Dealing with Estate

KKA_2

Hi Guys
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated - I have received a Letter Before Action today and would like some guidance on how to respond.

A Brief overview of the situation.....

I lost my Father last year and dealt with the immediate issues of funeral, notifications, etc.

His final months (June - Oct 2015) were spent in care and due to a financial assessment carried out by the local authority; it was deemed that part of the care would be self funded (he had a mortgage on a flat).
To date we have not sold his property mainly due to it being unoccupied and left in a state of dis-repair.

At the time we requested a review of funding via the NHS continued health care scheme; which was partially granted; we requested an additional review as we felt his criteria met full funding; this was eventually granted albeit on the date he passed away.
I have appealed this decision in an attempt to back date the funding to cover the full costs; however the NHS have been very slow to respond.

I have since been sent statements and threats of legal action to pay the outstanding balance to the care provider; i have kept them updated with the current situation but they have now passed this to an external solicitor that has issued a letter before action with demands for remittance in settlement within 7 days or court proceedings will be issued without further notification.

My intention was that if the NHS back dated the funding, this would be used to pay the balance, or if we lost the appeal we would attempt to sell the property in its current condition and then settle any outstanding claims.

I acknowledge this has dragged on longer than expected, however any advice on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated.

To further complicate this, the local authority contacted me last week to confirm that they will be paying a partial balance to the care provider and sending me an invoice to lodge against the estate; therefore the settlement statement that the solicitors has sent me is incorrect.

If you need any additional background information, please let me know.
Many Thanks
KKA

Yorkshireman99

KKA wrote: »

Hi Guys
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated - I have received a Letter Before Action today and would like some guidance on how to respond.

A Brief overview of the situation.....

I lost my Father last year and dealt with the immediate issues of funeral, notifications, etc.

His final months (June - Oct 2015) were spent in care and due to a financial assessment carried out by the local authority; it was deemed that part of the care would be self funded (he had a mortgage on a flat).
To date we have not sold his property mainly due to it being unoccupied and left in a state of dis-repair.

At the time we requested a review of funding via the NHS continued health care scheme; which was partially granted; we requested an additional review as we felt his criteria met full funding; this was eventually granted albeit on the date he passed away.
I have appealed this decision in an attempt to back date the funding to cover the full costs; however the NHS have been very slow to respond.

I have since been sent statements and threats of legal action to pay the outstanding balance to the care provider; i have kept them updated with the current situation but they have now passed this to an external solicitor that has issued a letter before action with demands for remittance in settlement within 7 days or court proceedings will be issued without further notification.

My intention was that if the NHS back dated the funding, this would be used to pay the balance, or if we lost the appeal we would attempt to sell the property in its current condition and then settle any outstanding claims.

I acknowledge this has dragged on longer than expected, however any advice on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated.

To further complicate this, the local authority contacted me last week to confirm that they will be paying a partial balance to the care provider and sending me an invoice to lodge against the estate; therefore the settlement statement that the solicitors has sent me is incorrect.

If you need any additional background information, please let me know.
Many Thanks
KKA

Is the a will and who is the executor? Has probate been applied for?

KKA_2

I will be applying for probate in the coming weeks and acting as the executor, there was no will that we are aware of.
I appreciate i have maybe sat on this longer than i should have, however i think its unreasonable of the care provider to do this when i have informed them of the situation.
The letter from the solicitor includes a statement of account, the amount they are requesting i pay by Thursday is now incorrect as the local authority contacted me last week and have sent an invoice after they have made payments to the care provider.
Can they start legal proceedings based on this, I'm not refusing to pay, however cant pay until the property is sold.
Is there a time limit where this should have been sorted by?
Thanks for your assistance.
KKA

TW1234

Regardless of who will finally be responsible for the costs of care, the care home has provided its services and needs to be paid. At present, it appears that the care home has a contract with your parent, and that is settleable from the estate. As the estate seems to be solvent and you have taken on the role of administrating it, your duty is to gather in any monies due (from the NHS) and to pay any debtors (the care home). The care home cannot be expected to act as the provider of a cash flow for this process when it has become protracted even if due to negotiations and appeal..
There are no fixed time scales, but it would be useful to contact their solicitors and ensure that they are aware of the situation and to advise them of the revised amount owed following the payment from the council. Could you offer an interim or an interest payment? Could you obtain a loan to the estate pending settlement and sale of the flat? None the less, there is no reason for the care home not to proceed to obtain judgement and they could then enforce payment, potentially causing costs to the estate.
Continuing care payment , incidentally, is "all or nothing" although it sounds as though your parent received an amount for an assessed NHS nursing care part of the care home package.

KKA_2

Yes, the funding was the nursing care, his initial assessment for full funding was not granted however his condition deteriorated rapidly, we asked for a review and full funding was granted, sadly on the day he passed.
My appeal with the NHS is to have this back dated to when we asked for the review as they took an age to get this sorted.
I agree that i have took too long to sort this, my problem with the asset (property) is that it was unoccupied for some time and in a state of dis-repair.
This will now need to be sold at auction in its current state and depending on the value received will then determine if the estate is solvent or not.

FreeBear

KKA wrote: »

I have received a Letter Before Action today and would like some guidance on how to respond.

Who exactly is the LBA addressed to ?

If it yourself personally, then I'd be writing back telling the solicitor that you are not liable for the debt - This would be in addition to the advice given by others above.

Yorkshireman99

KKA wrote: »

Yes, the funding was the nursing care, his initial assessment for full funding was not granted however his condition deteriorated rapidly, we asked for a review and full funding was granted, sadly on the day he passed.
My appeal with the NHS is to have this back dated to when we asked for the review as they took an age to get this sorted.
I agree that i have took too long to sort this, my problem with the asset (property) is that it was unoccupied for some time and in a state of dis-repair.
This will now need to be sold at auction in its current state and depending on the value received will then determine if the estate is solvent or not.

You need to realize that having what is technically called "intermedling" in the estate you could be liable for some debts. You need to get some urgent paid for professional advice like on Monday to try and sort out what needs to be done.

Yorkshireman99

FreeBear wrote: »

Who exactly is the LBA addressed to ?

If it yourself personally, then I'd be writing back telling the solicitor that you are not liable for the debt - This would be in addition to the advice given by others above.

Because the OP has intermedled in the estate he could well have incurred some liability. Hence my post number 7 above

Savvy_Sue

As there's some doubt over whether the estate is solvent or not, it seems that maximising income from the flat would be worthwhile. If you take what the LA has paid off the total debt, how much is left? Is it the kind of sum you could raise on a credit card or borrow some other way?

konark

These people should not be harassing you, you are not the executor and never will be.

They know well enough that all correspondence should be addressed to yourself as 'administrator of the estate of the late .........', not yourself personally. They are simply pressurising you to stump up the money quickly because it suits their cashflow.

As it stands you have no duty to act at all although some on the forum seem to think you have intermeddled. From what you have said your actions relate to the dispute over funding when your father was alive, you have not mentioned any attempts to administer the estate.

I would apply to be administrator of your father's estate. Tell all debtors that until probate is granted you can do nothing and they will receive nothing. You then need to sell the flat, but don't be rushed into a fire-sale, you can take at least 1 year from grant of probate to settle the estate before a court will even entertain complaints of 'we're not getting our money quick enough' from creditors.

As administrator you are in control; Be sure to leave creditors in no doubt that payments will be made when you are in a position to make them and not before.

This assumes value of flat is more than debts, if not walk away.

Yorkshireman99

konark wrote: »

These people should not be harassing you, you are not the executor and never will be.

They know well enough that all correspondence should be addressed to yourself as 'administrator of the estate of the late .........', not yourself personally. They are simply pressurising you to stump up the money quickly because it suits their cashflow.

As it stands you have no duty to act at all although some on the forum seem to think you have intermeddled. From what you have said your actions relate to the dispute over funding when your father was alive, you have not mentioned any attempts to administer the estate.

I would apply to be administrator of your father's estate. Tell all debtors that until probate is granted you can do nothing and they will receive nothing. You then need to sell the flat, but don't be rushed into a fire-sale, you can take at least 1 year from grant of probate to settle the estate before a court will even entertain complaints of 'we're not getting our money quick enough' from creditors.

As administrator you are in control; Be sure to leave creditors in no doubt that payments will be made when you are in a position to make them and not before.

This assumes value of flat is more than debts, if not walk away.

Sorry but you are quite wrong about the OP's responsibilities. The OP has, unfortunately, intermeddled in the estate and as such needs to get professional advice now. Sadly it is a classic case of trying to do the right thing and getting it wrong. Having intermedled the OP is the person who needs to apply for LOA. Executors do not routinely have a year from the grant of probate to deal with estate. The so called "executors year" runs from the date of death not from when probate is received. Then they are required to deal with the formalities within a reasonable time and emphatically not spin it out without good cause.