Hi there,

I would appreciate some help with the following please:

My father passed away 2 weeks ago. Since then I have assumed the role as will executor. On looking at my father accounts I soon reliased that he was actually 40k in debt to 5 credit card companies and 1 business bank account: he was still paying these accounts off but most of them had gone to DCA's. To stop the DCA'S harrassing my mother as the accounts obviously hadnt been paid, I have contacted them all and infomred of the death and informed that I am the estate executor. The estate will include an insurance pay out which will obviously be eaten up by the debts which my father had kept hidden. I have gotten myself a solicitor for probate and he has suggested just paying the debts off - something which I will do if they are legal debts (40k is a lot just to write off from my mother inheritence)

Should I be asking for anyting specificailly off these vultures i.e. signed credit agreements etc?? Can I claim back PPI (most said that they had lapsed however)

Any advice appreciated

Have moved this to "general debt issues" now

Sorry to hear of your loss.

You have informed the DCAs of the death; that's all you need do for now. Wait for them to make the next move - they should pass the accounts back to the original creditors who should in turn make contact to make a claim upon the estate. At that point, you should write to get them to verify their claims, by producing credit agreements - as executor, it's your duty to ensure that you only pay valid claims. You can adapt the standard CCA template for this.

A few points:

- it's not unknown for some creditors/DCAs to try to mislead and suggest that family should pay, because they know that probate can take time. Such approaches should be robustly rebuffed.

- some may request a copy of the death certificate. A photocopy should do; if they demand a certified copy I suggest writing to tell them they can obtain it from the Register Office, or send a cheque for the fee. When I was an executor this worked very well.

- you may want to consider making F&F offers (where there are valid agreements)

Hi, I have sent all the relevant adapted "prove it" letters to the concerned parties:

couple of questions -

the timesacle to reply - is this working days ie 12 working days or 12 physical days

also, one company has responded saying they require a letter probate and will not prove it until they see a copy of this

Thanks