Estranged father died suddenly intestate - don't want to deal with estate or probate

gemmareld1999

Hi

I am in desperate need of some advice. My dad died suddenly last week at 67 and I have not seen him for about a decade. He owned his own property with a paid up mortgage but did not have a will and has longstanding debt. I am arranging the funeral but do not wish to have any further responsibility to deal with his estate for a number of reasons:

• When I was given access to the house last week I was shocked at the living conditions. It is a 2 bed terraced house in the North of England so has a very low ceiling value (think £50k in a decent condition). The kitchen roof has collapsed and the kitchen is inaccessible (and structurally unsound). The roof has several large holes and the upstairs ceilings are bulging or collapsed. The downstairs rooms looks like it could be a squat and has clearly not been cleaned or dealt with for years. There is grime everywhere and you can't see the floor for the piles of rubbish just left all over. It appears that he was living in one room downstairs. I've contacted a specialist biohazard company to deal with this as house clearances won't even quote for it.
• I have picked up about 10 years of letters unopened in the hallway and he owes approx. £10k in debt for water, gas & electricity that he clearly hasn't paid for years.
• I cannot stomach going further into the house to find any paperwork, which if it's there will be under years of rubbish and grime, so I don't know about any bank accounts, except I found a statement for a loan account with Natwest from 2015 so will contact them when I get the death certificate.

This really isn't something I want to deal with for personal reasons, but also because it's an absolute mess and would take a lot of money to deal with, which I don't have and I believe the estate won't touch the sides.

As next of kin, what are my legal obligations? Can I simply walk away? The problem I also have is that he has older brothers in their 80s who also will not want to deal with this.

Any advice would be great.
Thanks.

FlorayG

I think you've already taken responsibility by starting to do things ( like contacting a cleaning company).
The good news is, you aren't responsible for his debts, so if the estate won't cover costs then you don't have to pay

la531983

gemmareld1999 said:

This really isn't something I want to deal with for personal reasons, but also because it's an absolute mess and would take a lot of money to deal with, which I don't have and I believe the estate won't touch the sides.

Are you under the impression you would have to cover any shortfall?

Olinda99

as long as you haven't already started any probate work, you can walk away you have no responsibility to be an executor

gemmareld1999

Thank you for your responses.

Yes, I realise I wouldn't have to cover any shortall. I enquired about cleaning as I was in such a shock last week and thought it was my legal responsibility as that point. It's an absolute health hazard and I've been given a ballpark figure of £5k to deal with it - which I don't think I would get back from the estate.

I suppose I'm asking about the process if I walk away as to who I notify etc. as there is no will and I don't know who would have to deal with in that case? 

Keep_pedalling

I understand why you do not want to deal with this and you (and your uncle) are under no legal obligation to do so as long as you have not intermeddled with the estate, and it does not sound like you have done. 

You could write to any creditors that you are aware of, but just inform them of his death and say that you believe the estate to be insolvent and that no one is administering it. If they want to get their money back they will have to deal with it. 

If anyone else contacts you about the estate just tell them the same thing. 

It is going to be a right problem for his neighbours who will probable have to get environmental health involved to 

Brie

You could try to trace any bank accounts he might have online via My Lost Account or simply by contacting the big banks and any smaller local to him building societies.  If in arranging the funeral you incur expenses you can have the estate pay those prior to money going to any creditors.

You might try contacting the local social services to see if they can do anything about the mess.

elsien

You don’t have to inform anyone. You don’t have to arrange the funeral if you don’t want to. You simply walk away and tell anyone who comes knocking that it’s nothing to do with you.

If there is no one willing and available to arrange  then the local authority bereavement team would step in and do a basic funeral. 

technically, if there’s no family member to apply for letter of administration, then it falls to the treasury solicitor. How they find out about it, I have no idea. 

Sea_Shell

FlorayG said:

I think you've already taken responsibility by starting to do things ( like contacting a cleaning company).
The good news is, you aren't responsible for his debts, so if the estate won't cover costs then you don't have to pay

I doubt that counts as intermeddling?

AIUI you don't HAVE to do anything.   

But, if you have arranged the funeral, you will be expected to pay for it, initially, unless you can present an invoice to his bank, (assuming any funds within it).   Can you afford to pay for it "up front" and NOT get reimbursed?

The estate would be liable for funeral costs*, and gets first dibs over any debt, BUT that would involve being able to find paperwork and at least make initial enquires as to the location of any cash in the estate.    If the only assets of the estate are the house, then unless "someone" deals with it, it could be a long long time, before this asset is dealt with.

* Whether you arrange and pay, and then look to recoup, or the Local Authority do, but they might not get involved if there are assets of the estate.  

Keep_pedalling

Sea_Shell said:

FlorayG said:

I think you've already taken responsibility by starting to do things ( like contacting a cleaning company).
The good news is, you aren't responsible for his debts, so if the estate won't cover costs then you don't have to pay

I doubt that counts as intermeddling?

AIUI you don't HAVE to do anything.   

But, if you have arranged the funeral, you will be expected to pay for it, initially, unless you can present an invoice to his bank, (assuming any funds within it).   Can you afford to pay for it "up front" and NOT get reimbursed?

The estate would be liable for funeral costs*, and gets first dibs over any debt, BUT that would involve being able to find paperwork and at least make initial enquires as to the location of any cash in the estate.    If the only assets of the estate are the house, then unless "someone" deals with it, it could be a long long time, before this asset is dealt with.

* Whether you arrange and pay, and then look to recoup, or the Local Authority do, but they might not get involved if there are assets of the estate.  

Probably not applicable  in this case but secured debt does come ahead of funeral costs, and if someone dies owing money to a bank they also have savings with, the back can offset the debt against the savings.

Sea_Shell

Keep_pedalling said:

Sea_Shell said:

FlorayG said:

I think you've already taken responsibility by starting to do things ( like contacting a cleaning company).
The good news is, you aren't responsible for his debts, so if the estate won't cover costs then you don't have to pay

I doubt that counts as intermeddling?

AIUI you don't HAVE to do anything.   

But, if you have arranged the funeral, you will be expected to pay for it, initially, unless you can present an invoice to his bank, (assuming any funds within it).   Can you afford to pay for it "up front" and NOT get reimbursed?

The estate would be liable for funeral costs*, and gets first dibs over any debt, BUT that would involve being able to find paperwork and at least make initial enquires as to the location of any cash in the estate.    If the only assets of the estate are the house, then unless "someone" deals with it, it could be a long long time, before this asset is dealt with.

* Whether you arrange and pay, and then look to recoup, or the Local Authority do, but they might not get involved if there are assets of the estate.  

Probably not applicable  in this case but secured debt does come ahead of funeral costs, and if someone dies owing money to a bank they also have savings with, the back can offset the debt against the savings.

OK, thanks.    So not "first" dibs then.   

From what we've been told, personally, I'd just walk away from the whole thing.   BUT, it would depend on the deeper reasons behind the estrangement.   

If Dad felt no moral obligation to their child, why should they now have any for him.        

Harsh....probably.