Can someone give advice on this…Private debt of deceased Dad

[Elmer83]

I’ll try to keep this brief. Our father has died and his sister has text to say in 2000 she lent him £1000 pounds and wondered if there was money left to give it her back. Silly thing is our father inherited £100k back in 2009 so why didn’t he pay it her back then? There is no record of this loan either? We are assuming she has no leg to stand on…there was no property involved and under £20k in his bank (which has been split between me and his other children)

Just to put it all into context what was left in my dads estate -No property (he rented since my divorced him). £30k split between his 4 adult children so no life changing amount!!

Sorry *mum divorced him

The fact that it’s not mentioned in any will is neither here nor there. If I borrowed ten grand, whether from a relative or a bank, and then immediately got run over by a bus then that ten thousand pounds sitting in my bank account isn’t mine to leave in my will, it’s theirs, and needs to be repaid before any legacies are considered.

However, with no evidence and after twenty years of doing nothing to reclaim the money the debt, if it ever actually existed, is not enforceable in law. If she was a beloved aunt who you trusted and who needed the money then you might decide to honour it anyway. But in these circumstances, where she means nothing to you, you don’t trust her, she’s comfortably off and the money would make more of a difference to you - nah.

I think the fact that you've asked for evidence and she's not replied is very telling.

As others have said, she's not got a leg to stand on legally and I'm amazed she's waited until after his death to try to recover a debt that's over 20 years old. I'd stick with above, that the solicitor that dealt with the estate requires proof of the loan and that it wasn't previously paid back and leave it there, I doubt you'd hear back from her on the matter.