Credit Card & Overdraft Debt after Death

Elaine35

My mother died recently and on going through her paperwork there appears to be an outstanding balance due on her credit card plus an overdraft with her bank. There are insufficient funds to cover her funeral expenses let alone pay these other amounts. What should be the next steps I should take to resolve this problem? Are there any legal consequences to non-payment?

exel1966

Any debts remaining will be taken from her estate. If she has absolutely nothing then that's exactly what the credit card company and and the bank will get. Nobody else is responsible for clearing the debts if they're in her sole name.

Condolences.

Fathertobe

Sorry to hear of your loss my mum died last year and I was appointed
to deal with her estate and was in the same postion as you all I did was ring the banks water council tax etc and forward them a copy of the death certificate some tried to get me to send the originals but they cost a bit to have more printed off.
The council out of all did try and say will I be paying the debt but just informed them there are no assets left from her estate as she didn't own anything or have savings and would forward what ever they needed we couldnt even cover the funeral cost.

older_wiser

thats an interesting point do funeral expenses come before paying any debt ? i would hope certain items including giving a loved one a suitable funeral would be paramount in this situation.

condolences for your loss

Mrs_Ryan

IIRC funeral expenses need to be paid before debts.

InsideInsurance

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1602821/Dealing-with-death.html

Gives the order of payment as:

Funeral
HMRC
Secured Debt
Unsecured Debt

So.... I know I am going for the platinum coffin option

[Deleted User]

older_wiser wrote: »

thats an interesting point do funeral expenses come before paying any debt ?

Yes.

Funeral first, then taxes, then debts.

EDIT: Beaten to it.

Alassia

I am new to the forum and have found this advice helpful, too. Thank you, everyone.

I don't know if I should have started another thread? I don't want to hi-jack someone's thread but not sure of procedures here.

My husband died suddenly 10 weeks ago. I have paid for the funeral and am trying to sort out everything with the tax office.But, while trying to cope with the shock, an additional nightmare is the bank.There are two issues and I don't know how to deal with them

1. My husband was the sole person in a limited company. Over the past few years the company accrued a debt of 20,000 pounds.The bank have now asked me to take out an additional loan to pay this back although I was not involved in the company in any way. It wasn't a business loan but a 'business current account', if that makes sense to anyone? I can't afford to pay any additional loans from the bank and I didn't sign the forms they offered me. But I'm scared.

2. My husband also had an overdraft on his personal account and this is accruing interest each month, as well as maintenance charges, while I'm trying to sort out everything else.

It seems to be spiraling out of control - or, perhaps, I'm spiraling out of control.

Can anyone please advise?

bigadaj

Sorry for your loss. I would try and escalate this within the bank to speak to someone with more power and explain your situation. This is one case where it probably would be worth paying for a consultation with a solicitor.

YOu shouldnt have to take on your husbands debts, particularly those associated with his business if you had no involvement. This might be complicated if you have joint accounts, as half of these would technically ne his and got towards his debt, or more seriously a joint mortagage as the bank could make a claim on this. I would expect the bank to eb careful in relation to a mortgage though, if they do try and claim any equity in your house then I would probably go straight to the media as they wouldn't want the bad publicity.

molerat

Alassia, sorry for your loss. As you have indicated in your other thread that you are resident in Cyprus you need to seek advice from an expert in Cypriot law. Although the system is based on English law it can be really quite different and there are very few on this forum who will be able to correctly advise. Even English and Scottish law are wildly different in places.

Alassia

I'm really sorry - I was trying to post for the first time and only realised after posting here that I could start a separate thread which I then did.

Thank you to those who have replied here but I didn't mean to take over this thread.:o

Please accept my apologies, OP