Fathers sudden death

[Chellie]

Father has suddenly passed away. Younger sis and I are next of kin. Appears there is no will. He does not own a house, rents! Also appears he has quite an amount of debts. (3 credit cards anyway...one possibly with insurance) We actually not been in contact with him for several years and now we have had to arrange funeral and sort out his belongings. Is it advisable to contact a solicitor or how do i go about being the administrator and what are the next steps we need to take to sort out his finances. Scottish law and any advice welcome. Thanks x

[Stu Dent]

I suppose you could wait, Chellie. Afterall, the pension money for all we know may amount to very little, in which case the creditors are back to square one.

As for your second question? I have to confess I don't know. But I'll try to find out.

[Chellie]

ok that is reasurring...for now!!

Yeah that was what I thought too, as I have no idea what amount there may or maynot be...she did say it was at the trustees discretion!! I also dont know how long he was employed with the company. And if it is only contributions made, that is paid back, it may not amount to very much at all.

I went through all his papers again last night, and made a detailed note of the debts I found within his papers. Excluding the credit cards there is probably only �1,500 that I can find due out to people that we know about. That does not include the �2,000 that we paid for the funeral of course. So that is a bit more reasurring than �10,000 as it had originally appeared to look.
With the credit cards, he had the payment protection plan, so I have to made a claim with these throught the insurance set up with the card. That should be paid off...hopefully.

I would appreciate you finding out the situation as to whether an executrix is necessary. It is definately going to be classed as a "small estate" and I must admit I am learning quite a bit myself...law is so interesting, but confusing at the same time, as I can't get my head round some of the words used...lol !!!