Mum's partner has died without a will and i need some advice/help please

EmmaSmith

Hello, I hope someone can help me decide the best way forward here surrounding any legal responsibilities my mum has inadvertently ended up with following a close friend's recent death.

My mum has known her friend, Roger, for 7 years. Roger doesnt have any close family, cousins only as far as we are aware. In the 7 years that they had known eachother, Roger stayed at my mum's in Suffolk for up to 10 nights per fortnight, returning to his council rented flat in Crawley to see his medical consultants for blood tests every two weeks. Following a short undiagnosed illness, Roger died on Friday night in Redhill Hospital. As far as we can tell Roger hasnt left a will.

Although Roger didnt note a next of kin on his hospital admission, my mum had sent a get well card to the hospital. She was advised to come to hospital and so we made the three hour trek from Suffolk and he died soon after we arrived. The hospital furnished her with the medical certificate in order to register the death this week.
My questions are
1. Does my mother 'have' to get involved in registering his death and sorting out his estate (we havent the first clue the value of accounts, assets etc and mum has no details on who these are held with), neither who his surviving cousins are. I feel the hospital (not the nurses and consultants) but the management team have , mis-interpreted mum's status in Rogers life and now she is left with a crap storm waiting to happen.
2. Having been given the medical certificate, can she advise the Surrey Bereavement Team that she has no intention of sorting out any of his affairs, and will this mean that (for us) this situation effectively goes away, or is she now duty bound as she has signed paperwork at the hospital when they handed her his personal effects (watch/phone/wallet/clothes). We cant withdraw any funds from bank, not that we'd want to, as she has no idea of pin numbers.
3. Ive conducted research this morning which suggests if she books funeral, if they cant recover costs from his estate then she becomes liable for the balance of costs unpaid. Is this true?
4. If we wanted to hand responsibility for all onto local authority, is that possible? I am reluctant to take her to his flat to see if there has been a will or instructions as she has never been in all the 7 years she has known him and I dont want to put her in a position where she is trespassing. in any case I am uncomfortable with searching his flat for a will that probably isnt there.

Theres alot above ive asked, any help anyone can shed would be much appreciated. Thanking you in advance

Keep_pedalling

Your mother should not get involved in winding up the estate, his cousins will be the ones inheriting his estate (assuming it is solvent and there is no will) and really it is down to them.

Robin9

Very sorry for your mum to loose her friend.

1 - No
2 - Yes - leave all the arrangements (and funeral costs) to the hospital
3 Yes - she would be liable - therefore don't
4 As per 2 - leave all to the hospital

Yorkshireman99

EmmaSmith wrote: »

Hello, I hope someone can help me decide the best way forward here surrounding any legal responsibilities my mum has inadvertently ended up with following a close friend's recent death.

My mum has known her friend, Roger, for 7 years. Roger doesnt have any close family, cousins only as far as we are aware. In the 7 years that they had known eachother, Roger stayed at my mum's in Suffolk for up to 10 nights per fortnight, returning to his council rented flat in Crawley to see his medical consultants for blood tests every two weeks. Following a short undiagnosed illness, Roger died on Friday night in Redhill Hospital. As far as we can tell Roger hasnt left a will.

Although Roger didnt note a next of kin on his hospital admission, my mum had sent a get well card to the hospital. She was advised to come to hospital and so we made the three hour trek from Suffolk and he died soon after we arrived. The hospital furnished her with the medical certificate in order to register the death this week.
My questions are
1. Does my mother 'have' to get involved in registering his death and sorting out his estate (we havent the first clue the value of accounts, assets etc and mum has no details on who these are held with), neither who his surviving cousins are. I feel the hospital (not the nurses and consultants) but the management team have , mis-interpreted mum's status in Rogers life and now she is left with a crap storm waiting to happen.
2. Having been given the medical certificate, can she advise the Surrey Bereavement Team that she has no intention of sorting out any of his affairs, and will this mean that (for us) this situation effectively goes away, or is she now duty bound as she has signed paperwork at the hospital when they handed her his personal effects (watch/phone/wallet/clothes). We cant withdraw any funds from bank, not that we'd want to, as she has no idea of pin numbers.
3. Ive conducted research this morning which suggests if she books funeral, if they cant recover costs from his estate then she becomes liable for the balance of costs unpaid. Is this true?
4. If we wanted to hand responsibility for all onto local authority, is that possible? I am reluctant to take her to his flat to see if there has been a will or instructions as she has never been in all the 7 years she has known him and I dont want to put her in a position where she is trespassing. in any case I am uncomfortable with searching his flat for a will that probably isnt there.

Theres alot above ive asked, any help anyone can shed would be much appreciated. Thanking you in advance

If he died in hospital they are responsible for paying for the funeral if there is nobody else willing to do so. Your mother has no obligation to do anything must if she starts dealing with things she may be come liable. She has no rights to any money. Are there any family?

GreenQueen

Agree with Keep pedalling, your mum needs to be very careful not to be dragged into any arranging, or she could find herself with all sorts of unwanted liabilities.

What are your mum's thoughts? If it's not too personal, how close were they? You used the terms "partner" and "close friend" which have different levels of responsibility (morally, if not legally). Does she have a key/contact details for a neighbour, and if so, would she be able to get access to his flat to see if there is any information about the cousins?

My memory of when MiL died, council houses have to be vacated quite quickly after a death.

Flugelhorn

the hospital won't worry about who they give the MCCD to - so long as someone takes it off them, and has you were the only people around they assumed that you were the right people.

Suspect you might need to do a little research and find out who the cousins are and contact them to let them know.

TonyMMM

Registering the death doesn't automatically place any further obligations on her to deal with anything, but it will leave her holding important paperwork, so if she really doesn't want any involvement then it would be advisable to tell the bereavement office at the hospital straight away, hand back any property, and let them contact any relatives (if they can) or make arrangements themselves.

Dymphna60

What does your Mum want to do ?
Roger effectively lived with her for 7 years. Looks like he was admitted from her home to the hospital so probably why they misinterpreted the relationship.
If she wants to walk away better decide soon and return his wallet ect along with certificates to hospital.
No idea what the legal positioning his possessions that are in your mothers house is .

EmmaSmith

Thank you everyone for your replies they have been very helpful.

To clarify on a few questions youve raised.

Dympha60 - At the moment mum doesnt really know what to do, she is reeling. I believe she wants to get involved as she has a misguided view he would want to, even tho all the evidence points the other way. Roger spent lots of time at her house over the 7 years they knew eachother, however he never moved in properly. His council rented flat was in Crawley, where he returned to his home every 7-10 days, staying for a week to attend blood tests and hospital appointments and then returning to my mothers home. Despite her asking often he never managed to take the step to move in properly and legally. He was admitted to East Surrey hospital via his GP, whilst back at his home in Crawley. My mum is in Suffolk. The reason we ended up at the hospital was that she'd sent a get well card in, and was contacting on a daily basis for updates. They were a little surprised when we got there and she explained she had travelled from Suffolk however she proudly announced herself as his next of kin before I'd had a chance to see him and realise the gravity of the situation and its consequences.

GreenQueen - She calls him her partner, however the relationship was purely a platonic one even tho he stayed over so often. Id say he was more a companion than a partner, however others may interpret this differently. She does have a key to his flat, tho I really am not keen for her to be searching through it as I have no idea what she is going to find. She does have his mobile phone, although one of his deathbed wishes was for no-one to be contacted to let them know he was ill, so we are really struggling to get her to see she needs to inform his contacts now he has died .

Flugelhorn

Gosh Emma - how difficult

Thinking about this from Roger's point of view - for his own reasons he did not want anyone contacted while he was ill but probably assumed that they would be told after his death.. and yes that needs doing.

Also sounds like he appreciated that one day you and mum might need to go into his flat and sort things out. Not suggesting you do the sorting but it may be appropriate for you (without mum as she may get upset) to go in and check if there is an address book.

Dymphna60

A difficult situation indeed. The thing to remember is nothing matters to roger now but it is a big leap to make in your mums mind .
Can she get into his phone to even know if there are useful contacts on there ?
I hope you find a way that brings the most peace to your Mum.
The unknown of the flat must be a worry . It could contain neatly filed documents that would allow relatives to be informed but then again.