Gazette Advice

LinBWales

Thanks again all. The equity release debt is currently £119,000 but increasing by about £700 per month. I had a phone call with them a while ago, and they have responded by letter today. They have offered me the chance to surrender possession to them to deal with, and they would pursue the vacant possession via the court process but all the costs would be charged to the mortgage account.
I am 90% sure that this is the option I will take, but would not want to be personally liable if the costs exceed the equity available and of course this could mean I don't recover the funeral costs or anything. I shall have a think over the weekend. Thank you for those of you who have taken the time to reply. It is very much appreciated.

konark

As things stand the estate is worth maybe £12-15k.

If you just hand it over to the lifetime mortgage company, by the time they have billed the estate for expensive legal work and sold the house off to the lowest bidder you know as well as I do it will be ZERO left over,so there's little incentive to do this immediately if you feel you can get your brother out.

Look at the Land Registry document, if his name is on that then he's at least part owner. His name won't be on it though or the lifetime mortgage company wouldn't have given your mother the mortgage. See a solicitor about costs and timescale to get him evicted., but remember YOU will be paying all the solicitor's fees and time is not your friend. But I'd still look into it and use handing it to the lifetime mortgage providers as a last resort. And don't worry about the Gazette, it will be no help in your current situation.

getmore4less

Don't have to pay the service charges using your own funds

It becomes a debt that accumulates to the estate.

Given the secured debt accumulation and the other charges and costs of selling the estate is probably going to be insolvent by the time you complete a sale even if you try to sell yourself.

Chances are you won't even recover the funeral expenses

LinBWales

Thanks again for the advice. It was just my parents' names on the land registry until my dad died when we transferred it just into just mum's name. I didn't realise that I didn't have to pay the service charge but leave it as a debt for the estate, which has no cash in it, just any equity that exists in the flat. And that is something that I will probably do. So thank you for pointing that out, it makes sense.

I don't feel that I can get my brother out of the flat as he veers from rational to delusional within minutes, so even if I don't recover any of the money I have spent so far, I would rather just cut my losses, and wave goodbye to that money just to finalise the estate and close things down. Having spent the money on the funeral I actually don't have any more money to employ a solicitor so don't really have any options. Thanks again!

getmore4less

Have you had a good read of the equity agreement, that should cover some of what happens with an insolvent estate and them taking possession.

One thing I am not clear of is the service charges, for the house to be sold these will need to be paid so could form part of the cost of sale and not become an estate debt, the equity company then take their debt and what's left becomes an estate asset, funeral is next...

It may be that you could try to recover any service charges already paid.

The issue then become time line and if as executor your actions have been reasonable and not cause any delay/losses.

As your brother had moved in before mum died there was nothing you could have done there.

If this was me I would be wanting to be sure that if the equity company took over the disposal of the property to recover their debt that they would not be pursuing the executor(personally) for any shortfall after costs.

I suspect they have the resources and expertise to deal with this more efficiently and at lower cost than I could they must come across similar fairly regularly.

given the situation with the brother engaging the 3rd party now may be the only sensible option.

konark

Creditors cannot pursue an executor for moneys owed by the estate, unless they can prove you have mismanaged the estate, which you haven't.