Distribution of relatives estate

mpet

My mother-in-law recently died and my husband (her eldest son) has been dealing with her estate (very small). She left no will and we didn't need probate so there are no problems in that area. All she had was a small amount of money in a bank account a a couple of penny polices. There has been no problems in dealing with the various banks public utilities etc, but the one sticking point has been with the Housing Association that she rented a sheltered flat from. She paid her rent by DD, but after she died it was about 2 weeks before we cleared the flat. Now obviously, I am expecting to pay rent for these 2 weeks, but I cannot get them to send me a final bill.

I have written letters, phoned several times to be told 'I'm new and have never dealt with this before'!!! The last call I made, I lied a bit and said that we were paying off all her bills as they arrive and as she left very little money there may not be enough to clear their bill when it finally arrrives. (I was hoping to speed them up a bit). What I really want to know - is there a time limit for the presentation of bills to be paid against a person's estate?

I just want to finalise the whole thing and move on.


Mpet

Savvy_Sue

I presume you returned her key and got a receipt for it at some point? Are you sure you owe them money, or is it possible she was in advance with her rent, so that they owe you money? Agree with Al Mac that writing to them would be a good plan: if you do phone again and someone says "I don't know what to do" then ask to speak to a manager or someone who does. It should be a simple matter to pull up the relevant rent account and see whether it is in arrears or not, and then to print off that page and post it to you - even if they can't manage the courtesy of a letter!

Although they may prefer to deal with your husband, data protection and all that you know ...

mpet

Yes, keys were returned to the Warden and relevant forms completed. Until she died she was up to date with her rent. She received Housing benefit which obvioulsy stopped when she died, so as far as I can reckon, I think we owe 2 weeks rent (at full rate) for the time that it took us to clear the flat.

As you say, I can't see how hard it is to give us a final figure. At the end of each financial year, they send a computer print out of the rent paid,benfits etc, so I would have thought it would have been easy to send us a similar account.

I like the idea of writing and giving them 30 days, but not sure if the law on winding up a persons estate says otherwise. As we are only talking about a few hundred pound, I don't want to pay for legal advice etc.

mpet

Savvy_Sue

Trust me, if she'd ever been in arrears it would never have taken 30 days for them to be in touch with her ... or indeed with you if she had been in arrears at her death!

Normal policy when I worked for a housing association was to be in touch as soon as tenant was a fortnight in arrears!

I think one more phone call, might need to be from her son rather than from you, and if you don't get a straight answer then, write the letter. Even if it doesn't have any legal standing, you'll feel better and it might get someone who knows no better at the HA to pull their finger out!

You don't need this kind of minor hassle when you've been bereaved, and I am sorry for your loss.