Loan after a death 2 November 2022 at 12:12PM in Loans 7 replies 751 views

Pavlova222

Hello, my beautiful wife passed away in October 23rd and I’m currently going thru all our stuff, it’s very hard, she has a loan with Zopa which has 2 and a half years left to run.
do I have to keep on paying it?
we had about £1700 in the bank in our joint account, I think she owed about 4 or 5k what is the situation legally speaking regarding the debt?
many thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

The debt should be paid from the estate, unless the estate is insolvent. Debts don't vanish and you cannot just stop paying it though how was she going to fund the loan repayments? Was it coming from your joint account? Is there any life insurance or death in service benefits? Any bank account of her own maybe with her final pay in it, any holiday owed etc? Anything in her name that you don't need like a car?

Talk to Zopa and ask for their bereavement team and get some details from them

My condolences on your loss

macman

Sorry for your loss. If the loan was in her sole name then you have no liability for it. The debt falls on her estate if the funds are there to pay it. If not, the debt would have to be written off. Are there other assets?
Joint assets will form part of her estate. You need to inform the bank and have the account changed to a single name.

sourcrates

Liability for a debt will always remain with the named debtor, no one else.

macman highlights the situation quite effectively above.

It must be quite a hard time for you, so as a basic rule of thumb, anything in her name alone remains the liability of her estate, anything that is in joint names, now rests Soley on your shoulders.

Hope that helps.

theoretica

When you tell the bereavement department of the loan company of your loss I hole they will give breathing space of a few months to begin to sort out her affairs.

Unfortunately her estate won't just include money in a bank account, but if you own a house in joint names, if she had valuable jewellery...

TripleH

My condolences for your loss.

It's a pain, but do ring and ask for the bereavement team initially.

They are better trained and have more scope than the rigid script of the 'rank and file' to deal with issues.

They were great when my mother had to sort out my dad's affairs after he passed.

It also gives you time to get your head sorted without the worry of nasty chasing letters.

Also I assume that paying for the funeral would come higher in priority than servicing a debt(?)

Coveredinbees!!!!

If she had PPI it should cover it.

[Deleted User]

Coveredinbees!!!! said:

If she had PPI it should cover it.

PPI stopped being sold really around the time of the miss-selling scandal, it's only really still sold with mortgages and more typically a more suitable service. Loan taken out in the last 5 years 99.999999% will not have it