Credit Card Debt on Death - advice req'd

The widow is not liable (as not a joint a/c), but the estate is.

Are there no other assets - house, car etc?

-- Doug Ramage

Deceased has Motability Car, however they will arrange for this to be picked up/returned.

There is a house. It is owned outright in both names - no mortgage. Widow lives it. Can the C/Card & Loan Companies force sale or but burden on title.

Again, TIA and for replies to date. Haggis_n_Neeps

Whether it forms part of the estate will depend upon whether they are "Joint tenants" or "Tenants in common". (No I don't know how you can tell what they were).

If they are Joint tenants the widow will automatically own the whole house on the death of the other owner and the house will not become part of the estate.

If they are Tenants in common then the half of the house that the deceased person owned will form part of his estate and any creditors will have a claim against its value.

For a couple of hundred pounds, No. They will probably write it off, but if they do have a claim against the value of the house they might persue it but will never manage to force a house sale

tim

In message , tim writes

That's true in England but AIUI Scots law is applicable in this case and it might not be true there.

But it is.

The terminology is slightly different but the effect is the same. The usual way, in Scotland, in which a married couple owns their house is the one in which the half house does not pass by inheritance but by survivorship, and so does not form part of the estate.

But assets passed to a survivor by being held as joint tenants might in principle still attract Inheritence Tax - not in this case because they were married, but if they were living together but unmarried for example. Am I not correct? You don't need probate to get control of the asset but you do still pay IHT on it unless yo uare exempt by being a spouse or by the estate being less than the nil band.

Robert

Indeed.