No will - claiming private rent deposit back and advice re: liability for debts?

[Stunters]

Hi,

Sadly, my father passed away on the 13^th September this year. Before I ask my questions here is a brief synopsis of the situation regarding my Dad’s affairs:

He died interstate as he did not have a will. Therefor I am the administrator of his estate as his legal next of kin (he was divorced and did not live with a partner).

His estate, such as it is, amounted to approximately £700 of reimbursed payments from a funeral insurance plan that had not matured (it would have paid out £5000 if it had), and his current bank account containing around £950. He had a vehicle, which is worth approximately £1000. So his total estate value amounted to approximately £2,700.

He had no arrangements in place for a funeral. The funeral was paid for by my sister’s partner on a credit card and amounted to approximately £3700. We agreed to my sister’s partner taking the car as he is a car salesman by trade, so he will sell it and keep the proceeds to pay off the funeral debt he incurred. So overall, there is still a shortfall of approximately £1,000 for the funeral expenses which my sister and I are covering,.

There are three issues I now have:

1. My Dad was a join tenant in a privately rented house. He was a good tenant and had a good relationship with the landlord and made many repairs and improvements to the house, As such, I am in absolutely no doubt that my father’s deposit (c.£600)for the house should be returned in full as part of his estate (and help pay off the funeral cost). However when I spoke to the letting agents they told me that as the joint tenancy agreement is still current (My Dad had lived there for over 5 years btw), he was still liable for the deposit as part of the agreement. As you can imagine, this was highly frustrating for me and the letting agent simply wouldn’t budge, even though I explained he cannot be liable for someone else’s rent deposit to live on there, as he is dead! To further muddy the waters, I have a good relationship with my Dad’s former housemate and he had promised that he would sort it with the letting agent and effectively he would pay us back Dad’s deposit and then sort it himself with the agents. I said yes to this as it seemed the path of least resistance. No prizes for guessing that this hasn’t happened yet, almost two months after my Dad’s passing. I now feel I should disregard the tenant’s offer and go after the letting agent, and hit them with a final demand and also add incurred charges for administration and interest as they’ve literally done nothing, despite knowing he has passed away. I am extremely angry and frustrated by this, as you’d expect.

1. The second issue is that I had my Dad’s bank account frozen and subsequently closed as per his bank’s procedures. In that time there were no additional payments, however his local authority have now sent a final demand letter threatening court action against him(!) stating there is an overpayment of £420 in housing benefit paid to him for the period 19^th September – 14^th October (I am sure that date period is of no coincidence as they were informed of his passing via the government’s ‘tell us once’ service on the 19^th September). There is no record of any housing benefit payment on the final statement I had from the bank, covering the 23^rd September – 24^th October (the period they were informed and carried out account closure processes). As mentioned above, he did not have any funeral arrangements in place and my sister and I weren’t in any position to pay for things, so Dad’s ‘assets’ so to speak have been used in good faith to pay for his funeral. So my question here is, does the local authority have a valid claim for this money (that I have seen no record of) against me (as I am the administrator and have effectively ‘spent’ the money on his funeral, even though I knew nothing of my Dad’s finances)? Does the LA have any grounds for this claim? Are they likely to write this off? How do I push for them to provide proof of the payment when it isn’t actually my financial affairs being discussed?

1. In addition to the above local authority demand, my Dad also had two credit cards and another credit agreement in place. Again, would I have to make arrangements to pay these? I have contacted the companies involved and they have passed my details to their probate representatives, but I have not heard back from them to date.

So to summarise:

• As I am administering his estate, am I liable for my Dad’s local authority debt and his financial debts event though he is interstate and his assets’ value were insufficient to cover the modest funeral arrangement costs?
• What is the best route for to go down to claim back his rent deposit (as mentioned above this would go towards paying the funeral debt ? Neither myself nor my sister are getting a single penny out of this as Dad didn’t leave anything).

Sorry for the very long post – hopefully someone with some expertise and / experience in these issues may be able to point me in the right direction to get these things sorted out.

Many, many thanks in advance!

[lawboy65]

Sorry for your loss.
Regarding your late fathers debt;
If there is insufficient money or assets in the estate to pay off all the debts, then the debts would be paid in priority order until the money or assets run out. Any remaining debts are likely to be written off.
If no estate is left, then there is no money to pay off the debts and the debts will usually die with them.
Surviving relatives will not usually be responsible for paying off any outstanding debts, unless they acted as a guarantor or are a co-signatory of the debt.

Regarding your late fathers joint tenancy;
The only way the agents will return your late fathers deposit is if the tenancy is cancelled and the joint tenant wishes to renew as a single tenant.
This way your fathers part of the deposit will be returned and the joint tenant can continue to live in the property as a single tenant. At the moment the agents are within their rights not to return the deposit until the tenancy ends.
I hope this helps.

[des8]

Before you pay debts out of a deceased's estate you are first allowed to cover any funeral expenses and the costs involved in the administration of the estate itself..... so the council will have to go whistle!

[Stunters]

Regarding your late fathers joint tenancy;
The only way the agents will return your late fathers deposit is if the tenancy is cancelled and the joint tenant wishes to renew as a single tenant.
This way your fathers part of the deposit will be returned and the joint tenant can continue to live in the property as a single tenant. At the moment the agents are within their rights not to return the deposit until the tenancy ends.
I hope this helps.

Thanks for this. That kind of corresponds with what the letting agent told me. Seems odd, as effectively a dead man is paying someone else's deposit, and also begs the question, what happens if that tenant then moves out. Knowing letting agents on the whole, I can;t imagine they will be fighting too had to track me down to pay up the deposit. But I assume that is the legal position and from that point of view, it does make sense as the agreement is still valid and in place. Thanks again :-)

[Stunters]

Before you pay debts out of a deceased's estate you are first allowed to cover any funeral expenses and the costs involved in the administration of the estate itself..... so the council will have to go whistle!

Thanks - that is kind of what I had read and was hoping to hear from this forum!

[Stunters]

Regarding your late fathers joint tenancy;
The only way the agents will return your late fathers deposit is if the tenancy is cancelled and the joint tenant wishes to renew as a single tenant.

Sorry just to add - is there anyway I can enforce the closure of the agreement? As I mentioned, he had lived there for over 5 years and I think the agreement just 'rolled on' after the initial 12 month term. Again, it strikes me as odd that the agreement wouldn't automatically be unenforceable, as one of the signatories has passed away.

[des8]

If one of the joint tenants dies, the tenancy will continue in the name of the remaining joint tenant(s) under the right of survivorship,regardless of the type of tenancy.
The only exception to that rule concerns joint statutory tenancy under the Rent Act 1977 where, if the surviving tenant does not reside in the premises, the tenancy will cease to exist on the death of the resident joint tenant.

You are totally dependent on the survivor returning the deposit, and if he chooses to wait until the tenancy ends...........