Am I liable for late DM's water bill?

[CoodleMoodle]

DM was taken into hospital on 1st July this year, for around a month. She was then in a care home until she died on 31st August. At no point did she go home in between these dates.

I have been to her house a few times to collect things and start clearing it out. When I went today, I heard a funny noise in the garden and found the outside tap was on! I've got no idea how or when it was turned on, and I don't know how long it's been running or anything. I also know she didn't leave it on when she was still there, because I went into the garden the day she was taken to hospital to speak on the phone, and it wasn't on then (I didn't turn it on either!). Nobody has been in the garden since. Nobody else has a front door key.

When and if we/she gets a massive water bill, what do I do? Do we have to pay it? She has no assets for them to claim it back from. The house is rented privately (until Sept 27th), she has no car, she transferred the last of her money in her bank account to me, and my DC's savings, before she died. This was about £3k in total, some of which has already gone on cremation costs. She was disabled and in the last few years lived off of benefits and her small amount of savings.

As next of kin, am I liable for the bill? If it's astronomical there's no way I'll be able to afford it.

No. The debt belongs to her estate and dies with her.
Assuming it's in her name and not the LL's, if the latter it's their responsibility to pay.

I have recently been dealing with my late mother's estate and everyone I have spoken to has been very clear that the next of kin/executor is not liable for any debt but that this comes from the estate or is written off.

You would not be liable. Her estate is. There could be an issue with her gifting all her money away just before she died but the amounts her not very big so it might not matter. Was there a will?

Thank you all, that's what I was reading but I wasn't sure in this case.

@smartiepants79
No, no will. I'm her only child. She's been separated from my father since 2006, although they never got divorced. We haven't had contact with him since then, and he's never lived in this particular house.

The money she transferred to me was in smallish amounts over her last couple of weeks, as she had received a prognosis and knew she was going to die. I think it was around £4k in total, maybe slightly more or less.

Do you have a solicitor dealing with the estate? If you have, bills/debts can be settled from the estate.

You need the insurance altered for unoccupied property as soon as you can and find out what the insurance needs to be done for compliance. If the water stays on they usually say the property needs to be checked once a week or fortnight. Don’t worry about clearing the house yet concentrate on things like disconnecting appliances, security, insurance.

Sorry for your loss 💕

That could be an issue. How much did you spend on the funeral? Also, did you inform all utilities when she went into the care home?
You need to speak to her energy provider and water company plus landlord to see if there are any other outstanding debts.

I have been to the house every week since she was taken into the hospital, but didn't notice the tap was on as I didn't go in the garden. It was only today that I did! We have until the end of the month to clear it out, which really isn't very long (there's a lot to deal with), hence going over often.

To be honest, we always assumed she would be going home again at some point so never did any informing anybody. It was only nearer the end that we realised she wouldn't be. It all happened incredibly quickly and we were in shock (she was only in her 60s).

She's not having a funeral, she's having a direct cremation. This cost £1300 which they've already taken from my account (DM transferred the money to me specifically for it).

Is there a will, if so are you named as sole or joint executor?

@Sciencestyle
No, there's no will. We were in the process of sorting the LPOA (had sent the forms off and were waiting) and the will when she was suddenly taken very ill and started on palliative care meds. After that she lost capacity.

Having been an executor recently, its a lot of work, as there is nothing to be gained from doing it I would hand the house back to the landlord and walk away.

There is no estate to administer, presumably you did tell us once when registering the death, that informs all the state entities.

Write to the utilities informing of the death, but give only your mums address and walk away, trust me it's hard work, and not worth going into. They will just run up against the fact she is deceased and that will be that.

None of her debts are yours legally or morally.

She was entitled to gift you that very small amount.

Sorry for your loss

PS, tell us once will stop the LPOA registration.

If your Mum only separated from her husband with no divorce or Will you may find your father has a claim on her assets.
Hopefully not but I guess he could make things tricky.

@Sciencestyle

Thank you, that's very helpful. I've been in a bit of a tizzy worrying about the water bill and then the money she gave to me/the DC. It was such a small amount in the grand scheme of things, and she wanted to do it in small amounts to not arouse suspicion (she was quire paranoid towards the end).

I haven't done Tell Us Once yet, but I will sort it out tomorrow.

This did worry me, but we have absolutely no idea where he is (not in this country) and no way of telling him what's happened. The only asset she really had was a small amount of savings, which she gave to me.

Sorry, just remembered something about the LPOA. They actually called me a couple of days before she died and asked me if I still wanted to go ahead. They were going to expediate it due to the circumstances, but it would still have meant waiting the mandatory 4 weeks and by then it wasn't worth it. I told the lady on the phone that she only had a few days left with us and there was no point, so I assume they'd have stopped the registration then?

Don't worry about it, gifting a small sum is fine, some of which you used to pay for her funeral, I'm assuming her chattels are worth nothing in particular (no Turners or Monets in the wardrobe) and you have to get rid of them. I would keep a written note of what you have done.

Write to the utilities, explain she has died and left no estate, don't give an alternative address, you are not executor and therefore not responsible.

No one will pursue you for £4K she gifted you, the cost to them would exceed the award. there is simply no estate, leave it there and concentrate on recovering, its a tough time.

@Sciencestyle
No, nothing of any value at all. She had/has a lot of things but all knick knacks and sentimental stuff, nothing antique or particularly precious to anyone else. She did have a car but signed it over to my DH a couple of months ago when she was told she wouldn't drive again (it was a brain tumour). Other than that, it's just bits and pieces. Lots of it, though!

I did think about telling the utilities that she'd died and leaving it at that, not giving them any of my actual contact details. The letting agent (who needs to do the final meter readings on the last day) has my phone number and email but no physical address so I don't think anybody would be able to track me down, as it were.

Thank you so much, you've made me feel better about it.

They should be able to see from the smart meter that the water was flowing continuously so it would be put down to a leak anyway I imagine. But as PP said you're not liable and you definitely shouldn't worry about it.

All I would do is keep a file of details of what was done, print outs of bank statements showing the dates the gifts were made, car transferred, copy of undertakers invoice, letting agent correspondence, tell us one etc. etc. then if anyone ever does get in touch you can show that the money/car were transferred before death, and don't form part of the estate, and the chattels were cleared as the let property had to be handed back, I'd take some photos of the chattels too to prove there was no value.

I would imagine that will be that, my own experience dealing with an estate running to a few hundred thousand is that although everything is made out to be a rush and the bogeyman will be after you if you don't do x, y, z immediately, in truth the various functions of life are so disconnected that one lot don't know what the other lot are doing, so no one chases anything.

I of course rushed at 100 miles an hour to get everything done, when I could have just casually sauntered through it.

Sorry for your loss

If you can, find the water stop cock & turn the water off completely. It is normally located within the property.