Father's debts, how to deal with them ?

Brit27

My father passed away two months ago after a 16 month battle with cancer, of his four siblings he named me as his eldest,the executor of his Will.
I have so far dealt with this without too many hitches, however he left a substantial debt of which I do not know how to handle ?
I have found out through correspondence since his death that he had a debt management plan with Money Plus, which totalled £58k, on top of this is a £7k debt to American Express and a bill to the Marina where he had his houseboat moored.

My father's assets consisted of the Houseboat which sunk 8 months ago and is in such a poor condition that it cannot be recovered, in fact I have been quoted £15k to have the boat salvaged , which will need to be acted upon as it is currently on paid rental moorings.
He owned a Bailey caravan, possibly worth around £4k and left around £2000 in a current account and £15,000 in a joint account with my name sharing the account. - I have used this account to pay for his funeral and various other final bills.
He also had a Renault car, possibly valued at around £100-200 only.

I have informed American Express of his death but have waited on informing Money Plus until I could obtain some advice somewhere on how to approach the situation .
Any advice on how to deal with the debt would be appreciated.

Brighty

The dept belongs to your fathers estate, not you or your siblings. In these case where the estate is insolvent, the usual advice to to NOT apply for probate (as there are specific rules about which debts get paid off first, get it wrong and it could cost YOU), just inform the creditors (including the mooring) , renounce as executor and walk away, let the creditors apply for probate and get what they can if they want to try.
The £15k in the joint account may now be yours? Think it does not count as part of the estate, but someone else can confirm

Brighty

Brit27

Brighty wrote: »

The dept belongs to your fathers estate, not you or your siblings. In these case where the estate is insolvent, the usual advice to to NOT apply for probate (as there are specific rules about which debts get paid off first, get it wrong and it could cost YOU), just inform the creditors (including the mooring) , renounce as executor and walk away, let the creditors apply for probate and get what they can if they want to try.
The £15k in the joint account may now be yours? Think it does not count as part of the estate, but someone else can confirm

Brighty

Thank you for your reply Brighty.
I have a letter pending to both with a copy of the death certificate , announcing that I am the executor, shall I just leave it at that ?

Brighty

I'd just say you are the son, not executor, unless they're already posted

https://www.bereavementadvice.org/topics/probate-and-legal/insolvent-estates

Brit27

Brighty wrote: »

I'd just say you are the son, not executor, unless they're already posted

https://www.bereavementadvice.org/topics/probate-and-legal/insolvent-estates

Thank you for the further advice and link, there are a couple of templates there that I can use and will send off today.

Yorkshireman99

Brit27 wrote: »

My father passed away two months ago after a 16 month battle with cancer, of his four siblings he named me as his eldest,the executor of his Will.
I have so far dealt with this without too many hitches, however he left a substantial debt of which I do not know how to handle ?
I have found out through correspondence since his death that he had a debt management plan with Money Plus, which totalled £58k, on top of this is a £7k debt to American Express and a bill to the Marina where he had his houseboat moored. You must leave the other assets alone as you could be guilty of intermeddling in the estate and become liable for the debts.

My father's assets consisted of the Houseboat which sunk 8 months ago and is in such a poor condition that it cannot be recovered, in fact I have been quoted £15k to have the boat salvaged , which will need to be acted upon as it is currently on paid rental moorings.
He owned a Bailey caravan, possibly worth around £4k and left around £2000 in a current account and £15,000 in a joint account with my name sharing the account. - I have used this account to pay for his funeral and various other final bills.
He also had a Renault car, possibly valued at around £100-200 only.

I have informed American Express of his death but have waited on informing Money Plus until I could obtain some advice somewhere on how to approach the situation .
Any advice on how to deal with the debt would be appreciated.

The creditors can probably claim the remaining balance in the joint account so I strongly suggest you don't spend any more.

Brit27

Okay thank you Yorkshireman, I have posted the letters off so will now sit and await their replies.

Yorkshireman99

Brit27 wrote: »

Okay thank you Yorkshireman, I have posted the letters off so will now sit and await their replies.

I realise this is a difficult time but you need to play hard ball with the creditors and let them deal with everything. Don't admit to anything except the facts. The owner of the mooring needs to be told that there will be no payments and the salvage of the boat is nothing to do with you. The same for the car and the caravan.

Brit27

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

I realise this is a difficult time but you need to play hard ball with the creditors and let them deal with everything. Don't admit to anything except the facts. The owner of the mooring needs to be told that there will be no payments and the salvage of the boat is nothing to do with you. The for the car and the caravan.

The marina has the caravan in storage on their property and my father sold me a small yacht before he passed, which is also moored there. I was aiming to sell the caravan and move the yacht elsewhere before the end of the summer, the moorings are part paid until January next year, although there is £1900 owing.
I guess the creditors will want the caravan and car anyway, so perhaps it isn't worth me trying to sell ?

Yorkshireman99

Brit27 wrote: »

The marina has the caravan in storage on their property and my father sold me a small yacht before he passed, which is also moored there. I was aiming to sell the caravan and move the yacht elsewhere before the end of the summer, the moorings are part paid until January next year, although there is £1900 owing.
I guess the creditors will want the caravan and car anyway, so perhaps it isn't worth me trying to sell ?

Just let the creditors deal with it. If you start selling things you will probably end up paying the debts. I know it sounds wrong but with an insolvent estate the advice is always to do nothing.

Brit27

Okay thank you again for your advice.