A little help needed on a delicate subject

monkeyintrouble

Hi all, its amazing when you get talking to people just how many others that are in debt, but after talking to a dear friend of mine I realise theres always somebody worse off than yourself.
I am talking about a friend of mine, who doesn't visit this site who has a DMP set up and owes in excess of £25k. She has just found out she may have a life threatening illness so her debts are not her major problem just now.
What she is worried about though is do her debts die with her? She has a mortgage backed up with a life insurance policy covering the outstanding loan. Her mortgage company is not on her DMP as she has never missed a payment on that.
Her major worry is if the worst should happen, where does her 25 year old son stand. She intends to leave a will, leaving everything to her son (well all she owns being the house, furnishings and a car), but will the creditors be coming knocking for their share. She doesn't want any unavoidable trouble being brought upon her son afterwards, and have her creditors forcing a sale on the property.
Im asking on her behalf as she doesnt have a pc and I offered to see what I could find out for her.
Any comments would be much appreciated, thanks

hypno06

I understand that the debts will only "die" with someone if there is no money in the estate available to pay for them.

If there is a house, then there is an asset, and I believe that they could reasonably expect that to be sold to pay the debts.

I am not a lawyer, though.....just someone who had to pay their Father's debts out of his Estate when he died, so my answer is not "absolute".

There is a thread on the "families and relationships" board, I think that addresses money issues when someone dies - it might be worth asking on there?