How to pay bills when bank account is frozen

KJBerry

My lovely mum died yesterday. My brother is going to stay at her house until after Christmas,but will then be going home. We will need to keep the house heated but I am worried about how the direct debits can be paid once I have informed her bank and they have frozen her account. There is enough money in there but we won't be able to access it. 
In addition she had a fixed-rate deal for her energy which only runs out in July. If I inform OVO are they likely to cancel this deal and put a more expensive one in its place?
 I would appreciate any advice. 

74jax

Are you the executor? 
It's so early for you, I'm really sorry she has passed but it truely is early days for you all. 
Everything will be one big worry right now, but nothing - other than registering the death - is a great rush. 
After your brother has left you don't 'need' to keep it heated, the property can be drained down if required but of course if you want to hear it, that is fine, just set thermostat to low.
If you are the executor, do you need probate? Even if you do, and the bank account isn't too high, you can withdraw funds and pay from those (keeping full accounts of course). 
When you speak to the energy Co, speak with the bereavement dept.  With my parents the energy account was put in my mams name but c/o Executor (me).  I then paid the account up to date of death with Estate funds and then settled the account when I was able too (around 15 months after her death and Estate accounts were settled /property sold).  I just had to call them every month to say the estate has not been settled yet.

Pennylane

So sorry for your loss.  Take it easy, there is no rush. Just leave the heat on low in case of burst pipes while you mull things over.  The “Tell us Once” service will be very useful when you feel up to it. Guessing you and your brothers may be executors.

Keep_pedalling

Most banks have quite high limits where they will pay out to estate administrators without needing probate (e.g. Barclays £30k, Lloyds £50k) so unless she has a very large amount held with one bank you should be able have that money transferred to an administrators account within days so you can use that to meet any estate expenses.

As for OVO if the December payment has already gone out then you have some breathing space so can leave it for @ few weeks before informing them. Unless she took out the fixed rate in 2021 it is unlikely to be a better rate than the current standard variable rate so double check that. 

p00hsticks

Sorry for your loss.

As others have said, it;s early days and you can take your time over most things.

Pretty much all the large companies have bereavement departments that can sympathetically deal with such queries  - the details of OVOs are here

https://help.ovoenergy.com/article/fd0e2cc4-95fe-4098-b2f1-68f6f928cb7e-web

They'll explain your options - if the house is likely going to be sold then one possibility is that they will simply keep track of what is owed until probate is obtained and / or the house is sold and any outstanding charges can be settled then.

Dave_5150

My parents utility providers Bereavement teams were both great. Nothing needed to be paid until the house was sold. 

macman

Sorry for your loss. You will only be incurring standing charges on the energy bills until the property is sold, so it won't matter what tariff you are on. By next July the property will probably have been sold.

Keep_pedalling

macman said:

Sorry for your loss. You will only be incurring standing charges on the energy bills until the property is sold, so it won't matter what tariff you are on. By next July the property will probably have been sold.

It would be wise to set the central heating to come on if the temperature drops low enough that pipes might freeze. I would think this would also be a requirement for the house insurance. The OP also says her brother is staying in it until after Christmas so it is going to be more than just standing charges.

p00hsticks

Keep_pedalling said:

macman said:

Sorry for your loss. You will only be incurring standing charges on the energy bills until the property is sold, so it won't matter what tariff you are on. By next July the property will probably have been sold.

It would be wise to set the central heating to come on if the temperature drops low enough that pipes might freeze. I would think this would also be a requirement for the house insurance.

Yes - perhaps more important than the utilties is to let the house insurance people know that the occupant has died, that the house is being occupied temporarily and will then be unoccupied and see what they say - you want to ensure that you are covered. And try to make a note of and remove any high value items (jewelerry etc) from the property wherever possible.

Flugelhorn

I agree with others who say they found the bereavement teams helpful - they seemed to be able to just "do" things - they are aware that they can't paid for the time after the death until probate is through and made the process straightforward

The water supplier was the best - stopped the account with standing charge 4 weeks before death from when she went into hospital and weren't bothered about water used when we were there from time to time to sort the house out, I contacted them and they just said "account closed, nothing to pay"

Yes check insurance - I was able to continue with the current company but had to have the house checked once a week (helpful neighbour did this - 5 minutes, round the outside - walk through the house and lock it up again - tick on the calendar.) 

diystarter7

Hi OP
Sorry for your loss.

Not to worry but take these steps for good measure.

Update bank and ask them the questions.
Update the gas/elec/water/couciltax/etc - take details with whom you spoke with.

Buildings insurance etc, give them a call and I'm sure they will be able to help

Before you phone anyone of the above - write down bullet point questions you want to ask.

Take care.