Debts after relative died

[DGoja82]

Hi

my dad died in October 2021 - he has £170k of historical debts (including some more recent debts) that have been passed to Cabot and Philips and Cohen. He was paying a small amount very regularly until he died.

he inherited money from my grandad in April 2021 and used it to buy two properties.

philips and Cohen etc have hounded us relentlessly - we had advice to offer a settlement based on the amount in personal accounts so offered £3k but they came back asking for a form to list everything in the estate

if we do this surely they will then demand everything

Before dad died they offered him 65 percent reductions - is this worth asking for now?

should we try and negotiate a settlement given the historical nature of debts (30 years old) or just declare everything and pay them all off?

no ccJs

thanks so much

[atticus]

Welcome to the forum.

As administrator of the estate, you have legal obligations to deal with the estate according to law. This includes paying debts to the extent that the estate is able to. You risk personal liability if you do not act in accordance with your obligations as administrator.

In terms of your questions, the worst case is that the debts must be paid in full, if there is sufficient in the estate. If not, each creditor must be paid the same, pro-rata (this assumes that the debts are unsecured).

But there is no harm in seeing if you can negotiate payment of something less. Whether creditors will accept anything less than payment in full remains to be seen.

[islandgirl]

I am sure you are correct Atticus but (just for my knowledge) if there are no CCJs and the debts are unsecured what is the legal obligation to pay after the debtor dies?

[atticus]

A creditor can sue an estate to obtain judgement. An executor (or, as here, administrator) has a legal obligation to ascertain and pay debts, and may be made personally liable for such debts if he does not do so.