Creditor chasing me for my fathers debt. Please help.

74jax

valleygirl29 said:

They are called ‘Phillips & Cohen Associates LTD’ I’ve done some research on them and what I’ve found isn’t nice. I’ve seen on threads that they constantly harass people by phone and letter and threaten to send bailiffs round to the family members house. 

Thank you I’ll await for them to contact me.  

I had a few from them when dealing with Mam's earlier this year.  They called me initially and I just said I wanted everything to be written.  I received the paperwork, and to be honest forgot about it...... bad I know, but Mam died right in the middle of the lockdown and everything was up in the air.  They did call me after sometime (understandably as I'd just left it) and I just explained, said I had the paperwork and would get back to them once I'd looked at the estate.
They were totally fine.  Remember you will most likely only read the 'complaints' about a company, people very rarely go on to right a positive statement about somewhere.
Let them know there is no money, and to not contact you for the debt.

xylophone

https://www.bereavementadvice.org/topics/probate-and-legal/insolvent-estates/

elsien

valleygirl29 said:

Thank you, I’m really not sure the bank just advised as there Needed to be an administrator when we advised of his death. If there is anything in his bank account it won’t be a lot at all. We haven’t had the funeral yet, as he passed during an accident there needed to be an investigation etc and with Covid it has just slowed everything down there was no funeral plan and there is no money in the estate to pay for the funeral, we as a family are paying for that. He was in a rented house, yes and had furniture but nothing of great value just your average 1 bedroom house. The debt isn’t a substantial amount it is under £1000. However my father has a next of kin who will still be living in that house. She unfortunately can not be administrator as she is of ill health. 

Next of kin is meaningless in legal terms when the person is alive, let alone after they have passed. It does not make her responsible for any of the debts unless in joint name. 

Uxb1

getmore4less said:

They(P&C) deal with a lot of estate debts  I found them fine when dealing with a utility account that got passed automatically

Yup - that's been exactly my experience as well.
It seems the utility companies subcontract out on all outstanding debts to them to chase up with the solicitors/executors/administrators dealing with the estate.

TBagpuss

As others are saying, if the estate is insolvent (i.e. if the debts are  more than the assets ) then don't take on the role of administrator . As above, ask the funeral director to address the bill to the bank, and the bank should be able to pay them directly without the funds going into your hands at all.

If you do take on the role of administrator you can become personally liable IF you fail to follow the rules exactly, as there are very strict rules about which debts get paid first and how you divide up the funds if there is not enough to pay them all, if you get it wrong then you may have to personally put the creditor back in the position they would have been in if you had followed the correct process.
However, if you either do not take on the role of administrator or do it but follow the rules to the letter then you have no personal liability. 
 If any creditor trys to tell you you are personally responsible then make a formal complaint as it is not true, and they should not be making that claim. 

I am very sorry for your loss.