Mother died with debt and no estate. Help needed

Mojisola

heatherw_01 wrote: »

I am guessing most funeral directors require a deposit? The deposit would have to be AXA most likely. He would have to wait for that

We've arranged a couple of funerals recently with two different funeral directors and neither asked for a deposit.

victor2

Read through this thread, wondering how I will deal with it when it happens - which it probably will.
Condolences to you heatherw_01. If CAB are being of no help, you could contact your local Age UK branch. I do some voluntary work with them and know they advise about handling this type of situation.
I have to agree with the opinion many have given though, which is to sort the funeral out and ignore the debt.

heatherw_01

victor2 wrote: »

Read through this thread, wondering how I will deal with it when it happens - which it probably will.
Condolences to you heatherw_01. If CAB are being of no help, you could contact your local Age UK branch. I do some voluntary work with them and know they advise about handling this type of situation.
I have to agree with the opinion many have given though, which is to sort the funeral out and ignore the debt.

don't think I am old enough to get help from Age UK though

heatherw_01

The bank does seem keen of giving me the money when I have paid off the funeral. I told them I want to leave it for the creditors but they said no one else will have access. I am guessing though they usually get a probate or something like that to gain access?

I hope they don't end up sending me a cheque or something lol

victor2

heatherw_01 wrote: »

don't think I am old enough to get help from Age UK though

You don't have to be retired to ask them. It is something that often happens to older people though, so they have information available to them. I've never seen them turn away "younger" people.

heatherw_01

Thinking of calling the funeral director now to go down and chat about it some more.

I just don't want to get stuck with a bill that needs paying by X date and still not have the insurance money

Shall I just explain to him that I am waiting on the insurance and see what he says?

Mojisola

heatherw_01 wrote: »

Thinking of calling the funeral director now to go down and chat about it some more.

I just don't want to get stuck with a bill that needs paying by X date and still not have the insurance money

Shall I just explain to him that I am waiting on the insurance and see what he says?

Be upfront with him about it all. If he's been in business for a while, he'll probably have dealt with similar problems.

heatherw_01

Going down to chat in an hour. He has been in business a long time and apparently is also a magistrate.

Will say that I have only just received the claim form for one and will ask AXA to pay directly to him if he likes

getmore4less

FD will have a handle on it all they see all sort of situations.


Discuss the funeral and the payment with the FD, ask if they can accept the payments direct from the insurances, I bet they can sort out the "we can only pay the full amount" issue, send an invoice for just the right amount, if not they can probably advise on what to do. We never needed a deposits cross that bridge if it happens.

It sounds like this may be the first time you get to talk about it, don't worry about getting upset it is normal, we all do, I still do know and it is over 2 years, 3 years this month for my dad.

If the bank sends you the money and you did not ask for it just don't sign anything that says you are liable to give it back if needed.
They will probably be keen to get the account closed.

Mojisola

I was surprised how quickly the PO sent me money when Mum died. I showed them the death certificate which named me as informant and they closed the account and sent a cheque in my name even though they hadn't seen the will and Dad was the beneficiary!

The bank at least wanted to see the will as well as the death certificate.

They will want to close the accounts and not have any more bother but I think if you accept the money from the accounts, you will have to deal with the creditors.