Not pay deceased family members bills

[Hound456]

A family member has died and my siblings and I are the only relatives they had.
We have been left a house which has sold but we are waiting for probate to be granted so the sale goes through.
I contacted relatives energy supplier and explained they were deceased , nobody is living at the property but correspondence could be sent to me. I was told outstanding bills had to be settled when probate was granted.
I've since had a quarterly bill but they are asking for payment.
It's not loads of money but I would prefer not to have to pay it from my own money.
I've argued that I was told bills would be issued on probate being granted ,this seems to have changed.
What I suppose I'm asking is can they do this? Or are the company trying it on?They are saying account is in my name but I never agreed to that. When letters come they are addressed to my deceased family members estate c/o me. Can anyone offer any advice ?
TIA

While my parents estate was in probate we ended up paying for the standing charges at the property but not the debts. These came out of the estate when the probate was granted. The company’s all have a bereavement department and these were generally good. However, we found that we would still get bills and demands from other parts of the company’s addressed to my parents at the house. Lots of time on the phone sorting these out as it was a case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing!

If it is going through Probate you must have a solicitor dealing with it - cant you send the bill to them?

You can do it yourself, unless there are vast complexities like businesses etc. It's much cheaper.
Bills do need to be paid up until the date of their death, but if you contact bereavement departments (most large institutions have one) they won't chase you for it until probate. It comes from the estate, not your pocket.

When we dealt with my uncles estate, all bills coming in were just forwarded on to the probate solicitor. They then dealt with everything.

No. It's not your bill to pay no matter how much they try to tell you otherwise.
The person has died. They know what the process is. Get lots of proper copies of his death certificate and tell them that as they know perfectly well, any debts will be settled from the estate in due course.

Considering that literally everybody dies I can only assume that companies have actual policies that direct staff to pretend not to know this or how to proceed and to instead pressure grieving relatives to pay up.

@Waxlyrically I know what you mean! After my Dad died I sent the death certificate to all concerned and still TV licensing were practically taking him to court despite my letters!

Of course you don't use your own money. They will be paid when probate is granted. There's nothing you could or should do before then.

Debts only due with the person if there's no estate. My mum died suddenly 18 months ago and had no estate, only a £2k life insurance policy which was used to partially pay for her funeral. She had a credit card debt of £500 and when I wrote to the bank to explain the circumstances, they wrote the debt off. However, if she'd had savings/estate, the money would have to be paid back from that.

OP, sounds like a mix up with the energy company. You can choose to pay it yourself and claim it back from the estate later or you can write to the company and say it will be settled when probate is completed.

When my MIL died intestate I ended up taking on the role of executor. Her bank were great transferring her account into joint names for DH & BIL so any bills came from the money left in there. I got probate for them, they sold the bungalow and the money went into the joint account and was split 50/50. A lot easier because everyone gets along with each other. I imagine it’s not that easy for everyone. The utility companies were great. TV licensing were a pain.

Why isn't the executor dealing with this? if there is no Will, then how come you are so sure you are the beneficiaries? just because you say you are the the next kin doesn't mean you are or that that there isn't a Will that your not aware of.

There should be an administrator to deal with the estate if there is definitely no Will, you can't just self appoint yourself as administrator.

Alexandra2001. The OP didn’t say there was no will.

Sounds like nothing much has changed in the 20 years since my dad died when a utility company send a letter threatening court action for an ‘unpaid bill’. This was despite me sending them a copy of his death certificate and covering letter. They insisted that I should pay the bill, but I told them they would have to wait for probate to be granted and that I was shocked that they didn’t have a better system for dealing with grieving families. Don’t pay. They’re just trying it on.

How has the house been sold without probate?

Just wanted to reiterate that you MUST NOT pay from your own money as this potentially opens up your liability to pay all debts as you are deemed to have meddled in the estate. This is really important when companies are hassling you.

When my mil died she had no assets, only debt. She'd left some money in her account to pay her tax bill but this went towards the funeral. I notified everyone she owed money to, as a courtesy but this didn't stop the credit card company from chasing for a debt that they knew there was no money to pay from. Or the tax people from asking me to fill out forms stating mil's earnings etc. I bounced that one straight back with a salty letter explaining that her earnings had been none of my business and I wouldn't be dealing with her tax!

Watch out for the bank asking you to sign forms taking on responsibility for the account (and creditors). You may choose to do this anyway but you need to be aware of the responsibility they are offloading onto you. It's worth doing where there are assets you will inherit eventually, but not if a person dies in debt with no estate.

They absolutely do not! If the deceased person has any money/property etc., then the debts are paid from the estate.

Debts do die with you - as long as the estate can't cover them.

When my DF died we had no idea about this. He had an estate of about £200 but massive credit card bills he had been desperately trying to pay off in his last year so my DM wasn't lumbered with them.

All the bills were written off. We had no idea this would happen and were delighted - and then gutted as DF had spent loads of money reducing them instead of giving himself a more enjoyable life in his last year.

This is untrue in UK. The estate of the deceased is responsible for the debts of the deceased. Debts and funeral expenses must be settled before the remainder of the estate is divided according to bequest, or according to the inheritance laws if intestate.

Only the estate is liable, not relatives. When my brother in law died leaving only debts, no assets (he was homeless and very ill), NatWest told me, when I went in to report his death, that I would have to pay off his overdraft with them. Cheeky fuckers. I refused of course and that was that - never heard another peep from them.

Debts technically DO die with the person, AFTER their estate has paid what is owed. If there is anything left that can't be paid, the debt is written off - it does NOT pass to relatives etc.

There is so much misunderstanding regarding debt when a person dies.

Of course if there is money in the estate you cannot tell all the debtors to 'jog on' and keep the money for the beneficies!

Can you imagine the carnage that would occur if that was allowed to happen.

Mother died last year, I was the executor and didn't use a solicitor.

Her bank paid the funeral bill out of her funds. It then took a couple of months to transfer the remainder to me, it should have been immediately after the funeral was paid. Here's looking at you RBS, many phone calls and promises to pay it over.

As soon as I received the money I paid out for certain things, the wake, probate fees etc, overpaid pension etc.

Probate was granted 5 months after death.

Her electricity was massively in credit, the heating was kept on low during the winter months and I submitted a couple of readings. When we completed on her property I gave SSE a final reading and received a cheque about 10 days later.

Ask to speak to the ‘bereavement team’ - there should be a department that deals with this.

Exactly. Can you imagine what would happen if debts did die with the individual? What a wonderful old age we could all have........until businesses changed their practices and it became impossible for anyone over 70 to have a utility account, a credit card, an overdraft..........

Is a solicitor dealing with the Estate? If so, send the bills to them and they can settle it out of the Estate accounts.

You don’t have to pay the bill now, but you do have to settle all bills before inheritance is left.
so say there is £1k left and £100 bills outstanding, that gets paid and then you get the £900. If the bills come to £1100 and the estate is only worth £1000 then £1000 goes to settle the bills, they wipe the £100 and you get nothing but also don’t have to pay the £100 owed as it’s not your debt.

This bill should come from the estate before whats left is shared out. Your solicitor should be dealing with all this. Just be glad its not debts of £xxk that need paying. Its crap it falls to the remaining family yes, i agree