Can council demand bank details

Ecb68

My mother passed away recently and left debt to her local council ( England) along with other debts, she left no will or estate there is no power of attorney and she had no large sums of money or property and we were told that it did not warrant probate. Her bank account was closed and we were given a form showing the balances when closed. This form has proven sufficient to all her debtors but the council want bank statements which we do not have, can the council legally demand these or is the final balance all we need to show by law?

getmore4less

Are you making a distribution from the account balances?

Ecb68

No money to distribute, all her debtors have accepted final balance statement the council have not they want bank statements is this common or legal

Ecb68

The other debtors have accepted the final balance statement but council have not the want to see bank statements , is this common practice or legal to do?

Voyager2002

Well, if you don't have them then you can't hand them over to the Council.

Ecb68

That's what I thought but the council say the bank should oblige by producing copies for us! The bank will charge for this maybe it's just the council process I guess they want to check that there wasn't previously enough money to pay back debt?

TW1234

Purely from interest and not casting any doubts at this sad time, I do not know whether the council could require these statements, but could somebody explain how the situation of a deceased making a substantial payment from their assets shortly before death could be recognised and investigated when probate was not needed?

getmore4less

Creditors are in the order(near/at the bottom)of parties that can administer estates so if they want they can get the legal authority to make the inquiries necessary to establish if there were any assets that claim could be made against, then proceed to court to recover the assets.

Yorkshireman99

Ecb68 wrote: »

That's what I thought but the council say the bank should oblige by producing copies for us! The bank will charge for this maybe it's just the council process I guess they want to check that there wasn't previously enough money to pay back debt?

Because you have adminstered the estate and not checked for debts and may have not distributed the estate according to the rules you MAY be legal liable for the debts. However unless the Council sue you there is no requirement to provide copies of bank statements at this stage. Did you pay any debts or were they all written off becuase there were no funds?

Ecb68

I'm not sure I understand all the legal jargon I realise council obviously would want to get back anything owed to them but as there is no money , estate , will or other asset or no probate what is their procedure can a deseased persons debt by passed on to family then? I assume they have the right to see if there was funds in before/after death and it hasn't been withdrawn.

Ecb68

The little funds in account were used to pay towards the funeral that's it. Dwp were also owed but have accepted the final balance sheet we sent them . Naively we were told as there was less than £200 to close account and use money towards funeral so we did!