If a parent dies in debt, who is liable for the debts?

[ChloeHandbag]

I just wondered. I don't have any relationship with my father, but db lives in the same town and tells me that he's lost yet another business recently. My father has a very dodgy financial track record and it occured to me that if he is in debt, which is very likely and something happened to him that db and I might be liable.

Which then got me thinking that if something happened to me and dh would our dc's be liable for any debt we have?

[[http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/DebtsAndArrears/DG_10013093 Here] is the 'official' government answer.

Basically the debts die with them. But of course you have to use all the dc'd estate's money (house, insurance policies, bank accounts, furniture, gold watches, etc) to pay the debts. But of course insurance policies on the dc'd which are 'in your name' are paid to you irrespective of their death.

Here it is (I did the right number of ] this time!

Slarti's right. My dad died last year, he had very little. There's a list of people who need paying out of the estate (they didn't class furniture/personal belongings as the estate), the tax man first, at the end of the list is creditors, they have whatever's left. If there's not enough to pay them then they have whatever's left, if there's anything left over it goes to the spouse, then the children

Phew - I imagined having to pay off my fathers debts, which is a bit much when I haven't spoken to him for 15 years or so.

Thank you.

My dad had a loan from the bank a year or so before he died. I fail to see why they would give a terminally ill man on benefits a loan my self. There was more then enough in his account to pay for the funeral, the remaining money went to the bank to repay the loan. There wasn't enough to repay it in full so we had to write to them saying that there was not enough in his estate to repay it in it's entirity and the bank wrote the rest off.