Oustanding Care Bill after death

[Diversion]

Very sadly we have lost both PIL within 10 weeks of each other. They lived happily together in a care home which was self funded after we had to sell their home. Their care was paid for via local council a month in arrears and we have just received the final bill for the last 4 weeks of MIL care. We have notified them and sent a copy of the death certificate and advised that we no longer have acces to her bank account via POA and will be applying for probate. Does anyone know if they will be happy to wait for probate or if they will push for us to pay the final bill?

We had this for MIL and the council were happy to wait.

They have to wait for the estate to settle the bill. They have no contract with you. They may well push but do not pay it yourselves. Why should you complicate your affairs when it can be paid from the estate? Very sorry for your double loss, what a hard time.

I had the same with my Dad, and they were happy to wait, and put no pressure on us at all. So sorry for your losses.

There's entire departments and processes in place to manage this situation as it's extremely common.

Don't worry about it at all.

So sorry to hear about your double loss. The council are happy to wait until probate is obtained. It’s a common occurrence and as long as you keep them up dated i.e. when you receive probate and likely timescales thereafter for settlement there will not be a problem. Depending on the council you might receive occasional requests for an update on whether probate has been granted etc. others will just wait until you pay them.

It doesnt matter whether they're happy or not happy, the process is that the debt now sits with the estate and like any one else they wait until its finalised.

Dont concern yourself with any more worry OP

They’ll wait.

i had the same. They’ll be used to it as it’ll be extremely common.

we actually had an issue where due to financial abuse all the accounts were frozen so we had 6 months of arrears- we’d just got the accounts sorted when he died, so everything was frozen again. They waited another 3 months for probate when I could finally pay. They were brilliant, no pressure or anything, just got social care involved to verify everything.

after all if it were a problem it would be easily fixed by asking for payment at the beginning of the month, rather than in arrears.

Thank you for all of your helpful replies. I sent an email and a copy of the death certificate yesterday requesting an updated invoice to pass onto the solicitor who will be dealing with probate. They replied promptly today with a pleasant reply and no pressure at all to pay.