Do executors have to pay a disputed debt?

TBagpuss

I agree. Make formal complaint to the company and specifically state that that you require the company to:

1. Explain why they are seeking to recover from your father's estate, a bill which pre-dates his ownership of the property.
2. Provide copies of any and all previous bills submitted to your father (depending on when the debt was allegedly incurred, and when they last billed him, it is possible that the bill is statute-barred anyway)
3. Confirm that they will put all tempts at recovery on hold until they have provided the information requested.

Give them a timescale to respond (in the circumstances, I'd suggest asking them to confirm receipt of the letter within 7 days and a substantive response within 21)

Then read up on their complaints process, follow it, and refer to the ombudsman.

I second the suggestion to contact the press, too.
The Saturday Guardian and Saturday Telegraph both have 'problem pages' - you could try one of them.

POPPYOSCAR

Who is the utility company?

They may have a rep on here who can help.

Mojisola

Rather than "Do executors have to pay a disputed debt?", the question is "Should executors pay a debt when no evidence has been provided?" and the answer is definitely not.

Missmarch17

We are still no further forward, still the company claim they can recover the money without providing any evidence what so ever!

Yorkshireman99

Have you followed the advice in message #12?

MataNui

Missmarch17 wrote: »

We are still no further forward, still the company claim they can recover the money without providing any evidence what so ever!

No, they cant. You are the executor of the estate. Your job is find and pay all creditors with the funds available from the estate and distribute the rest of the funds in accordance with the will (slightly simplified). To pay the debt it must be proven otherwise i could phone up and say i have a claim of a debt against the estate.

By asking for proof you are correctly executing your responsibilities. They cant send bailiffs and cant do anything of note and cant take you personally to court for it. Settling an estate is simple. They provide proof of the debt and you pay it. If they cant then they will need to apply to the courts who will simply say there is a debt to settle or there is not. If they cant prove the debt to you then they wont be able to prove it to the court and if they tell the court they dont want or need to prove it they will get politely told to p*** off.

DigForVictory

I appreciate grief is a heavy burden but do please go through step 12 above.

If nothing else it'll give you a few days respite from the hassle.

Hopefully, it'll trigger an apology & deafening silence.

Missmarch17

I have gone through advice in step 12 as part of the formal complaints procedure with the company, they have now stopped replying.

Do I go to the ombudsman?

At what point would it go to court? Its causing me so much stress!

If I thought there was even the smallest chance it was a legitimate debt I would have paid it.
He was in credit with every single company except for this, and he owed BT £6 which obviously i paid as they sent a bill which showed why it was £6!

TBagpuss

What does their complaints process say? Most will have timescales, and you can't usually go to the ombudsman until you have exhausted the complaints process.

Have a look here - https://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html - this suggests that you have to give the company 8 weeks to resolve the issue before involving the ombudsman. I'd suggest that you read their guidance and follow it.

I|'m not sure whether you've actually written to the company or only pones, but if you didn't write, do that now, and keep a copy of the letter.

Yorkshireman99

Missmarch17 wrote: »

I have gone through advice in step 12 as part of the formal complaints procedure with the company, they have now stopped replying.

Do I go to the ombudsman?

At what point would it go to court? Its causing me so much stress!

If I thought there was even the smallest chance it was a legitimate debt I would have paid it.
He was in credit with every single company except for this, and he owed BT £6 which obviously i paid as they sent a bill which showed why it was £6!

If you have exhausted the company's own complaints procedure then you can complain to their regulator. The bottom line is still they want to sue the execuors then they will still have to prove the debt in court.