Issues with deceased debt

gunja99

Hi all. A few things I thought I could with some advice on, but I will keep them in separate threads.

A few months ago, my fiancee was tragically killed in a car accident. She is due some money into her estate from pensions and various other places, but she had a number of debts against her name. 2 of these debts were very old, and addresses from a long time ago, that didn't know her current location. They were CCJ'd last August (2014), but only caught up to her a few weeks after she died. 2 letters from Robinson Way came just asking if it was the same person who used to live at this address, and please confirm either way.

We were aware of these debts (seen them on her noddle report), strange they caught up with her at this point.

Now I did call them a few weeks later, and briefly explained that yes it was the right address, but sadly she was no longer with us. The asked for the date she died, and stated that both accounts would be closed, and I wouldn't hear anything else from them.

Now this is £13k worth of debt (very old, and sold on a number of times). Also I did receive 2 letters which I hadn't read at the time, stating the debts were now owned by another company, but to do ALL correspondence with Robinson Way (of which I had done).

We're trying to sort probate/LOA etc (no will unfortunately, don't want to get into that part of things here). But I wonder if these debts have really been written off, as it makes a decision on an appeal very important (i.e. we'll appeal something if this £13k is still liable, and we won't if it's written off). I'm slightly anxious about contacting them again as as things stand there won't be anywhere near enuf to clear this debt, but if this owning money goes to the estate (from a pension lump sum) then it can easily be cleared, but we'd rather NOT have to pay it. They didn't ask anything at the time of the call about whether there was any money or not. Was a very short call, I noted time and date, and wrote it down, and emailed a few people about it at the time.
Thanks,
Advice please?

Mojisola

gunja99 wrote: »

We're trying to sort probate/LOA etc (no will unfortunately, don't want to get into that part of things here). But I wonder if these debts have really been written off, as it makes a decision on an appeal very important (i.e. we'll appeal something if this £13k is still liable, and we won't if it's written off).

I'm slightly anxious about contacting them again as as things stand there won't be anywhere near enuf to clear this debt, but if this owning money goes to the estate (from a pension lump sum) then it can easily be cleared, but we'd rather NOT have to pay it.

Whoever gets LOA is legally obliged to repay debts on the estate.

gunja99

Mojisola wrote: »

Whoever gets LOA is legally obliged to repay debts on the estate.

Thanks for the reply and yes I understand that, but Robinson Way stated to me (we did this prior to needing or applying for LOA), that the accounts were closed. So how do I know if the debts are still alive or not?

Mojisola

gunja99 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and yes I understand that, but Robinson Way stated to me (we did this prior to needing or applying for LOA), that the accounts were closed.

So how do I know if the debts are still alive or not?

Do you have that in writing?

The administrator has a duty to check that there are no debts so you can't get away with not contacting them.

Some payments from pensions and insurance policies are paid direct to a beneficiary and do not become part of the estate so check the status of any payments.

You may be better off posting on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217 to get advice about dealing with her estate.

gunja99

Mojisola wrote: »

Do you have that in writing?

The administrator has a duty to check that there are no debts so you can't get away with not contacting them.

Some payments from pensions and insurance policies are paid direct to a beneficiary and do not become part of the estate so check the status of any payments.

You may be better off posting on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217 to get advice about dealing with her estate.

See that's the thing. No. They never properly found her (alive anyways), so I called to let them no (took some advice, be helpful but not 'too' helpful with em), as letters arrived just asking if it was her at this address for this 8 year old debts. They stated all correspondence should be made with Robinson Way, and that's who I called, they said they'd close the accounts, were very sorry to hear of my loss, and won't hear from me again. We've got no 'proof' of these debts, other than I guess they listed on her free noddle account.

I will look into that other forum too.

With regards to the pension (NHS one), we had told me, and I truly 100% believe that it was nominated to her sister, even got emails/messages stating that from earlier in the year it was. But the pensions people stating that it's NOT been nominated and "qualifying partner" doesn't mean me. So I've been looking for paperwork (it's all a mess) to find evidence of the nomination, as getting it out of the estate would mean this is irrelevant. It's not discretionary either with the NHS, but grrr it's a pain, we can appeal, but will delay getting the money. So if this £13k is really written off, we will probably just accept it to go to the estate, if not we'll appeal the pension to be in her sisters name...