What to do for the best

girlsmum

Hello I need a bit of advice, my dad passed away last week leaving about £24K of debt, now i realise that they can claim from his estate, but he has no savings in his name, my mum has always been the saver and any money is in her name, (he was a gambler that is why he has the debt)

the house is also in her name, but can they claim against the equity as he was living there and her husband? or will they bother as the max from 1 debtor is about £6-7k one of them is only about £300 they are all on a CCCS form, so he was on a plan paying £165 per month from his pension, all that was left in that account was about £900 which is being used to pay toward the funeral.

Really need to know what to do is it worth telling them he has passed and see what they do, or try to come to a settlement figure with each one?

forgot to say all are unsecured

eyeopener2

Whatever your Dads estate is worth (sounds like very little) is where the debts will be paid from. If there is nothing then they can't claim anything. The house is in your Mums name therfore is hers and can't be touched.

Inform them of his death, by all means, but don't pay anything from your own pocket or from your Mums.

I'm no 100% but I think funeral costs, HMRC debts etc all come before unsecured debts anyway.

If in doubt it probably worth hiring a solicitor to deal with the estate, especially as your Mum is probably quite worried and not in the best frame of mind to be dealing with all this.

RAS

Hi

if the house is in mum's name and there are no joint savings accounts, then pay the funeral costs and send a letter to the creditors telling them there is nothing left.

They cannot touch anything that is in mum's sole name, although most of them will probably suggest you have a moral responsibility. Tough.

bottleofred

Totally agree with Ras! They may try to make you think they can take money from the house, but if it's in your Mothers name solely, they can't do a thing.

MrsTinks

And eyeopener is also correct in the point about funeral costs and HMRC and secured debds come before any unsecured debts. They may request that you send a copy of the death certificate - if so make sure you send a photocopy and recorded.

happyhaddock_2

Hi, I've just gone through this after my own Dad passed away recently. I advised the Halifax that there was no estate left after payment of the funeral expenses. They wanted to see a copy of the death certificate, and the outstanding amount has now been passed to their collections dept for "write off" (their own words). I have not heard anything else so am hoping for, my mum's sake, that the matter is now closed. Hope this helps x