Probably shouldn't laugh... but...

sixtyfoothigh

Mother in Law left a probably insolvent estate, so we're not administering. As none of the different parts of the council talk to each other, I've so far sent about three different emails saying "no-one is administering". We got a different department writing to us today to say that she might owe some money for in home care she received in the last months of life. Which I know she didn't have enough income to be liable for, and not only that they're trying to get us to fill in the care needs assessment form that I know for fact she filled in and returned in November (and luckily photographed before she submitted it).

I have sent them the photos of the paperwork with a "are you sure you don't have a copy of this already" message, and then said it they do assess that she is liable for paying for care (which she shouldn't be) then the estate is insolvent anyway. I think I'm getting a little bit flippant about it...

I understand that creditors (such as yourselves) can decide to take on the administration of an estate. If REDACTED council wished to apply to the courts to act as administrator and then handle her insolvent estate, you'd be very welcome to. As mentioned above her filing system was an absolute nightmare, but I have a large carrier bag of paperwork kept in safe keeping should anyone choose to administer the estate now or in the future. Please note if someone does administer the estate we will submit the funeral costs as a priority 2 debt. If we hear that any of her other creditors decide to do the administration we'll also let you know (though given that the initial enquiries show that there will be £0 left over for unsecured creditors to have a share of, I think it's unlikely as it would be just adding to costs they won't get back, and my personal point of view is that there's not enough gin in the world to deal with my mother in laws "filing system"). (PS - I've been less flippant with people I think she actually owes money too, I think the annoyance that they'd lost the paperwork from last November got to me!)

Skiddaw1