Debt after death

TraceyJB

My friends wife passed away in sept 07 & he contacted Littlewoods catalogue to inform them. It has taken until now to 'find' him, even though he has advised them of his new address & forwarded a copy of the death certificate several times.

A company dealing with their financial losses has now contacted him & said that as there was no will & no estate (they were both on benefits at the time) they will do a 'search' and if necessary will consider writing off the balance (just over £800)

He had a small payment from her pension of around £1200 which he used to take the children on holiday. Nobody has asked if he had this, and is he now expected to pay the balance off?

Obviously this is a great worry to him, as he has none of that left & currently looks after the children whilst looking for work.

Any advice would be greatly received!!

RAS

I think he should go and talk to CAB or get a free half hour with a solicitor.

If he should have paid the debt out of the pension pay-out, then come over to DFW as ther are a couple of legal niceties that may make it difficult or impossible for them to chase him.

margaretclare

If the debt was in the deceased's name only, and if she left no estate (was on benefits) then the debt dies with her. It does not get passed on to her widower or her children. I believe that a private pension does not form part of the deceased's estate (this is being discussed over on the Pensions board).

TraceyJB

Thank you both very much, he is very worried as you can imagine. Please can someone just explain - what is DFW?

LucyB-Bride_to_Be

its a Debt Free Wannabe!

JCS1

Debt Free Wannabee Board. They'll be able to help with template letters, etc.