House Deeds and Deceased persons

[atrixo]

I have a friend with a problem and they need some advice. Their father recently died and their mother needs to sell the house and use the money to move into sheltered accommodation. Mther and father had no mortgage, but had a lot of debt on an unsecured loan. The loan company have advised their solicitors will try and recoup the money from his Fther's estate. Can they do this if the deeds are in joing names - if this happens the mother will not have enough money to buy a home - things are a bit desperate. what if the father's name was removedf rom the house deeds before the sale of the house? would this help the situation?

[Loosehead]

Unsecured debt is pretty much unrecoverable on the death of the debtor, assuming there is no will father's half of the house will become Mother's. Deeds are probably irrelevant assuming the house is registered at the Land registry. The creditors are just trying to bully Get the house in Mothers name only then sell the whole thing. They will not be able to put a charge on the place if Father's name is not in the registry.

[dzug]

Yes they can recoup the money from your father's estate, whether by putting a charge against the house or going after the executor of the estate for malpractice is by the by.

What loosehead is suggesting is tantamount to fraud.

[Loosehead]

optimisation Dzug, nothing illegal, certainly not fraud, avoidance certainly but not evasion.

[dzug]

Distributing the estate without making any attempt to pay debts (indeed specifically to avoid paying those debts) doesn't sound that kosher to me.

[themas]

The executor (or whoever gets letters of administration if there was no will) has a duty to identify the assets and liabilities of the deceased. The liabilities have to be paid out of the assets and the debts only die with the deceased if there are insufficient assets.

If this is not done then the creditors can take action against the executor, who can be personally liable to pay the debts.

Removing the father's name from the title would not help.

[dancecaller]

Does it depend if the house is held as joint tenants or tenants in common.
One way the house automatically passes to the survivor.
The moral issue is another thing, maybe she could offer to pay what she can afford.
Sounds as if she needs qualified advice Citizens advice may have a phone helpline