The IRS was notified and received the death certificate about half a year ago, week after the death. They really don't seem to be interested in the grant of probate (solicitor did it, as the local law demands), only local banks and institutions demanded it. Letting IRS and Lloyds aka the big boys fight over the pennies sounds both fun and practical, although I wish that Lloyds would just take the damned 300 and write the loan off since if all goes sour, the IRS debt is far less devastating for me to pay out of my pocket.

I plan to just state the obvious to them - there is nothing left but debt I might mention that there is 300GBP in Lloyds, what they want to partially repay the loan. Let's see how those two get along... EDIT: Any suggestions how I could handle this situation better?

The Inland Revenue has stated that my relative owes them ~700 GBP. I say- lets play ball! I am going to contact Lloyds first, stating that there is an outstanding debt with IRS too and they'd better use the 300GBP she had there to partially cover the debt before I contact the IRS, who in my opinion has more right to the money, being goverment institution and whatnot but at the same time I write IRS that there is 3000GBP outstanding at Lloyds, thus proving that there really is nothing left. Lets see how it turns out...the second debt might just be my ticket out of both

Thanks for the help! I'll try to weasel myself out of this situation

I live in the apartment and the ownership was changed to my name 2 months after the death.

Barclays account was closed by a close friend of the deceased. I suppose there were no outstanding debts or funds left. But to my best knowledge there is no other assets remaining than the 300 in Lloyds and the apartment, already written to my name. I'll wait for another letter from Lloyds and see if they talk themselves further more in. Something just doesn't smell right about this whole thing. Then I'll demand a SAR. Anything else I could do to call on their bulls*it?

Thank you! I'll try and wait some more and reply to them as you guided when they send another suspicious letter.

To my understanding, there was approximately 300GBP at Lloyds. There was no insurance to my knowledge, what is quite limited. I have no access to her bank records or anything. Only piece of information I have is that she had allegedly that loan and 300 quid. My guess is that there is nothing more, she was on the verge of going bankrupt. EDIT: Quoth the first letter: "Could you please respond and acknowledge our claim". Yup. I think they know they don't have ground to stand on and are trying to trick me out of my money. But I could be wrong.

There was a will, stating me as an executor. I have no other details about the loan. Could be a [problem], could be an unsecured loan (most likely). The apartment is not in UK, my relative only worked there and had two bank accounts. The other was at Barclays, I have not heard from them. Lloyds gave me only the loan acc. number and the sum of 3000GBP in the letters, no further details.

Greetings! I havent got any sleep for weeks since the Lloyds TSB is chasing me. The story goes as following (pardon my broken English, I live in eastern parts of EU): About 5 months ago a close relative of mine died. I was the sole inheritor of her property, consisting of an apartment and several loans. I have taken care of 2 out of 3 debts. The third one is Lloyds TSB and the sum is 3000 GBP. Since one of those 3 loans pretty much crippled me financially (I am still quite young) and the apartment is, well, everything I have! Lloyds got my address through solicitor, who took care of the inheritance process. By the local law inheritance goes as following by my best understanding: Inheritor notices the solicitor -> solicitor notifies all the local banks to get information about outstanding debts and assets, as well as gathers other information about assets. (this is the part where I did wrong - to my knowledge, she had some assets held by Lloyds so I listed it down and solicitor contacted them about me being the benefactor) -> 30 days is given for other relatives to claim their part of the inheritance, if they have any legal reason to get anything. -> benefactor is notified about the debts and assets and the case is closed if there is no dispute. The benefactor is obliged to cover all debts marked up in the documents then received, as well as any new ones that surface within a year. About a month after receiving the mentioned paperwork, I got a formal letter from Lloyds, claiming that my relative had a debt (suspiciously round amount?) with them and I should notify them if there are sufficient funds left from the estate to cover it. Well, there is the apartment but selling that would mean me being homeless, since the market value is quite low and I can not afford a rental. Enclosed was also a quite massive form, called the Assets and Liabilities Form, that demanded quite a lot of sensitive information, including bank acc. numbers of the deceaseds' other bank accounts, list of valuables, contact information of other benefactors and so on. I decided to ignore that letter, about 3 months have passed and I received another letter, this time in a more discrete envelope. The letter again asks me to confirm if there are sufficient funds blah blah and they can not drop the account until I have returned completed assets and liabilities form, which, as stated on the form itself in veeeery fine print, is pretty much a legally binding contract - if I fail to inform the bank accurately about ALL the assets the deceased had and the bank finds out, I have agreed that the bank should take legal action against me. quoth the letter: We would remind you that if the late XXXXXX had any assets then there is a legal requirement for outstanding debts to be settled before monies are paid to family or friends. To sum things up: I am certainly unable to pay that 3000 quid. I would like to avoid responding to them. That would be the last line of defence for me. Making the inventory of the deceaseds' assets can be only handled by a solicitor and before the inheritance is finalized. Furthermore, asking about bank details should be a violation of information protection laws in my opinion. But telling them that could mean that the debt could be handled by local inheritance law, meaning that I most certainly must pay it. The latter letter seemed quite computer generated. Signed by Mrs. XXXXX, Centre Manager. Scare tactic? The deceased was not UK national, neither am I. Long story short, how long would the ignoring tactic hold and how much chance could I actually stand avoiding that debt? I am quite scared here, I just started independent life. Any help is appreciated! Thank you!