Advice after recent bereavement

Halitosis

A friend died last week leaving no will and the family finances are a messy mystery. Can anybody offer advice regarding their mortgage: must all mortgages have a related life assurance policy? We can find no evidence of such, but I thought it was a requirement... Having such settled would be an enormous help for her and the kids.
Any additional suggestions on where to go for further advice would also be appreciated

sammyjammy

No its not a requirement, certainly not with all lenders, you need to contact the mortgage company as a priority and let them know what is happening.

Brock_and_Roll

It is not a legal requirement, albeit some lenders insist on there being one is the loan to value is a very high percentage. I had to have one with my first (95%) mortgage many years ago, but have no such policy on my current mortgage which is many times larger.

From the lenders perspective, if the property is worth say 130% of the mortgage, why should they worry? It is down to the borrower to make sure that they have the means to repay the debt, and if they have families, making arrangments in the event of their demise.

However, you should check to see if there is a life cover policy provided through his employer - if I die, I get 4x my salary.