Notice to Creditors

sithemadmonkey

Hi All,

I'm helping to administer the estate of a family member (I'm not the actual administrator, but am helping them in any way I can), and am in the process of identifying creditors to the estate. We aren't really on speaking terms with the family member's partner, so have to do everything from a distance.

I've got credit reports from 2 of the 3 credit agencies (still waiting on Experian), and gone through bank accounts for direct debits etc. So far it looks clean - no debts whatsoever. All utilities etc. were in joint names with their partner, so assume they have just been transferred into their name and carried on.

I know you're supposed to put a 'Deceased Estate Notice' in the London Gazette and local newspaper, but I'm not sure if it's really worth the effort. The estate isn't massive (a couple of thousand pounds, although there may be a half-share of a house but that's not certain), and some of the beneficiaries aren't in the best financial state so are quite keen to start dispersing.

I'm 99% sure there are no debts and no creditors, and given the low value of the estate I don't want to spend another couple of hundred quid and wait another 2 months if it's not really necessary.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

madbadrob

If you do not put in the relevant adverts then should a debt come out of the woodwork the administrator/executor would be liable personally and not the beneficiaries. They may be hard up but the job needs doing correctly. Its only 6 weeks so its not that great a length of time to wait

Rob

sithemadmonkey

I figured as such. The chances of something cropping up are pretty small, but the consequences if it did would be fairly heavy.

It's not my decision ultimately, but I'll pass on the advice to the administrators (who are also 2 of the 3 beneficiaries), and explain it as best I can.

Many thanks for your help

getmore4less

The only one getting protected is the 3rd beneficiary

The liability arises for the executor if they can't get the money back from the beneficiaries.

Savvy_Sue

Is it worth doing an interim distribution? We did several with Dad's will, partly to allow for the London Gazette to do its work (and you're also advised to do the local paper, which was more expensive!) and partly because we didn't know exactly how much there would be, but we knew it was more than £X. Like you, we were fairly sure nothing would come out of the woodwork. In fact the only thing was a couple of letters from companies offering to buy the house (which Mum's still living in!) for the best price, cash right away.

sithemadmonkey

Hi all, just thought I'd post a quick update:

As getmore4less rightly points out, there's no additional protection gained in this instance, as the administrators are both beneficiaries anyway (intestate estate, 2 of 3 siblings are administrating). However, the administrators still want to do some sort of advertisement for creditors just to minimise the chances of a creditor popping up after the estate has been distributed. Is there a cheaper alternative to the standard deceased estates notice in the Gazette? At just over ninety quid I know it's not a massive amount, but I'm not on the MSE forum for nothing

Oh, and Savvy_Sue, we've done one interim dispersement for a couple of hundred pounds (on the express understanding that it may have to be repaid if a creditor crops up), but given the small size of the confirmed estate there's not a massive amount left to distribute anyway...