Insolvent estate....help!

[CarolinaWeeper]

My DF died without a will in August, he had no assets and a little bit of money in the bank but that's it.... and a lot of debt made up of credit cards, loans etc which he was on debt repayment plans for.

I understood we were able to pay for the funeral out of the money in his bank account and before paying any creditors, after the cost of this there is £900 left in his bank account and about £25k worth of debt! I had written to all creditors that I was aware of explaining the situation and asking for the debt to be written off in light of this, most haven't replied but Halifax have said they're pursuing a claim against the estate. I then tried to pass to a solicitor as I don't want to mess anything up and be liable but the solicitor said they could not be paid from the estate and I just don't have the money to pay them for this.

What is my best course of action? I understand I could add up all the debt and pay each creditor proportionately out of that £900 left but I really don't know what I'm doing to be honest and am worried about making a mistake.

Help?!

Were there any secured debts; or were they all unsecured?

All unsecured I think.... credit card, loans and utility bills.

How much was the funeral?

Are you sure neither you nor anybody else was named in any of the debt?

Secured debts should have been settled before funeral costs, but then you can take “reasonable” funeral costs, not including gravestones or memorials. Then, unless you have incurred expenses or the person who has passed owes wages, it’d be any unsecured debts. You’d need to pay them a proportional amount of what’s left.

You’re not liable for anything personally as long as you’ve stuck to that, even if Halifax want to pursue a claim. You can write to all the debtors then and ask for statements of account, and that’ll help you work out what goes where. There’s letter templates and things if that helps.

I’m sorry for your loss

Cross posts, but TrumpLost has covered the only other relevant questions then. As long as the debts were only held in his name and the funeral costs were proportionate and allowable, you just need to settle it proportionately.

I'd write to all known creditors asking for a final statement of account within the next 28 days. State that after 28 days you will distribute the remaining estate in direct proportion to the final amounts owing. Assuming they were all unsecured of course. Any that don't respond you can ignore - you've given them plenty of time to request partial settlement.

Thank you, there weren't any secured debts....the funeral cost £3200 which was the basic package plus celebrant fees so hopefully not lavish!

The debt was only in his name, nobody else.

You will get very good advise on the MSE site (Money supermarket) in the Family and Relationship section, subsection - funerals.

The correct info!
Money Saving Expert forums
Marriage, Relationships and Families section
Deaths, Funerals and Private sub section

Aarrgg
Death, Funerals and Probate sub section

Are you the executor? If not, don’t worry about the debts as they are not your responsibility. You should be able to use the amounts in the bank towards the funeral - you can usually arrange to pay it direct to the funeral home.

Sorry for your loss

I am the administrator of the estate, essentially executor although there wasn't a will.

@20questions I will also ask on MSE, thank you.

If there's no money there's no money. If there's not enough in the estate to pay these debts then they are written off. Don't let them try to pretend you have any responsibility to settle them yourself!

I had this with Estate of my FIL.

I Paid for the funeral and had debts of £20k outstanding.

I wrote to all the creditors and advised them that the estate was insolvent and told them to write off the debt.

A few of them sent Demands (which they are obliged to do). But this was a matter of course.

All the debts were written off with no issues.

@CarolinaWeeper
Saw you got some helpful advice!
I knew there was something called " intermeddling" that you had to be careful about but didnt know exactly what it was.
Good luck. Hope you get it sorted.