My mother has recently passed away, leaving an outstanding loan. The bank have said that my brothers and I must pay the balance of £4700. However, there is no money in my mothers estate and so we would have to pay this ourselves. Are we liable for payment or should the bank write the debt off?

You are NOT liable.

You are to use all of the assets in your mother estate to pay it. Since you say she has none, then tough luck for the bank.

Exception: Did you and/or your brothers co-sign your mother's loan? Because if you did, then you are responsible for it.

Thanks for your response. No, none of my brothers co-signed the loan, so that's a relief.

When you say we must sell any assets, what is defined as a asset? She didn't own her own home or car. She lived with her elderly Aunt and so only had a few general household items, such as a television, dvd player and video player but they're about the most valuable possessions she had.

An asset is anything she owned.

How did she get a loan if she had no assets? Did she pledge anything as collateral?

Since you did not post this in "US dollars" I do not know the rule on other nations, The laws of varouis nations differ, so I can not tell you for sure, please specify what nation, so someone knowing that law can answwer for you.

IN the US, you would take any money left in her estate, sell her home if she owned it and her personal property and use that money to pay any of her debts, After that is paid out, there is no money left to pay and they just don't get anymore. The person taking care of the will or estate would be the one to pay out the money. There are laws as to who gets paid first or how everyone is paid in varouis states. But once the money is gone, they just don't get anything else, yes they may ask family members to pay, but there is no requirement to unless the person co-signed for any of the loans.

I think that the Uk is a common law country and Capital Forest is correct, If you are not party to the than you are not responsible. Tell the bank to prove their claim or move on.

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Originally Posted by mr.yet

I think that the Uk is a common law country and Capital Forest is correct, If you are not party to the than you are not responsible. Tell the bank to prove their claim or move on.

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Yes. The UK is based on common law and Canada (except Quebec) & USA followed suit (after all, we are all former British colonies).

Well the US is suppose to be based on common law, they teach us common law for contracts and the such in law school, but for the life of me, real life and US laws seem to have little to do with real common law after you start checking out the actual commerce acts and the such.

I wonder are they actually countries where the family is responsible for the debts of a parent if they die.