Mother passed last week, help needed please

bluemonkeymagic

Removed...

getmore4less

bluemonkeymagic wrote: »

What do you mean don't want to? We can't just ignore the debt can we? I spoke to the citizens advice and they said we have no choice but to spilt the remaining money from the policy between the Halifax and little woods on a pro rata basis

That is not correct,

There is no obligation to administer the estate, the money, if it belongs to the estate, it can stay there till someone takes the job on.

securityguy

bluemonkeymagic wrote: »

What do you mean don't want to? We can't just ignore the debt can we? I spoke to the citizens advice and they said we have no choice but to spilt the remaining money from the policy between the Halifax and little woods on a pro rata basis

Yes, you can ignore the debt in that you can ignore the estate. Depending on how the policy is worded, it may not go to the estate: it's common for life assurance policies to be drawn in favour of a named recipient, who receives the money directly. Funeral plans, similarly, usually do not go to the estate, but direct to the undertaker(s) or to a spouse, as appears to be the case here. The widowers pension is highly unlikely to go to the estate, rather it will go to your father directly. Presumably most of your mother's other assets would be jointly owned with your father, and therefore again not part of her estate.

Even if the funeral plan is part of the estate, it appears that it is substantially less than the debts. The estate is therefore insolvent. There are debts, but there are few or no assets to pay them with.

You would be perfectly within your rights to, and indeed many would advise you to, walk away. Do not seek to administer the estate. If others wish to, that is their decision (at their cost).

Of course, if your mother had substantial saleable assets (jewellery, a car) that were in her sole name, this would be different. But that seems in this case to be extremely unlikely. The CAB are probably wrong: it is highly unlikely that a funeral plan would pass to the estate, and there are no other assets. If Halifax wish to seek letters of administration to chase pennies out of an insolvent estate, let them.

bluemonkeymagic

The Insurance Policy is being paid directly to my father's bank account, I have spoken to the policy company twice, the first time they said that it falls outside mum's estate, the second time they said it falls within mum's estate.

The Policy payment is just over £4k, after funeral costs the balance is about £750 and will be left in Dad's bank account.

There is nothing else. House is rented, Dad is on pension and benefits as he is almost 80 himself. Mum had £40 in a halifax bank account, that is it.

getmore4less

securityguy wrote: »

Yes, you can ignore the debt in that you can ignore the estate. Depending on how the policy is worded, it may not go to the estate: it's common for life assurance policies to be drawn in favour of a named recipient, who receives the money directly. Funeral plans, similarly, usually do not go to the estate, but direct to the undertaker(s) or to a spouse, as appears to be the case here. The widowers pension is highly unlikely to go to the estate, rather it will go to your father directly. Presumably most of your mother's other assets would be jointly owned with your father, and therefore again not part of her estate.

.

This bit is no longer the case(since 2001 IIRC), a claim can be made against joint assets.

Where debts are high and there are valuable assets it can be worth a creditor persuing them.

However in this case that is unlikely for a number of reasons 3 obvious ones.
Low value debts.
Limited if any joint assets
Publicity.

madbadrob

The question then is your fathers bank account a joint account or an account in his own name? If the latter I would suspect that there is no liability for the debts under joint assets.

Rob

bluemonkeymagic

It's in his own name, they have nothing joint except the rent book.

bluemonkeymagic

So when Halifax and Littlewoods write to me I am to say that,

There are no assets in the estate and nothing of value left to repair the debts and that nobody will be acting as the administrator.

What will they do then!?

I am sorry to ask dumb questions, I am organising everything and just worried sick about these debts

madbadrob

It is up to them as to whether they want to administer the estate themselves. They may ask you for proof however you need to tell them you are not prepared to be involved further and if they want proof they should apply to administer the estate themselves

Rob

securityguy

bluemonkeymagic wrote: »

So when Halifax and Littlewoods write to me I am to say that,

There are no assets in the estate and nothing of value left to (repay) the debts and that nobody will be acting as the administrator.

What will they do then!?

You don't care what they do then. You aren't administering the estate.

Of course, you normally wouldn't be administering the estate anyway, as the person with first call is the deceased's spouse. Make sure you're on the same page as your father, and just reply saying that you are not the administrator of the estate, and they should not contact you again.