Advice on managing deceased's debts

getmore4less

ewliin wrote: »

I'll be honest - we (local family) are not quite sure of the details of her will at the moment. I am currently assuming that her flat , which is in a home for the elderly, would be sold and half would go to my Dad (well now my Mum), and half to his sister (plus same split of any other savings, etc). Or maybe my Dad's half divided up between him, and me and my siblings (e.g. 20% to my Dad, 10% to each of me, my brother and sister, and 50% to my childless Aunt). I don't think it changes anything, really, other than helping to give my Mum a bit more financial breathing space.
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if dead benifitiaries are children then their issue get the proceeds not the spouse and if no issue it reverts ot other blood family.

As executor and you as helper cannot decide to redirect assets away from the rightfull benifitiary, it will need a DOV or the mother to gift the assets once she has them.


Does the aunt still not need use of the property.

1/2 the house and mortgage are assesed for IHT purposes(allthough looks like not relevent due to spuce exemption) on the UHT forms.

I think you would be well advised to slow down and think this all through carefully.

p00hsticks

ewliin wrote: »

I am a bit confused by this post. I don't think I've written anything to suggest that I think anyone is inheriting a negative amount.

At the end of your original post you said that

ewliin wrote: »

This will also help me to re-assure my Mum who, for a time, basically thought she would be inheriting a negative amount and be living in debt for the rest of her life.

and this is what daska is referring to.

Sorry for your loss.

madbadrob

The question that needs asking and answering from someone more in the know is debts secured against the house would they pass to the widow or would the creditors allow transfer of these debts? If there are loans secured against the property then these would also be the widows debt as she would need to sign to say she agreed to them as she owns half the house. Unless I don't understand this side of finance properly.

I think from your post you have covered everything else and have a good grasp of what is needed and its nice to see that a family is going to look after the aunt although there is no leagl requirement to.

My condolences for your loss

Rob

Mojisola

ewliin wrote: »

I am currently assuming that her flat , which is in a home for the elderly, would be sold and half would go to my Dad (well now my Mum), and half to his sister (plus same split of any other savings, etc).

Or maybe my Dad's half divided up between him, and me and my siblings (e.g. 20% to my Dad, 10% to each of me, my brother and sister, and 50% to my childless Aunt).

As your father has died, he cannot inherit anything from anyone.

As his spouse, your mother will not be entitled to anything that he would have inherited.

Unless a will says differently, if a child (your father) has predeceased the testator (your grandmother), then the inheritance will be passed on to his children.

Newly_retired

Sorry for your loss. There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty at the moment, especially as far as the various properties are concerned.
You should not plan to do anything in haste.
Probably the best thing you can do is to keep going through the paperwork and see what you can turn up.
In any case, action must be taken in accordance with the will and/or laws of intestacy.

YesWillMan

Mojisola wrote: »

As your father has died, he cannot inherit anything from anyone.

As his spouse, your mother will not be entitled to anything that he would have inherited.

Unless a will says differently, if a child (your father) has predeceased the testator (your grandmother), then the inheritance will be passed on to his children.

The Will usually does give this "giftover" as it is called so that children of a deceased beneficiary take the share their parent would have inherited equally between them.
With regard to the Aunt as she provided the Finance and tbis can be proved then this could be regarded as a debt of the estate and the Aunt would be thus a creditor of the estate. The half share of the house could then be transferred to the Aunt in satisfaction of this amount.
Hope this helps.
PS If say for instance the Aunt had died instead then her estate would be entitled to this sum

Mojisola

YesWillMan wrote: »

The Will usually does give this "giftover" as it is called so that children of a deceased beneficiary take the share their parent would have inherited equally between them.

Even if it doesn't explicitly state that, the inheritance would get passed down unless the will gives other instructions, eg. if my son should predecease me then his share will go to x charity.

whitewing

YesWillMan wrote: »

The Will usually does give this "giftover" as it is called so that children of a deceased beneficiary take the share their parent would have inherited equally between them.
With regard to the Aunt as she provided the Finance and tbis can be proved then this could be regarded as a debt of the estate and the Aunt would be thus a creditor of the estate. The half share of the house could then be transferred to the Aunt in satisfaction of this amount.
Hope this helps.
PS If say for instance the Aunt had died instead then her estate would be entitled to this sum

Did the Aunt actually provide the money originally? I thought it came from the selling of the living grandmother's house?

Would the executors not be better to pay the money to their mother, and then she can give it to the aunt? That way it is her decision that hasn't been forced.

Newly_retired

The executors cannot pick and choose. They must act in accordance with the will, and if that is not clear, they should consult a solicitor.

ewliin

whitewing wrote: »

Did the Aunt actually provide the money originally? I thought it came from the selling of the living grandmother's house?

Would the executors not be better to pay the money to their mother, and then she can give it to the aunt? That way it is her decision that hasn't been forced.

You are correct in that it came from my grandmother's money. In thinking about it today, we will either consider my Aunt's share of the flat as a debt of the estate (which I guess would be prioritised last as a "deferred debt") or not consider it a debt and deal with it after the estate has been sorted. Either way, we are a close family and we will go for the opton that suits both us and my auntie. There are also the finer details of the fact that the property is in Scotland, which has slightly different property laws.

The difficulty (for us to discuss as a family) is that my Aunt will probably want to physically keep the flat as she will still need it to visit her mother. However, after shares, premium bonds, etc have been paid towards the debt, there is still £10k owed to the credit cards. Legally, this has to be paid off before any of the estate (i.e. the flat) can be distributed out. We might have to work out a way through which my Auntie can purchase the flat from the estate, and then we pay off the debtors, give her back half the money, and my mother get the rest as the amount inherited from the estate.

Thanks for your help so far guys. Please don't get the impression we are rushing anything, this is all talk and no action at the moment. I am more just making sure I understand things correctly, and as far as I can tell that is broadly true. The most we have done so far is simply notify government, financial, and his work of his death, sort out things like death certificates and orig. copies of the will. We are careful when speaking to the credit cards and banks, when a couple of them asked would there be enough in the estate to pay off the debts, I just gave the standard line "we haven't yet valued the estate and are still in the early stages of that process" and the same when they asked who the formal executor is (although the will does name my Mother).