dad died bt will not split itemised bill

sven1

hi, I am looking for bit of advice, My dad died unexpectedly and with everthing, i did not tell BT until the 'itemised' bill came through. I phoned them up to tell them, i told them when he died and that i would pay the part of the 'itemised' bill from the day after his death. They said that they could not do as i requested to which i said it is an 'itemised' bill of course you can. Their response that they could not send me a seperate bill because i had not been credit checked and that my only option was finalise the bill, and being upset at this time in my life got frustrated said alright then and put the phone down (read slammed).I did not realise that to finalise the bill they cut you off.

I have sent them a copy of the death certificate and requested that the "ITEMISED" bill be split and that the bill upto my dads death would be paid by probate and that i would pay the remainder, i am not refusing to pay, i want to pay.To me it seams it seems a very reasonable offer.They have written back to me claiming they were sorry to hear of my fathers death but they cannot split the itemised bill, which i read as 'WE WILL NOT' split the bill. I have sent them a letter saying that if theY were really sorry to hear of my dads death they would realise that a dead man cannot use the phone and cannot surf the internet and that my offer to pay the bill in two parts one by probate and the other by myself which would be paid promptly. They have now sent the bill in my fathers name and not to me when they have had a copy of the death certificate and know he is deceased.
I think my offer is reasonable and find their stance cold and uncaring and it is causing me stress, any advice would be appreciated.
all the best sven

Marcusp

Why not pay the bill then claim back the cost of your late father's calls from the estate?

How much money are we talking about anyway?

sassy_one

I would pay the bill then reclaim back the costs afterwards.

Your post doesn't surprise me about BT, now I can see why I left them years ago.

Rubbish!

moonrakerz

The bill is the responsibility of the person whose name it is in.
No respectable company will "split" a bill into parts - they would than leave themselves open to all sorts of legal challenges afterwards.

If the bill is in your father's name, his estate is responsible for the payment of this bill, no one else.

Their stance is certainly NOT "cold and uncaring" - it is very sensible, and standard practice !

(sad to see people sniping at BT again, even when they do what any other company would do !)

looby-loo_2

As said above, pay and claim it back from the estate.

The fact that the bill is in your fathers name will ensure you can do this. If it was in your name it might be more difficult - I think BT have this right.

MotownFox

Are you a beneficiary of your father's estate? If so then part of the bill up to death does in effect come off your share of the estate, So I would agree with the suggestion that you could pay it all and then the part that isn't yours you can be reimbursed for at a later date. However there is no need to pay straight away as detailed below.

Are you the Executor dealing with the estate, as you will have the responsibility of paying the bills in any case. By the way with bills relating to estates BT and other organisations usually understand you can not pay until the estate is in funds and that usually is after Probate is obtained and bank accounts closed. As this process usually takes at least a few months they realise they won't get their money straight away, so put them off with these reasons for now.

sven1

MotownFox wrote: »

Are you a beneficiary of your father's estate? If so then part of the bill up to death does in effect come off your share of the estate, So I would agree with the suggestion that you could pay it all and then the part that isn't yours you can be reimbursed for at a later date. However there is no need to pay straight away as detailed below.

Are you the Executor dealing with the estate, as you will have the responsibility of paying the bills in any case. By the way with bills relating to estates BT and other organisations usually understand you can not pay until the estate is in funds and that usually is after Probate is obtained and bank accounts closed. As this process usually takes at least a few months they realise they won't get their money straight away, so put them off with these reasons for now.

thanks everybody for the replies, i have decided to approx my portion of the bill and pay that, there will then be an outstanding balance and that can then be paid by the estate.the bill is in my dads name.
thanks mowtownfox for your reply, i am afraid it is more complicated than you or i could possibly have thought, i am one of four executors 1 brother 2 sisters nothing left to us but put into a trust for our mother
as the sole beneficiary but my sisters seem to think it is theirs. i have had to enter a caveat with the probate registry. there is a lot more to this but if i paid the bill as a whole it would be long and drawn out to recover the money which is why i was trying to get the 'itemised' bill split. once again thanks for the replies and all the best. sven