Money claim but defendant died

SophieGoldie

I won the first stage of a money claim because the defendant didn't respond to the court papers. I've since discovered he tragically took his own life after receiving the papers.
He owned a house worth around £300,000

It's been a dark experience but i wonder if i can still get my £18,000 claim now that he's passed away?

Any advice most welcome 

Sophie

DE_612183

You should be able to make a claim against the estate - try and find out who's dealing with it.

Alderbank

Any debt he owed to you in life is now owed to you by his estate.

Do you know who his executor is? Write to them with evidence of the debt.

Do this immediately. In English law you normally have 6 years to recover a debt. However if an executor wants to get the liabilities of an estate done and dusted so that he can pay out all the beneficiaries he can make a statutory notice declaration. From that point you usually have only 2 months to make your claim. 
It might be possible to claim later directly from a beneficiary but that will be more difficult and expensive.

fatbelly

When you say that you won the first stage of a money claim...

Does that mean that you obtained a ccj against him?

If so, then you have a claim against his estate.

Any funds in the estate have first to be used for funeral expenses, then creditors paid on a pro-rata basis if there are insufficient funds.

You should also be aware that secured debts would be paid out first from the property and you do not know on what basis it was owned, nor the values of the securities. You can get an idea of this from an £8 Land Registry search

So, although you may eventually get paid, there are many reasons (including some other possibilities too) why you might not.

For anyone reading this from a debtor perspective, there is always a way forward and that is why we provide free help on this site on the debt free wannabe forum as well as free help being available from Citizens Advice, National Debtline, Stepchange and Payplan.

Keep_pedalling

Did he own the house solely or was it jointly owned? If the latter then, assuming joint tenants,  the surviving owner will now be the sole owner and you have no chance of recovering  you debt that way.