Wife death - Please help with where to begin...

Lostlove041025

My spouse has passed away suddenly..
The house we live (+-£175k if matching the last sale on our street of a similar one) in is in her sole name with a mortgage of ca.£28k. She has a life insurance which hopefully will be paid off that will only cover the cost of the mortgage and funeral.
Also she has a few debts, unsecured, in her sole name. Unfortunately I am not able to pay them off as I have my own debts.
I am an executor and only beneficiary on her will,  we have mirrored wills. 
My grief is enormous and head doesn't work right where to start and how to do the right thing.
I am so worried that her debitors will demand me to sale our house, where I want to live until my time comes to join my darling.. we cherishe and love our home our whole life together....
I don't have means for solicitors etc..I will do everything myself...
For now I am still waiting for the death certificate... And to say my last goodbye at her funeral next week.........

marcia_

 They can not force the sale of your home for someone else's unsecured debts. 

Cherryfudge

I'm so sorry for your loss. Please accept my condolences.

Try to take things one at at time, and keep a note of where you are up to as it can be hard to remember when you are grieving. Official things will be dealt with sympathetically and the Registrar's office may be able to help you with information about what to do now. You can you the 'tell us once' service, for instance, to notify various official sources. There's also a leaflet called 'What to do when someone dies', or you may already be using this information: What to do when someone dies: step by step - GOV.UK

If I've understood it rightly, your wife's insurance pays off the mortgage, so the house will defaults to you under her will?  However it's part of her estate, which is why you are wondering if creditors will have a claim on it.

I don't think you can be made personally liable for her unsecured debts. Those were between her and the companies involved and when a person dies, money is paid out of her estate if possible, or if there wasn't enough in the estate, the debt stops there. Whether the debts could mean the creditors could claim on the house, I don't know. To some extent that will depend on how much is owed and to whom: some debts such as Council Tax and utilities bills are given priority over others (and notify the Council as your Council Tax should change to single occupancy rate). Dealing with the debts of someone who has died | MoneyHelper 

I hope someone with wider knowledge will be along to give you more detailed information.

Brie

So sorry for your loss, hopefully you can find some peace when the funeral is over.

As I understand it as your wife had assets of some value (aka the house) then her creditors would expect to be paid to clear her accounts.  But some can be surprisingly sympathetic. 

I would suggest that you contact each of them and tell them simply and truthfully that she has died and that  currently there is no way to make any payments to clear her debts.  You could do this initially by phone by ringing their bereavement team. 

They may very well ask for a copy of the death certificate, ask them if they are ok with a copy or if it needs to be a certified copy which you will need them to return by registered post.  If they do need a registered copy do NOT send the only copy you have - you can photocopy it and get up to 3 copies certified at the post office for about £12.  

Don't make any promises to pay anything.  Don't say the estate is insolvent.  Just tell them that you're not sure of the situation and need to go through probate and that's likely to take months.  This means that all the accounts will default and at that point, if not sooner, all interest accruing should stop.   If they get pushy or start asking too many questions just say repeatedly "I don't know" and then tell them to send you a letter of the account.

I've known some very large organisations (banks holding credit card debts) right off a significant amount and I've seen others harass people in your situation.  Don't worry about them.  Just ignore them all for now and when the dust has settled a bit you can come back here (or go to someone like Citizen's Advice) and ask for more assistance. 

If, and really this is a definite if, some creditor gets pushy they are highly unlikely to pursue a debt to the extremes of trying to make a bereaved individual homeless.  Worst case they might be able to get a charge on your home but I think that is so unlikely that you shouldn't worry about it.  

For now, just take your time and grieve.  

kimwp

Who does the life insurance pay out to? Her estate or to you? (Or something else)

I agree with Brie, first contact her creditors and let them know she has passed and see if they will write the debt off.

Brie

Also building on what Cherryfudge has said - who are the creditors?  The non priority ones are the ones that may be written off or can ignore for some time.  But the priority ones - mortgage, council tax mostly - cannot be ignored.  Other things that keep a roof over your head - utitilities, water - can be easier to deal with.  If you let us know we might be able to advise further.  And if appropriate I can move this thread over to the debtfree wannabe board for more informed debt advice.

Lostlove041025

marcia_ said:

 They can not force the sale of your home for someone else's unsecured debts. 

Thank you..,
I am still learning the full situation with her debts.. but it might be in £22-23k from the different banks/credit cards..
Never been that bad until her health deteriorated rapidly in the last two years that dramatically affected her usual income and last 12 months even getting some benefits 

Brie

While her death complicates things basically this is a debt situation and so I'll move the post to the debtfree board.

Hope that's ok.

sourcrates

I`m sorry to hear of your loss, the debts are really by the bye at the moment, nothing happens quickly in the debt collection world, you need time to grieve etc first.

I had to deal with my late Brothers estate 18 months ago, he had around 10k in unsecured debt, I sent one letter to each creditor and they all responded in the same way, by writing off what was owed.

You have had some good advice above, and with unsecured creditors, its best you inform them all in writing about what has happened, if your late wife`s assets do not cover her liabilities, make certain you tell them that, best to be upfront from the start, that there is no money to pay them.

Once you inform them of your wife`s death, and the estate won`t cover what is owed, most will take a commercial view and simply write the debts off.

You will need copies of the death certificate for each lender.

Utility debts etc will sometimes also be written off, or they may ask you as the homeowner to settle them, and a new account will be opened in your name.

Keep_pedalling

marcia_ said:

 They can not force the sale of your home for someone else's unsecured debts. 

The debts are owed by the estate and need to be dealt with by the executor, so if the debts are high enough then that could force the sale of the house. The call on estate assets are as follows:-

Secured debt, funeral costs, unsecured debt  and lastly the beneficiaries. 

Because the estate is going to have to go though probate, it’s value is going to become a matter of public record so it may to be difficult to claim that there is nothing to cover the debt. Hopefully the insurance will cover everything and if not at least some of the creditors will be willing to write off her debt. 

Lostlove041025

Brie said:

So sorry for your loss, hopefully you can find some peace when the funeral is over.

As I understand it as your wife had assets of some value (aka the house) then her creditors would expect to be paid to clear her accounts.  But some can be surprisingly sympathetic. 

I would suggest that you contact each of them and tell them simply and truthfully that she has died and that  currently there is no way to make any payments to clear her debts.  You could do this initially by phone by ringing their bereavement team. 

They may very well ask for a copy of the death certificate, ask them if they are ok with a copy or if it needs to be a certified copy which you will need them to return by registered post.  If they do need a registered copy do NOT send the only copy you have - you can photocopy it and get up to 3 copies certified at the post office for about £12.  

Don't make any promises to pay anything.  Don't say the estate is insolvent.  Just tell them that you're not sure of the situation and need to go through probate and that's likely to take months.  This means that all the accounts will default and at that point, if not sooner, all interest accruing should stop.   If they get pushy or start asking too many questions just say repeatedly "I don't know" and then tell them to send you a letter of the account.

I've known some very large organisations (banks holding credit card debts) right off a significant amount and I've seen others harass people in your situation.  Don't worry about them.  Just ignore them all for now and when the dust has settled a bit you can come back here (or go to someone like Citizen's Advice) and ask for more assistance. 

If, and really this is a definite if, some creditor gets pushy they are highly unlikely to pursue a debt to the extremes of trying to make a bereaved individual homeless.  Worst case they might be able to get a charge on your home but I think that is so unlikely that you shouldn't worry about it.  

For now, just take your time and grieve.  

Thank you very much for your detailed response! 
It really gives me some room to breathe!

So far discovered debts are with Lloyds, MBNA, Barclays, Virginmoney.
I will try and let them know asap as per your recommendation..

Now I'm preparing myself to say my last goodbye...