State of affairs of terminally ill father's debts.

Phonix

because he's terminally ill I think this adds greater weight to pursue bankruptcy.

I'm not aware of any other way these debts can be dealt with for a person in his circumstances, ie has zero income, will have zero income for the rest of his life, owes more than £25k and the only asset he has is a car. It would be irresponsible not to try and do something about these debts before the bailiffs arrive. The only other option I can see, to delay proceedings until he dies. He's already been in arrears on some of his debts for six months.

So is there any other way these debts can be dealt with, bearing in mind that it's impossible for a penny of them to be paid.

I'll look into the attendence allowance soon. The problem I have is my father is so utterly useless with sorting things out
regardless of whether he is well or not.

Xbigman

One possible problem. If declaring yourself bankrupt you have to go to court and swear on the bible. That could be a stumbling block for someone too ill to get to court.
Regards



X

Phonix

I have been led to believe that someone can take power of attorny and do this for him. I too am a little skeptical of this but intend to ask these questions when I pick up the forms from cab.

Bossyboots

Phonix wrote:

I have been led to believe that someone can take power of attorny and do this for him. I too am a little skeptical of this but intend to ask these questions when I pick up the forms from cab.

A Power of Attorney would be revoked by your father's bankruptcy.

If there are no assets, then the only thing the bailiffs appear to be able to take is the car. Is your dad likely to be able to use the car again? There seems no point in bankruptcy. I am unclear as to what you want to achieve.

Phonix

If there are no assets, then the only thing the bailiffs appear to be able to take is the car. Is your dad likely to be able to use the car again? There seems no point in bankruptcy. I am unclear as to what you want to achieve.

I want the matter to be dealt with. I want him to only have to deal with one person - the insolvency adviser.

I don't want the baillifs knocking at his door and giving him threatening demands. This has already happened to him once and caused a great deal of stress and that was only for a £250 council tax debt.

If there is any other way the above can be prevented then I'm all ears, but even though I've contacted his creditors they have told me that the above will happen eventually.

jen_jen_2

The origional creditor is a high street lender, i would get a letter signed by your father giving you authority to deal with his financial affairs and write to the lender stating you are acting on behalf of your father and he is terminally ill, explain that he is on DLA and sickness benefits, that he is in hospital and that he is terminally ill. Perhaps ask one of the macmillan nurses to do a short letter confirming this on headed paper or his gP.

This should get them to hold any action until you can sort out his estate and make them an offer if appropriate. You may need CAB help to do the letters - unfortuneatly some creditors only respond to a third party.

the letter rather than a phone call gives them all the evidence and can be passed to the relevant section, if you dont get a reply confirming the account on hold for at least 3 months then you will update them then write to a complaint or private and confidential to the cheif executive.

all banks have to abide by the banking code which states that they should treat people in debt with consideration and understanding (not the exact wording but sommat like that) they should act human in these cases and take no action at all.

in relation to the bankruptcy, if your father has committed fraud or acted in a way that exasserbates his debt then the OR will choose whether to take action, i cant believe an OR would suggest the prosecution of a terminally ill man (fraud) and if they apply a sanction it will be to continue bankruptcy restrictions longer as your father is terminally ill this will not affect him adversely.

from what you say i dont think your father has commited fraud and i dont think the banks would be interested in persuing the debt.

The difficulty you face is getting the message through to the right person who has the authority to get the account held. Another suggestion would be to take a copy of the letter into your fathers branch and speak to the manager, this may get ensure that the manager takes responsibility to get it sorted.

hope this isnt too longwinded and makes sense - sorry about the poor spelling and ask CAB to do the above if you dont feel up to it.

Phonix

Thanks everyone you've been very helpful.

And thank you Jen your information is extremely useful.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that it will be cheaper for the halifax just to write this debt off.

Amid the turmoil I almost forgot that there are really only two creditors involved, so there may be light at the end of the tunnel without bankruptcy.

Johnhowell

Phonix,

Further to your previous message, you should consider Enduring Power of Attorney for your father's estate - so that the Court of Protection do not take control and charge you large sums for the privilege! Ordinary Power of Attorney becomes void if your father becomes incapable.

Another alternative is to become joint account holder with your fathers bank account, so you can take control when required, without EPoA. Also makes sorting the estate afterwards easier - only if you are Executor/Exectrix of his Will.

My father wants everything sorted out before hand and to ease his passing is organising wish lists.

Take care,
John

Phonix

I'm sorry to say that my father died of cancer on the 10th of September. I thought it best to update this thread with this information.

I seem to be handling it fairly well sofar but was upset that I wasn't with him when he died but was on my way down to see him.

I don't think it was the actual cancer that killed him. Shortly after a blood transfusion he developed an absys in his tooth which slowly spread to his forehead and I guess his lungs because he was experiencing symptoms similar to pnumonia just before he died.

He was in incredible pain during his last week, the nurses thought my family were trying to commit euthanisa as tbh he was much better off dead in that situation.

This whole experience has aloud be to gain an insight into the way debt affects people , how banks behave toward their customers and how limited and delayed alot of payment protection can be.

Most importantly though I have seen how people are not equipt manage their own finances and often take on uncompetetive debts simply due to their lack of understanding and informity. I think my father would have been happy for me to take control of his finances in some shape or form. And after going through his papers I really wish I had. Anyway...

roversbabe

Phonix

I'm sorry to hear of your news. Thinking of you hun.

((((Hugs))))

rb x