Is there anyone with knowlege of the law applying to these charges.

Brent Council demanding an outstanding bill over £2500 be paid by deceased executors long afterwards. Demands for payment to be made, whilst refusing to provide full details of how the alleged amount acrued in the first place.

Can the executor get something like an SAR of what the council have on file? The deceased was the executors mother

Hello there.

I've moved you to the General Legal forum and left you a redirect from the special needs one. Hopefully people will see your thread here and advise you.

HB

Hi

I am sorry for your loss, condolences.

Is it possible you could give us a timeline of events leading up to this demand for payment?

Was the relative in a Care Home and paying fees at the time and if so what was the arrangement to pay fees?

Was the Relative concerned under a Probate at all and if so what?

Did the executor for the estate contact all creditors and was the care home/council one of them?

Exactly what does the letter you received from the council say? (See here on how to upload documents verbatim:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?431533-How-to-Upload-Documents-Images-as-PDF-on-CAG-Immediately-(you-do-not-need-10-posts)

As for your question on doing a SAR as executor IMO if you have the legal documentation then you should be able to but I am not 100% on that so please wait to see what others say o that matter.

I will try to gather all the info you have asked for.

Many thanks

Was the relative in a Care Home and paying fees at the time and if so what was the arrangement to pay fees?

It was "Domiciliary Care" according to OP's thread title so carers providing support in the relative's own home, not in a residential care home. My mother has this. In many parts of the country the Council doesn't provide it at all and the care support is provided by private homecare companies. My mother signed up to a contract with them and set up a Direct Debit. I don't know how local Council's deal with charging but I'd expect them to have sort of contract. Hopefully OP can confirm what happened in this case.

OP would certainly be justified in asking for details of the charges now claimed by Brent. Which dates the charge covers. Then double check them against the deceased's bank account and previous invoices. It's not unknown for councils to say an invoice hasn't been paid when it has. Some councils are just not very efficient at billing for money due. One possibility for OP to consider is that the Domiciliary Care charges were being paid by Direct Debit but the DD mandate was cancelled when the relative's bank was advised of their death. The council's attempt to debit the final invoice(s) by DD would then have failed, hence them asking for payment now. This happened with a relative I was Executor to.

But if you find that the charge is due, ie the carers had visited and the invoice is unpaid, then the amount is payable from the Estate. If the deceased was the Executors mother then surely the Executor knew that carers were coming in and needed to be paid? It's an Executor's duty to notify creditors and settle outstanding bills before distributing the Estate.