Voluntary surrender and terminal illness

alleycat2

Hi,
I realise that no-one here can give legal advice. I am looking for people's experiences and opinions. 

My 90 year old Dad is in serious negative equity on his property and has just moved to a nursing home with terminal cancer, estimate 3 months to live.  The lease is under 70 years and the property has damp issues. It is on an interest only mortgage valid for another 4 years. 
He is in debt management with Stepchange and had been mostly on top of his payment plan. He was keeping up with payments on his mortgage and other secured loan. 
He has sent a letter to the bank to voluntary surrender with the keys explaining his illness and that he is living in a care home.  He is not able to manage his finances himself now and there is no power of attorney. I was paying his bills under his direction. 
He is still in receipt of his pension while he is on nhs funding  but will be moved to council care if he survives the 3 months so there will be no money available there.  He is giving me the money for his funeral from the recent pension so he will not pay any bills this month. He has no savings.

Any ideas how this will play out ?  

Should I write to his creditors telling them the bank are now dealing with the property after we hear back from the bank or just leave it well alone ?  

Having read posts on here I am now worried that they may not accept his voluntary surrender. His dying wish is that I am not left to deal with his debts. I know that legally I am not liable but this way there is nothing at all to deal with.  

How long would court proceedings take ? He has nothing of value. Would they still send bailiffs to a nursing home to someone on palliative end of life care ? 

We have a joint account where only his pension is paid in and all of his outgoings were from. Can the bank put a stop on the account to get his pension   ?  

Any idea on timescales for the bank acting ? I cannot redirect post from the care home so he will receive the replies from the bank.

FlorayG

I only know about the joint account because I had one with my mom. When your father dies all the money currently in the account becomes yours. Any monies later paid into that account that should have stopped when he died you will have to repay, but the money already there is no longer part of his estate.
Has he written a will? It can be as simple as "I leave everything I own to XX" and witnessed, might make things a bit simpler than dying intestate which is always messy even if you don't have anything