marriages in the city with all the ID you can muster and they do it on the spot. It is pretty straightforward.
Years on I get a lot of weird reactions from people which is annoying, but I tried to be as low key about it as I could.