Looking for Advice re: Potential Irresponsible Lending?

Imriel452

Good morning all,
I am hoping someone might be able to advise on a situation that I have found myself in.

My estranged father has recently passed at the age of 66, and he has not left a will, so my sisters and I have gone through Probate, and we have been granted Letters of Administration to deal with his estate. He died of cirrhosis, and as a heavy drinker for at least 25 years, I am worried that his mental faculties may have been dimished and he should have been classed as a vulnerable customer. 

We have found that he is in significant credit card debt (over £50k), as well as having two finance agreements for vehicles, one for himself, and one where a third party is the registered keeper of the vehicle someone I believe may have been taking financial advantage of him from conversations with family members who had known him in recent times.

He was in possession of a property, valued in the region of £200k, which is why I think that he may have been granted multiple credit cards, and several finance agreements, but his only income was in the way of pensions that was around £1500 per month. Speaking to his bank, he was paying £900 a month in rent so along with other utilities and expenses, I am unsure how he would have passed credit checks.

I have requested the bank statements for the last six years so that I can look into his finances in more detail, but has anyone got any experience on whether financial institutions that were lending to him could be held to account, and potentially have some of the debt written off?

I apologise for the somewhat rambling post - it is an exceptionally messy circumstance, and I do not fully know where I stand with all of this, so any suggestions, guidance or recommendations would be fantastic.

Thank you in advance!
Adam

WillowLeaf

You mention "He was in possession of a property, valued in the region of £200k"  and "he was paying £900 a month in rent"

So he doesn't own this or any other property? If he was that much in debt it sounds unlikely he had any savings or investments, in which case his estate has little or no assets?

Imriel452

WillowLeaf said:

You mention "He was in possession of a property, valued in the region of £200k"  and "he was paying £900 a month in rent"

So he doesn't own this or any other property? If he was that much in debt it sounds unlikely he had any savings or investments, in which case his estate has little or no assets?

He had the property and was in the process of selling it at his passing, but he was paying £900 rent elsewhere (why, I don’t know!)

The house would be the only asset in the estate.

saajan_12

Imriel452 said:

WillowLeaf said:

You mention "He was in possession of a property, valued in the region of £200k"  and "he was paying £900 a month in rent"

So he doesn't own this or any other property? If he was that much in debt it sounds unlikely he had any savings or investments, in which case his estate has little or no assets?

He had the property and was in the process of selling it at his passing, but he was paying £900 rent elsewhere (why, I don’t know!)

The house would be the only asset in the estate.

So he had a substantial asset that he wasn't living in - post sale, that money invested or in a savings account could have given him a ~£750 monthly income on top. Or used to pay off his debts in a lump sum. 

If you take away the expectation that the entire property would be available to inherit, your father's position doesn't actually seem problematic for him. 

Nearlyold

At the time of his passing was he up to date with his loan/credit repayments?

Imriel452

Nearlyold said:

At the time of his passing was he up to date with his loan/credit repayments?

I’m not 100% sure - he was over £3000 overdrawn at his death, and at one point was merely servicing the interest on one account. I don’t know how he would have been up to date given his massive balances though. 

Keep_pedalling

Do you know what sort of car finance he had? If either of them were HP or PCP then those lines are secured against the car. Registered keeper is not proof of ownership and as your father was financing that second car you should contact that person about recovering that car as it belongs to the estate not them. 

As for the affordability it might be worth talking to one of the debt charities such as National DebtLine to see if it is possible to challenge the affordability of the loans. 

https://nationaldebtline.org/