Can my mother inherit her sisters debts?

glitterybits

My elderly aunt died a few months back leaving several thousand pounds worth of debt, my mums sister was the executor of the will and stripped my aunts rented house of anything of any value to be sold at a car boot sale, we dont know whether that has happened yet or not.

she also took about one thousand pounds in cash and about the same in shopping vouchers. the vouchers she split with my mum but kept the cash for "expenses"

since then she has hardly contacted my mum except to say that the funeral bill has been paid but that there wont be enough money left in the estate to pay off the credit card bill, which i think is about £5,000. she said that as she cant afford to pay this that my mum will have to!

im pretty sure this is not the case and cant find anything on the internet to say that my mum would be liable, both her and my father are retired and money is very tight so they wouldnt be in a position to do this even if they were liable without taking out some sort of a loan.

there has been no mention of the £1,000 or if anything was raised by the sale of my aunts furniture and belongings, the only expenses we know she has paid was for a "tea" for about 8 people after the funeral which was supplied by a friend of her son so realistically shouldnt have cost that much?

its a shame that it has come to this but my aunt seems to have become very secretive and wouldnt even let my mum come to the solicitors with her or anything, any advice welcome!

CLLC

Hi ,

I'm sorry to her a relative of yours has passed away.

I'm no expert at all but , you said that the executor was your aunt so doesn't that make her liable for everything. as your mum was not the executor.

moonrakerz

Would suggest you read this first, then get advice. Either go to the CAB or some solicitors will give first 30 mins free.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/DebtsAndArrears/DG_10013093

The estate of the deceased is responsible for any debts, these cannot be "passed on" to someone else.
The duties of an executor are very carefully defined, any actions taken by the executor must comply with the Law. From what you have said in your post I do not think that the executor knows what they are doing. They certainly cannot strip the assets of the deceased for their own benefit.

Hence, get advice !

Any

All the debts must be paid off with the deceased estate - this was clearly not your mums responsibility so she has nothing to worry about.
Would there not be enough money from the estate, then the debt dies with the deceased.
The executor will have to prove to the bank that the estate has been used to pay off the debts and there is no more left, so again nothing to do with your mum. All they could do is to ask for those shopping vouchers back if they had any cash value. Your aunt shouldn't have taken anything or give anything to anyone without firstly paying off the debts.
Obviously your aunt has no idea what is she doing or maybe even she is scamming your mum.

SmlSave

I agree with the above, debts don't get passed on unless they were jointly with another person. Your mother is not liable, if you're still worried call up some solicitor firms and ask for some free advice - if you don't ask you don't get!

glitterybits

Thanks for all the good advice, i actually think my aunt is trying it on a bit to be honest.

I've told my mum to pretty much forget about getting any of the remaining cash or proceeds from the boot sale, as i think my aunt will keep that for herself as she certainly didnt tell the solicitor about it!

I think maybe this is why my aunts been going on about not having enough money to pay off the debts so my mums not expecting anything.

Families eh?

lal1234

although your Mum can't inherit debts, your aunt should not have started to share out the estate (the vouchers etc) until all debts had been sorted out.