Debts after death

[Roberto154]

Hi all,
If someone has died but left say £25k of debt, will this debt get written off?
The deceased left around the same in the bank account for which we have letters of administration for, but we'd rather this money went to the only child of the deceased.

[PallasAthena]

No it doesn't get written off, it becomes a debt of the Estate and needs to be paid out of the Estate assets before any of the Estate can be distributed to beneficiaries.

If you are the administrator under Letters of Administration and you did what you are suggesting you could become personally liable to pay the deceased's creditors and they could take action against you in court..

[Roberto154]

Interesting, thank you. Seems Google isn't as accurate as we think!

[PallasAthena]

You don't want to believe everything you read online

Debts in the sole name of the deceased are only written off is there isn't enough money in the Estate to pay them so the Estate is insolvent.

Fact Sheet - Debts after death | National Debtline | National Debtline

[atticus]

Interesting, thank you. Seems Google isn't as accurate as we think!

If the OP thought that the information that he found somewhere online was accurate, he would not have come here to check. And "we" should always think about what we read online, assessing whether it is from a reliable source and doing other appropriate due diligence - even in a forum such as this.

Of course debts have to be settled by the estate following death..