Debt After Death

The level of consumer debt in Britain has recently reached £1 trillion. This is formed in large part, of increasingly large mortgages, precipitated both by increased house prices and relatively low interest rates. In this climate in which borrowing is de rigueur, it is all too common for people to accumulate debt with little or no thought for the future. Indeed, a startlingly large proportion of people assume that, when you die, your debts will be written off. This is, of course, not the case. In fact, the death of the debtor has little effect on the debt itself – it must still be paid back by one means or another.

The Estate

When an individual dies, all of their assets (including money, property, shares and insurance payouts) are bundled together and valued as one. This collection is known as the person’s estate. When an individual makes a will, they will name someone to take charge of their affairs after their death. This person is called an ‘executor’. If, on the other hand, they have died intestate (that is, without a will), then an ‘administrator’ is appointed to carry out the same duties. The first task facing this individual, after having valued the estate, is to begin to pay off any outstanding debts from the estate.

In paying off these outstanding debts, the executor or administrator must ensure that they repay the deceased individual’s creditors in a certain order. Mortgages must be paid off first, followed by rent arrears; water rates; council tax; fuel; personal loans and credit cards; and finally debts to the Exchequer such as outstanding tax or overpaid benefits.

It is often thought that a surviving spouse or civil partner will automatically ‘inherit’ the deceased individual’s debts, but this is not necessarily the case. Nothing will be paid to the beneficiaries of the will until all of the debts have been cleared, but there are only certain circumstances in which a partner would be liable for these debts. The most common of these is if you were to have a loan in a joint name (that is, your partner’s and your own), or if you acted as a guarantor against a loan taken out in the deceased person’s name. In these circumstances, the responsibility for paying back the money is passed to you.

Housing

If there is not enough money in the estate to pay off the outstanding debts, and you jointly owned a house with the deceased individual, there is a chance that you may be forced into selling the property in order to satisfy the creditors. Your course of action in these circumstances depends on the legal position of your tenancy; if you were tenants in common (that is, each of you owned a specific share in the property) then debts will first be paid from the deceased person’s portion of the house.

However, you are likely to have to negotiate with the creditors in order to avoid the forced sale of your portion. If, on the other hand, you were joint tenants (that is, you owned the entire property together), the deceased person’s portion will pass directly to you. However, creditors can still attempt to force the sale of the property through an Insolvency Administration Order, and so you would almost certainly be best off trying to negotiate a payment plan with those who are owed money.