Advice desperately needed.

coolcait

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Why would anyone do that it offers no protection for the deptors wife? Declaring the estate banckrupt is more likely to be done by the creditor as it is the first stage in recovering the dept from the joint asset.

We don't know the size of the debt, but if it is under £5k the bankruptcy is not an option anyway so the creditor is more than likely just to wright it off. Best option once all the assets and debt are known and it is confirmed that the estate is insolvent is to simply inform them of the fact together with a statement that you have no intention of administering the estate, and hopefully they will simply write it off.

Just to be clear, I'm not advocating bankruptcy - just pointing out that the solicitor may not know that the actual process is now relatively simple.

There have been a lot of changes to bankruptcy legislation in Scotland in the past couple of years. Solicitors who are not specialists in bankruptcy may not have followed all of those changes.

Bankruptcy in Scotland has also always had many differences from the system in England and Wales (for example, the minimum debt for declaring bankruptcy is lower than the £5,000 you mention - in some cases it can be much lower).

If there is the slightest possibility that an executor may need to consider that the deceased's estate should be sequestrated/made bankrupt, then they should contact a specialist in Scottish insolvency.

That doesn't have to be a solicitor. Many CAB offices have advisers who can explain things - including any risks. There are also a number of free Law Centres around the country.

MiniGal

To update. The house was being paid for on a joint mortgage but passed out right to Mrs X by survivorship destination so technically does not form part of the estate. This means that, technically, the estate does not have enough money to pay the majority of the debts. However, the solicitors have advised that the creditors could potentially seek to raise an action in respect of the equity in Mr X's share of the property. The estate cannot be declared insolvent as the equity in the house is considered to be part of the estate even though it, technically, isn't. The solicitors have said case law shows that MBNA are very likely to win, indicating that survivorship clauses are not worth the paper they are written on. This leaves Mrs X facing losing a significant amount of Mr X's pension payout to MBNA or fighting a legal battle over a period of years that she has been advised could be very costly and she is highly likely to lose.

Mrs X is currently considering offering the credit card companies half the debt as cash repayment as the traumatic circumstances of the death and subsequent events mean she cannot cope with years of bullying and intimidation when her solicitors advise she has a poor chance of winning. She has been warned that MBNA will not consider this offer satisfactory but she has no other income apart from the pensions and death in service money and is currently unable to work due to needing close medical care for the foreseeable future.

The warning here seems to be that credit card debts do not die with the sole credit card holder, especially if MBNA are the issuing card company.

Savvy_Sue

I do not know if StepChange and CAP work north of the border, but I feel it would be well worthwhile asking one of them to negotiate on her behalf ... If they do not, I am sure they will know who to approach in Scotland.