Hello:

My father died in April. His insurance did not cover his funeral, had to take a loan out to pay for it. Notified his creditors of his death. He had taken out a home equity line of credit on his house many years ago. It has a $40,000 plus balance. In 2000 he transferred his 2 homes into my name. His pension electronically transferred his check. They contacted me and asked for the check back and then they will send a prorated check. I don't have to the check. After some research found out the bank kept his check. The customer service rep I spoke to said "because your father owed us money. So we kept his check." The bank won't return the check.

Now after contacting the bank about the check, they're sending me late notices to pay my father's loans. I had received nothing from the bank except a monthly statement for April. It had the beginning balance of $40,000, but the ending balance said $00.00 (zero) and all loan accounts closed. Now I don't know what to do. They had not contacted me, by phone or mail, in 2 months. I called about the pension check, and now they're becoming threatening about the loan. I don't know what to do or who to turn to for help. I'd like to know my rights before trying to contact the bank. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.

If u inherited the houses ull haft to pay them or they take the house.

I am sorry about the death of your father. My condolences to you.

It sounds like you really need to get an attorney to speak with for consultation and who will act and speak on your behalf to the creditors, be them of any kind. I also would not be speaking with anyone to whom your father owed any money without having a witness present, either in person or on another phone line. I would also make sure that you document absolutely everything - any kind of communications - mail, email, verbal - that are received or sent. Also, I would suggest anything that you write to creditors concerning this be done by certified or registered mail.

First, the transfer of the home with the equity line may be invalid. If the bank had a lien on the property, as they most likely would have with a HELOC, they that lien had to be satisfied before a transfer could be effected. I'm surprised the bank hasn't come after you about that.

When a person dies, any proceeds from their estate need to first go to pay his debts. If there are no proceeds, then any unsecured debts are a write off, but secured debts (like a HELOC) can be collected against the collateral.

So the bank is wrong in withholding the last pension check. But they can come after you for the property used to secure the HELOC.

You don't explain the circumstances behind the transfer of the two homes, but there may be issues with those. As I pointed out, transferring property without satisfying a lien can void the transfer. Also there are legal and tax ramifications of such a transfer. If he transferred the property to you outright, there are gift tax consequences. If he did it to avoid Medicare seizure there are fraud consequences.

Clough is right, you NEED to see an attroney to straighten out this mess.

Hello:

Thank you all for your replies. You gave me an idea. How did my father transfer the properties with a lien on the property for the home equity loan? Yet, I have the transfer documents, prepared by an attorney, and duly registered with the county. I think I'm going to make a trip to get a copy of the deed. I want to see if any liens are noted/written on the deed itself.
I did try to find a lawyer today. They are not accepting appointments until September, but, gave me a couple of other people to try. I will try to set up something with one of them.
Thanks for the help. I'll post and let you know what happens.

If an attorney prepared the transfer then there is a likelihood title insurance was purchased. If you can find that policy you can go back to the Title company to explain.

Can you contact the attorney that did the work? I would try.

If, you can show that no lien was ever recorded on the property, then the obligation on the HELOC died with your father.

Hello:

I'm the original poster. I went to the Recorder of Deeds for my county. There are NO liens recorded for the property. None. The woman told me as far as the county is concerned, the property has a clear deed.

If that's the case, then you send back any bills you have received marked deceased.