Debts - what happens to them?

cavyslave

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with someone who claims that a debt dies with the person who owns it unless the debt was in joint names. Is this true? It would be lovely if it was because my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

Mojisola

cavyslave wrote: »

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with someone who claims that a debt dies with the person who owns it unless the debt was in joint names. Is this true? It would be lovely if it was because my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

If the deceased has any assets, debts have to be paid from the assets.

If the deceased doesn't leave anything, then debts die with them - no-one else can be made to pay them.

Keep_pedalling

If your relative had no assets then they would not be paying care fees, so no it will not be written off and quite rightly so.

74jax

cavyslave wrote: »

my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

Confused?
Why would it be good to stay in his estate?

An estate is distributed according to a will. His estate doesn't stay an estate forever. I don't know what you mean?

All debts are paid out of the estate and so is the funeral if possible.

Shelldean

Debts can die with a person, but it all depends on the amount of money left when they die.

When my fil died, he had a few pounds in his bank account.
So mil used that, plus some of her own ( a lot of her own) to pay for his funeral.

He also had a credit card debt, this was written off as there was.nothing to pay it with.

So whilst a debt CAN die with a person, it doesn't always.

Mojisola

cavyslave wrote: »

It would be lovely if it was because my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

If your relative had no assets then they would not be paying care fees, so no it will not be written off and quite rightly so.

Exactly. cavyslave's relative must have a deferred payment scheme with the council so there must be property involved - the estate will have the money to pay the debt.

Yorkshireman99

cavyslave wrote: »

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with someone who claims that a debt dies with the person who owns it unless the debt was in joint names. Is this true? It would be lovely if it was because my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

It seems to be a common urban myth that debts die with the person. As a general principle they don't. It's estate has the funds then the debts have to be paid with the funeral expenses taking first priority. For the deceased to have been paying care home fees then they probably had some assets.

unholyangel

cavyslave wrote: »

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with someone who claims that a debt dies with the person who owns it unless the debt was in joint names. Is this true? It would be lovely if it was because my relative owes the council nearly £8k in unpaid care fees and wouldn't it be good if the nice man from the council wrote that debt off and all that lovely money stayed in his estate?.....;);)

It is true but you're overlooking one key fact.....the estate is your legal person/entity. Your estate has always existed and has always had liability for your debts.

"Debts die with the person" just means that liability doesn't pass to anyone else other than those who agreed to undertake the liability in the first place (which is why joint names is different as there was a shared liability).

seashore22

74jax wrote: »

Confused?
Why would it be good to stay in his estate?

An estate is distributed according to a will. His estate doesn't stay an estate forever. I don't know what you mean?

All debts are paid out of the estate and so is the funeral if possible.

I think the op was being sarcastic. That's how I read it anyway.

cavyslave

Yes sorry, I was being sarcastic. My son and myself are sole beneficiaries and I'm an also the sole executor. The remark was made tongue in cheek.

He had a property and savings, it's all gone to probate and I mentioned that all his bills would need to be paid (including the £8k) and that's when I was informed that a person's debt dies with them. I tried to explain about assets and savings but they were having none of it which is why I thought I'd check with you guys on here as the internet is pretty ambiguous about the whole thing.

TW1234

So you win the argument---debts do not die with the debtor unless the debtor has nothing with which to repay them and there was no guarantor.