Executor of my late fathers estate - dealing with creditors

BellaPe

Unfortunately, my father passed away quite suddenly at the end of September and as executor of the estate, I am learning on the job and doing my best to deal with a number of creditors.

My father was a very private person and still working as a consultant into his mid-seventies. His solicitor was dealing with his affairs but has recently passed a large volume of paperwork to me and essentially said "best of luck, all yours".

It has come to light there are numerous creditors involved including HMRC (PAYE and VAT) and then a number of credit card companies. I'm still waiting for HMRC to get back to me with what they are owed (they've told me it might take 8 weeks and to wait for them to contact me) but I've started to contact the credit cards companies to inform them my dad passed away insolvent and I've asked that the unsecured debt is written off.

Most of them have either already sent me, or have indicated they will be sending me, asserts and liabilities documentation to fill out and sign. For the most part, this isn't too challenging but one particular credit card company has the wrong name for my father - correct surname, wrong first name. They have confirmed it's not a typo on the documentation, rather than have the wrong name on their system too.

Rather than simply trying to find a "get-out clause" I am concerned for two reasons -

1, I can't provide a death certificate matching the name they hold on their system (they've asked for a copy)
2, I'm slightly hesitant to sign a declaration for a name that isn't my father

The company in question have told me to ignore the name and proceed but I wanted to check if this is correct or if I should be doing something else?

TIA.

Thrugelmir

BellaPe said:

I've asked that the unsecured debt is written off.

Is the estate solvent? 

Might be worth placing notification of the death in the Gazette to cover yourself. Given the complexity of what you've been left to deal with. Executorship carries legal responsibilities. 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate

MEM62

Thrugelmir said:

BellaPe said:

I've asked that the unsecured debt is written off.

Is the estate solvent? 

BellaPe said:

I've started to contact the credit cards companies to inform them my dad passed away insolvent 

....................

BellaPe

Thrugelmir said:

BellaPe said:

I've asked that the unsecured debt is written off.

Is the estate solvent? 

My fathers only asset is his sole name is a business bank account with £1500 in it. His liabilities exceed £30,000.

There was a joint current account and joint savings account but those are now in my mums' name and the amount involved don't come close to the liabilities. 

Personal effects are limited to books, CDs, garden tools and that's about it

TBagpuss

If you have not yet applied for probate or done anything other than tell people he has died then your best bet my well be to step away - renounce as executor, lt any creditors know that to the best of your knowledge he dies insolvent and that no one is administering h is estate, and let them sort it out between themselves.

If not, you need to be very very careful as if you don't deal with the debt in the correct order of priority you can wind up personally liable to any creditor who loses out as a result

Keep_pedalling

No wonder the solicitor dumped it. Write to all known creditors informing them that his estate is insolvent and that no one is administering it.

Did he own a house with your mother and if so are any of the debts secured against it?

If there are no secured debts the the money in his business account could be used for funeral expenses if he was a sole trader, but it gets a bit trickier if he owned a limited company.

doodling

Hi,

You haven't mentioned a house - did he own one (even jointly in some way)?

What is driving you to act as executor?  Given the messy finances the first thing to consider is whether you can step away.  You need to understand "intermeddling" and work out whether you have or not.  Try Intermeddling With An Estate By An Executor l Blog l Nelsons (nelsonslaw.co.uk) as a starting point.  Unfortunately if you have then you're stuck with the job.

Ideally the £1500 in the bank account would have been spent on the funeral.  That would have made everything a lot easier as you could have told everyone that there is no money - it would have been a lot simpler than having to distribute the £1500 giving the correct priority to the various creditors (with you being personally liable if you get it wrong).

If you do decide to act as executor (or you've already come too far to stop) then with respect to your particular question, I would provide a death certificate with a covering letter noting the discrepancy in name.  If you are expected to sign anything then you need to sign as the executor of [name on death certificate] or [name you knew him by], not [name creditor knew him by].