Letter from debt collection agency regarding my dead brother

Doug10

Hi, I am hoping that someone might be able to help me. I know there are some similar-ish questions on here but as far as I can tell they don't answer what I need to know, but apologies if this is a cross-post.

Anyway...

My brother died unexpectedly about 20months ago. He had a good box of paperwork in his house so we were able to contact what we thought were all the relevant companies - banks, mortgage provider, cable company etc. He had a small estate and death-in-service (or life insurance, not sure which it technically was) payout from his work pension. These have been distributed to surviving relatives. We thought everything was in order.

Then my mum has now received a letter out of the blue from Fredrickson International. It was addressed to my brother but sent to my mum's address (my brother lived elsewhere). It contained very little detail, just saying that they needed to contact my brother, and understood that this was the last known address for him. (they seem completely unaware of the fact that he is dead). It says they cannot say anything else in the letter due to the DPA but should phone them (an 0845 number) to discuss the matter quoting the reference.

A couple of questions if anyone can help:
> What should I do?! I know some of the advice re Fredrickson has been to return the letters but that seems to be in the case of very old debts rather than death of a relative inside 2 years. Should I phone them and explain the situation, or return the letter saying he isn't there (but my worry is that that is only a half truth) or should I just ignore it?
> What are the rules around debt when someone dies. If there was a debt that we didn't know about then are we liable to pay from his estate? Would we be liable for any interest/fees? Does the fact that it has taken over a year and a half to contact us change the situation? If there really is a legitimate debt and we have a legal obligation to settle it then so be it, although I would remain very unhappy with being contacted so far after the death.

Needless to say this is a bit upsetting for my mum so I am keen to get it sorted as quickly as possible. I will go in to the CAB as soon as I am able but I am away for a week so wanted to see if anyone could help in the meantime.

Many thanks in advance.

Doug10

Thanks for the quick reply Cassandra. I suppose that is the obvious thing to do!! It just gets us in a fluster receiving things about him out of the blue like this!

Marshmallow106

I received letters about my fathers debt when he died from a few companies months after he died. I was asked to send them a photocopy of his death certificate and the debts were written off. HTH

GeorgeUK

Sorry for your loss Doug.

I think you should wait before writing to them. Any mail you get should be returned with "Deceased" written on it.

This may not however be his debt so if you ever did write to them, you should state that you have no knowledge of any outstanding debts. If this is his debt, then it may be an old debt and statute barred if payment has not been made for 5/6 years.

Was there an advertisment put in the London Gazette and a local newspaper?
If so, then i believe they had 2 months to put in a claim.

unhappy_with_ecar

Write to them and tell them he has died. Most companies take a pragmatic view to these things and don't look to pursue the estate. If it is that the estate has already been dealt with, then you seem to have done your best at the time to deal with his affairs. If they write back asking who the executor is, don't tell them. Its not your responsibility and why should the executor (who is probably a family member) be burdened with dealing with responding to letters for information about his estate. If they write back i'd just ignore them and in all probability they will go away eventually.