Credit card of severely ill

pcd81

Hi,

My mother in law has been taken ill with a brain injury and the medium to long term prognosis is unsure. My father in law has also just passed away.

We have discovered a credit card with RBS solely in my mother in laws name which has about £4000 outstanding. Does anyone know if we are liable for this debt? They own a property and have some assets which will all be signed over to the mother in law since his death but she is not able to do anything - currently not speaking and unaware of the situation because of memory loss and in hospital indefinitely.

Any ideas?

agrinnall

Your MiL is still liable, but nobody else is. If there is a regular payment set up to pay the CC company then I'd expect that to continue, but if the account it's coming from isn't being funded then the payment will eventually bounce (possibly incurring more debt). If you have the money available it would be worth considering funding the account yourselves.

If there is nobody with a Power of Attorney then it'll be difficult to deal with this, it may be necessary to go to the Court of Protection to get one just so that her affairs can be dealt with, particularly if she is likely to survive for some time without recovering enough to be able to make decisions herself.

If nothing is done then the debt will become part of her estate, and will be paid by the executors before the residue is distributed.

BobQ

I would contact the credit card provider and explain the situation. They will not want to discuss your MIL's affairs but if they know the situation is complicated they may make a note of the problem and avoid doing anything precipitous.

But unless your MIL is likely to die in the short term you need a PoA.

As stated you are not liable but if you have the means of settling the debt it may be worth doing so to avoid the debt getting worse and to simplify the situation. This is particularly the case if your spouse will be the only one likely to inherit the money if your MIL died.

Obviously with a POA it would make sense to settle the debt if there are funds to do so and avoid the debt increasing or the costs of legal action. You could argue that this was in her best interest.

Anthorn

Why get a Lasting Power Of Attorney? If your Mother-in-Law is unable to handle her own affairs RBS can't have their money. They are also unlikely to push it when informed of the circumstances. Can you imagine the headline, "Recently widowed seriously ill hospitalised woman harassed by big 4 bank!" But RBS can still take action against your Mother-in-Law so keep an eye on the situation and step in with a PoA before the last minute occurs.

agrinnall

Anthorn wrote: »

Why get a Lasting Power Of Attorney? If your Mother-in-Law is unable to handle her own affairs RBS can't have their money. They are also unlikely to push it when informed of the circumstances. Can you imagine the headline, "Recently widowed seriously ill hospitalised woman harassed by big 4 bank!" But RBS can still take action against your Mother-in-Law so keep an eye on the situation and step in with a PoA before the last minute occurs.

This type of head in the sand response is completely the wrong thing to do. At the very least the debt will continue to get bigger, and as I pointed out it will have to be paid eventually out of the estate.

And suggesting getting a PoA at the last minute is nonsensical, even a LPA granted when the person is completely capable takes at least a month (in fact, the OPG site below currently says LPA registration time is 9 weeks), and getting the Court of Protection to grant PoA is likely to take considerably longer.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/forms/opg