My brother died suddenly last year. He owned a ground floor, one bed flat, 2 minutes' walk from Clapham Junction station. It is in a dreadful state, needs doing up badly, new bathroom suite, deep cleaning everywhere, etc.
He also had massive debts.
The solicitors who are dealing with it say they are near completing and will have the letters of Administration soon. However, in order to pay off the debts we need to find 175K. Obviously, the flat could be sold for more than this, even in its current state. DH, however, is insisting that we get in there, sort it out for about 15K and reap up to another 50K when we sell it.
I have no idea if we're even allowed to do this. ATM the flat doesn't belong to us, it belongs to my bro's estate. The solicitors have very kindly given me permission to stay overnight in there when I come down from Devon to see to things.
The other thing is I don't want to sell it at all (it is making me cry to think about it, I know I have to get over this though). DH has a friend who has had to wind up the estates of 3 of his elderly relatives, and who has told dh that credit card debts die with you - you don't have to pay them back. Much of my bro's debt is to credit cards. Do we have to pay them back? This would reduce the amount owed by a certain amount.
Neither my elder bro nor I can get a mortgage for 175K. Elder bro has investigated and says a: it's over 3 times his salary (fair enough, I wouldn't want to borrow more than that), b: he is over 50 and therefore mortgage companies want 40% deposit.
There's no way a mortgage co. would be nicer to me - disabled, non-working, over 50, don't make me laugh!
Any ideas of what we can do?
Sorry this is a bit tangled; I am upset.
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Brother died intestate; massive debts; need advice
36 replies
Jux · 08/07/2010 16:20
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