How to pay bills when bank account is frozen

emma203

Hopefully you will not have the same problems that I had, but be prepared for Ovo to be challenging as they were really difficult to deal with when my mum died earlier this year. I wouldn’t phone them or use the live chat but communicate via email with the bereavement team as this seems to be the only way to reach them.

They may try to persuade you to settle your mum’s account straight away and take out a new one in your own name - don’t do this, the account doesn’t have to be settled until the estate is finalised, and ignore the phone number in the “here to help” letters they send as it is for their debt collection team. Eventually they will transfer the account to Phillips and Cohen - don’t worry about this as I found them professional and understanding.

Mrs_Z

First of all, very sorry for your loss.

Just to echo the other comments, and from similar experience earlier this year when my dear fried passed away - this is what I can summarise and what I learnt (in no particular order):

- Bank (Halifax) did not need a probate to access funds as the total was below their limit of £50,000. However, it took a good few weeks from the notification of the death (account frozen at that point) for the funds become available (about 6-7 weeks). 
- Mortgage - Halifax policy is not to chase the monthly payments but will still charge interest until the loan is settled. We've managed to keep up the payments
- As nobody is living in the property, the local Council froze the council tax payments for 1 year (phew! what a relief)
- Gas & Electricity are continuing to charge according to meter readings, payments not aggressively chased and usage is close to 0 as all electrical items switched off, no fridge etc, heating will incur charges as we've left it low to prevent frozen pipes
- Water (not on the meter) - brilliant - Water company not charging for the time being.This was the easiest and most straight forward of all companies to deal with (on-line form).
- Tell us Once service will inform HMRC for example. Surprise surprise, did receive a request for personal tax to be completed
- Probate took 5 months despite this being a simple estate - so be warned if you are thinking of selling the property and placing it on the market prior to obtaining it. 
- I'm the sole executor for her estate and as I also had a power of attorney for her accounts, I did transfer £3,000 to my own account prior to telling the bank as I knew her account was going to be frozen.  This proved to be a very good move.  It allowed me to settle the cremation costs, notice to the Gazette, pay for the farewell catering etc without any problems and without me having to go to the bank in person.  I understand that banks will pay for funeral costs directly from the frozen account but personally, i thought it'd be extra hassle, having to go to the bank, explain myself with papers and proofs that I really didnt need at the time.  
- Most banks do not operate Executor accounts anymore (I checked with Halifax - yes, but only if you are their customer, Santander no, Virgin no). HSBC do but you need to make an appointment and in my case they could not offer me one for a fortnight. In the end I gave up and just set up a separate current account - Chase - on-line line & app.
- When dealing with institutions and companies, always check if they have a bereavement department first. Less queue on the phone and more understanding person on the other end. Some are better than others. Virgin Media was a total nightmare, the worst of all organisations that I had to deal with, it was impossible to get through to anyone over the phone to terminate the internet and broadband service.  In the end I think I ended up writing to them. If I recall correctly, their phone greeting was as on the lines of:  'We are experiencing more calls than usual and having less staff due to Covid - please call back'. Could not even get into a queue. They expected you to keep dialling them every 10 min throughout the day and hope to get lucky enough to get through. Total and utter disgrace. 
- TV licencing was pretty straight forward. I terminated her licence prior to her passing, at the point when she left her property going into care, and they even issued a credit at that point.  Amusingly, after 2 weeks started to get 'You do not have tv licence, we will open an investigation...' letters which have continued to date despite me confirming once again on line that there is no tv at the property (!)
- I set up a leaver arch file for all the paperwork, and that way it was easier to keep track on what's what and which companies had been notified; pensions etc.
- It was all a bit of a blur - definitely between her death & farewell- 1st month - everything seemed to happen at once, so many people to inform and arrangements to be made and your grief is very acute at that point. After the fare well, it all quietened down and things settled down a bit.
- Found it very hard to even talk about her for the first 6 months without crying and even spontaneously bursting into tears regardless of the place when thinking about her. 
- I ordered 5 copies of the death certificate. In the end I didn't need this many. Most organisations will ask for the original but then return it quite quickly. Lots accept a pdf copy as well. Three probably would have sufficed.

That's a summary from a top of my head, given that you have your brother, hopefully it'll be easier and you can share the load.

getmore4less

KJBerry said:

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. 

That will(could) lose the council tax exemption which is  for upto 6 months after grant issue.

Could turn out expensive.

KJBerry

Thank you for all your replies - most helpful.