What happens to bills when someone dies?
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I don't have insurance, no.
I live alone.
My idea is that the house would be sold, which would realise enough to pay off the mortgage plus something to leave to my - what's the word in English, my heritiers.
But as it would take time to get probate and then to sell the house, I just wondered what would happen if the heritiers didn't have the money to pay the mortgage in the meantime, whether there would be penalties or whether the lender would agree to suspend payments.
I had to ring them about something else, so I asked, and they said it should continue to be paid, and if not, they would charge interest on the interest.
Still not getting insurance though.
Seems its a grey area as to whether the bank would release money to the executors to pay it.
Oh well, I'll not be here to worry about it.0 -
Your original post asks a lot of questions!
I think you will find that the answer to all of them depends upon the executor(s). On the assumption that you have chosen someone who has both the 'drive' and the 'knowledge' to proceed, then there should be no problems.
On this assumption, I would strongly recommend some sort of document to be kept with the will (or somewhere you can get at it frequently). Write down (a) where all your money/assets are to be found, and (b) what liabilities, payments etc. need dealing with.
I have my own such details on my computer - but printed out and in the safe with my will. But I update it every few months or so because things change. For example, I have lots of Internet Bank Accounts. Not many people realise that because there is generally little or no paper documentation, there is a strong likelihood that these accounts might never be 'found' unless someone can/will hack into your computer to find details. Some of 'my' accounts are actually in my wife's name, for example because of splitting down £50K+ to less than £50K so that the whole amount is covered by government indemnity. She vaguely knows of them, but I do the actual transactions over the Internet on her behalf.
By leaving such papers, she would relatively easily be able to access extra funds (if necessary) straight away, because they are legally her funds.
In fact I use an accounts package (Quicken) and so my executors would in fact be able to glance at that and get an up-to-date list of (a) the 50+ (!Yes!) financial institutions I deal with, and (b) a rough idea of the value of each. That knowledge would be good enough for anyone with grant of probate to wrestle the cash from the banks' grubby little hands fairly quickly.
Apart from that, just try to stay alive as long as you can!0 -
Loughton_Monkey wrote: »I would strongly recommend some sort of document to be kept with the will (or somewhere you can get at it frequently). Write down (a) where all your money/assets are to be found, and (b) what liabilities, payments etc. need dealing with.
I have my own such details on my computer - but printed out and in the safe with my will.
Yes, I'm in the process of doing that.
Glad I've not got 50+ though!!!
Still, mortgage, several savings a/cs, 3 current a/cs, 3 or 4 credit cards, usual utilites and insurance, a pension, trade union...must be a couple of dozen I suppose.
Good point about the internet accounts.
One problem I've run into is not wanting to write down too many details (passwords etc)
You mention yours being in a safe.
Only thing I thought of was putting everything in an envelope sealed with old-fashioned sealing wax!
So at least I would know if it had ever been opened! As it needs to be accessible.Loughton_Monkey wrote: »Apart from that, just try to stay alive as long as you can!
Yes, I intend to!0 -
My experience is the same as Farway's which was why I asked the OP - I can't imagine any mortgage company allowing you not to be covered against repayment in the case of death.
Never been a requirement on any mortgage I have taken out, we had to pass on a Barlcays mortgage once but they had dropped the requirement a few years later when we wanted to switch.0 -
Remember to get probate any IHT due needs to be addressed so if the total assets are over £325k have a think how this will get paid from you assets.
I think a good exercise is to try to do your own estate now.
Get a PA1 and IHT205 and fill them in, you might need IHT400
That way you can leave a document(spreadsheet would be nice) with the details of assets that matches the forms that need to be used will make life a lot easier for the executor.
This with regular updates along side detailed accounts in something like quicken will make everything a lot easier.
As has been said make sure you have any on-line only dealing documented on paper that's financial and utility these are hard to track when the only record is a payment on an account.
Remember that people(executors) should not really be using your on-line details to access your accounts so no need for any login details just the contact details of the insitutions, many will deal initialy by phone and tell you if they need writen notification and a death cert or probate/lettersof admin0 -
Oh, thanks for the thought but there's NO chance of that!getmore4less wrote: »Remember to get probate any IHT due needs to be addressed so if the total assets are over £325k have a think how this will get paid from you assets.
Yes, it would be a lot easier for me to do it than for anyone else to try to work out, that's for suregetmore4less wrote: »I think a good exercise is to try to do your own estate now.
Get a PA1 and IHT205 and fill them in...
That way you can leave a document ...with the details of assets that matches the forms that need to be used will make life a lot easier for the executor.0
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