help on house clearance due to death

pennypinchingmum

my f-i-l died recently and we have the job of clearing his flat. It's a sheltered accommodation flat with a housing association. There is no money in the estate and we are left paying funeral bills. I would like to know what happens if we dont clear his flat if we just leave it. Surely the housing association would then have to clear it themselves. We simply do not have any money to pay for house clearance. All help and advice would be appreciated many thanks. PPM

LuciferTDark

They'll clear it out but they'll probably send you a large bill for it as next of kin.

RAS

Hi
For heavens sake make sure you check stuff for hidden money, photos, cetificates etc.

List stuff on the local group of www.freecycle.org. Give a couple of dates when you will be there and a lot of it will go very pronto. People do this when they are emigrating with the lat dregs.

Check for furniture recycling places - we got rid of quite a lot of furniture that was not suitable for a sale through one that did things up and sold them on.

Put any reminign clothes and stuff in a charity shop. The local hospice actually sent a guy who took a whole car load. To my amazement, they even had people who would finish partly knitted woollens and clothing if they were otherwise decent.

heppy23

pennypinchingmum wrote: »

my f-i-l died recently and we have the job of clearing his flat. It's a sheltered accommodation flat with a housing association. There is no money in the estate and we are left paying funeral bills. I would like to know what happens if we dont clear his flat if we just leave it. Surely the housing association would then have to clear it themselves. We simply do not have any money to pay for house clearance. All help and advice would be appreciated many thanks. PPM

There will probably be part of the tenancy agreement that oblidges him (or his estate) to clear the place out.

We had to clear a flat in a sheltered housing place out for an old neighbour. My Dad was the executor so he had the discretion to dispose of stuff as he saw fit.

We took some stuff to the skip, some to charity shops and (with the permission of the warden) we left some crockery and knick-knacks out with a notice for the other residents to help themselves. That got cleared within about 3 hours!!

catshark88

Sorry to hear about your f-i-l.

I don't know what the legal position is with housing associations but I hope that this might help.

A friend's mother died in a council flat (leaving no money) and her daughter had to clear the place. She did then sell the small bits that were there.

I have just had to do a similar job when a distant relative died. He had sold his house to one of those equity release people and I was told that I had to clear it or they would clear it and bill me. He had left a little cash though so there was a small estate for them to claim against. I got a company to clear it and received about £100. You might find that the value of white goods etc. would be enough for the clearers to do it for free or pay you a small amount.

If there is no cash in the estate I cannot see that the housing association would have anyone to claim against even if they wanted to. It would be easier for them to do the clearing than chase bereaved relatives. As I say, I don't know the legal position but I would expect the HA to take a sensible line.

Could you talk to them about it?

Best wishes.

silvercar

Legally they could expect the cost of clearing to be settled from the estate but not necessarily by the next of kin.

If his estate has not a penny then it would be a debt on the estate. There used to be a stigma to leaving a relative die in debt but not sure if it is still so.

It always puzzles me that people can pass on with exactly zero bank balance, almost like they knew when they were going to go and balanced the books.

LuciferTDark

I seriously have no idea where my head is today, I apologies totally for my previous reply, I really should have offered my condolences so I'm doing it now.

HugoSP

Firstly my condolances for your loss.

As Silvercar says, if there is no money in the estate then the next of kin do not have to pay the bill.

Lanldords/owners and other would be creditors etc have been known to put the frighteners on the bereaved by making them think that they will be liable for debts that the estate cannot settle. This is in fact illeagal. If someone dies broke or all their money goes towards the funeral (the only creditor a bank has to settle out of an account waiting for Probate) then all the debts he has die with him.

The only way in which relatives can be pursued for money is if it is money that they have inherited from the estate, that is faced with legitamete charges.

Hence, if someone dies and leaves £10,000 to their son, but the estate incurs or has incurred debts either before or after death, and he then takes the money and spends it, he may then be faced with forking out to pay debts of the estate up to the value of the total inheritance.

Although if the estate is completely empty this will not be an issue for the OP. He could quite simply walk away and any bills he gets for clearing out the flat could be returned with a note to explain that there is no money in the estate to settle them. They would have absolutely no hope of successfully pursuing this in a court and indeed would be linched by the local press if they did.

However, asking an auction house to see about doing a free clearance or paying a small sum of money for the goods may be a good move.

Alternitively, why not post notes to the other residents listing what is on offer and asking if anyone would be able to make use of them, or know someone who would.

mrwibble

My condolences - previous advice is good but please make sure you spend an hour checking for photos, unknown (to you) bank accounts (never assume there is nothing !) antique items (medals, hip flasks etc) and items of sentimental value - its amazing what turns up - relatives can often just assume there is nothing.

Be warned that if you get a clearance firm in without a quick check yourself you probably won't hear about those valuables - "sorry love, nothing much of value".

pennypinchingmum

Thanks to you all for your condolences and replies. Unfortunately my f-i-l died with alot of debt and just a litlle amount of insurance so we're topping up the funeral costs. We're gonna do all we can to clear as much as we can but to be honest we just cant do all of it. We've sold a few bits and put that towards funeral costs. It's really good advice from all of you and i will defintately give some of the useful bits ie pots and pans to other residents, i didnt think of that. The local vicar takes furniture to give to those who need it but he's full up so looking for others at the min.
Thanks again

silvercar

I've reread my post and it sounds all wrong.

I wasn't implying that I thought there was anything wrong with not leaving any money, if there is no money there is no money, the HA must deal with this all the time.

Although it comes at a difficult time, it probably is a reasonable question for the HA to ask, as they would not be aware of the deceased's financial situation.

Condolances to you.