Worth paying off car finance? - Father passed away
Discussion
Hi all,
Bit of a lurker here. I’m hoping someone will have experienced a similar situation to me, or at least be able to point me in the right direction:
The situation - My dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had a car on a Hire Purchase finance agreement. Only around £400 is outstanding on a car worth roughly 9k. The finance agreement is in my dads name, and the V5 is also in his name. The car is insured in my mums name (with dad as a named driver).
My dad has no assets (apart from this car if it were paid off) and debts of a higher value than the cars worth.
In my head, it is not worth using my money to pay off the finance agreement, because doing so gives my dad an asset which would then need to be sold to pay off debts. There would then still be outstanding debts and the estate would be insolvent.
Is my thinking correct or am I missing something?
I have called the finance company to see if I can change the name on the finance agreement so I could pay it off and would then own the car to do with as I wish (sell it and give the money to mum), but they can’t do that (unsurprising I guess).
I think the best way forward is to basically let the finance company re-possess the car, and then inform any other creditors that there is no money left so that they can apply for estate insolvency. Am I way off here?
Any advice is appreciated. Apologies for the length of the post. I tried to keep it short but wanted to give the best picture I could.
Bit of a lurker here. I’m hoping someone will have experienced a similar situation to me, or at least be able to point me in the right direction:
The situation - My dad passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had a car on a Hire Purchase finance agreement. Only around £400 is outstanding on a car worth roughly 9k. The finance agreement is in my dads name, and the V5 is also in his name. The car is insured in my mums name (with dad as a named driver).
My dad has no assets (apart from this car if it were paid off) and debts of a higher value than the cars worth.
In my head, it is not worth using my money to pay off the finance agreement, because doing so gives my dad an asset which would then need to be sold to pay off debts. There would then still be outstanding debts and the estate would be insolvent.
Is my thinking correct or am I missing something?
I have called the finance company to see if I can change the name on the finance agreement so I could pay it off and would then own the car to do with as I wish (sell it and give the money to mum), but they can’t do that (unsurprising I guess).
I think the best way forward is to basically let the finance company re-possess the car, and then inform any other creditors that there is no money left so that they can apply for estate insolvency. Am I way off here?
Any advice is appreciated. Apologies for the length of the post. I tried to keep it short but wanted to give the best picture I could.
I would say that whatever his will says, you have to follow a process to sort out the creditors. You essentially have £8600 of net asset in the car an a bunch of creditors. I would suggest a smidge of legal advice would help.
Of course this is for the executor(s) to sort out. Is that you? If so, you need to take care as you can have personal liability if you screw up sadly. From my limited dealings from sorting my father's will, you need to be diligent to find all the creditors. If there is any doubt, you are advised to advertise the death to find them all. For me it was very unlikely that my Dad had unknown creditors so I didn't.
Sorry for your loss.
Bert
Of course this is for the executor(s) to sort out. Is that you? If so, you need to take care as you can have personal liability if you screw up sadly. From my limited dealings from sorting my father's will, you need to be diligent to find all the creditors. If there is any doubt, you are advised to advertise the death to find them all. For me it was very unlikely that my Dad had unknown creditors so I didn't.
Sorry for your loss.
Bert
Sorry for your loss.
Having seen a few of these topics on here; the general answer is "if the estate is insolvent the debts are written off".
Just spit balling here, however the car is an asset (albeit owned by the finance company atm). To whom is your dad's debt owed? Anyone small, local etc that would benefit from the 9k rather than the finance company?
Can you even pay off the car and take ownership in his stead?
Having lost the MIL recently i found lots needed arranging without adding further burden to the family.
Having seen a few of these topics on here; the general answer is "if the estate is insolvent the debts are written off".
Just spit balling here, however the car is an asset (albeit owned by the finance company atm). To whom is your dad's debt owed? Anyone small, local etc that would benefit from the 9k rather than the finance company?
Can you even pay off the car and take ownership in his stead?
Having lost the MIL recently i found lots needed arranging without adding further burden to the family.
BertBert said:
I would say that whatever his will says, you have to follow a process to sort out the creditors. You essentially have £8600 of net asset in the car an a bunch of creditors. I would suggest a smidge of legal advice would help.
Of course this is for the executor(s) to sort out. Is that you? If so, you need to take care as you can have personal liability if you screw up sadly. From my limited dealings from sorting my father's will, you need to be diligent to find all the creditors. If there is any doubt, you are advised to advertise the death to find them all. For me it was very unlikely that my Dad had unknown creditors so I didn't.
Sorry for your loss.
Bert
There isn’t a will that anyone can find/knows about. I’m thinking legal advice is the best option, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything simple. I believe my mum (dads wife) is the executor, but i’m trying to lighten the load for her as she is struggling at the minute. Thanks for the reminder about advertising the death, I will look into that.Of course this is for the executor(s) to sort out. Is that you? If so, you need to take care as you can have personal liability if you screw up sadly. From my limited dealings from sorting my father's will, you need to be diligent to find all the creditors. If there is any doubt, you are advised to advertise the death to find them all. For me it was very unlikely that my Dad had unknown creditors so I didn't.
Sorry for your loss.
Bert
TheDrownedApe said:
Sorry for your loss.
Having seen a few of these topics on here; the general answer is "if the estate is insolvent the debts are written off".
Just spit balling here, however the car is an asset (albeit owned by the finance company atm). To whom is your dad's debt owed? Anyone small, local etc that would benefit from the 9k rather than the finance company?
Can you even pay off the car and take ownership in his stead?
Having lost the MIL recently i found lots needed arranging without adding further burden to the family.
I like your thinking, but the debts are all for credit cards/loans with banks.Having seen a few of these topics on here; the general answer is "if the estate is insolvent the debts are written off".
Just spit balling here, however the car is an asset (albeit owned by the finance company atm). To whom is your dad's debt owed? Anyone small, local etc that would benefit from the 9k rather than the finance company?
Can you even pay off the car and take ownership in his stead?
Having lost the MIL recently i found lots needed arranging without adding further burden to the family.
I was hoping there would be a way of paying off the car and owning it, but it appears not.
i would take some legal advice becuase debts and the potential for the estate not to be able to cover the does make thing smore complicated.
Also worth noting that if there is no will then the estate is dealt with by the rules of intestacy which means your Mum would inherit all your dads possessions and belongings.
Also worth noting that if there is no will then the estate is dealt with by the rules of intestacy which means your Mum would inherit all your dads possessions and belongings.
CT25 said:
There isn’t a will that anyone can find/knows about. ........... I believe my mum (dads wife) is the executor, .
If there is no will then there is no executor. As AngryParts says if there is no will then the estate is dealt with by the rules of intestacy which means your Mum would inherit all your dads possessions and belongings.
Don't know if this means she inherits his debts as well?
When my father died around 16 years ago all he left was roughly £6.5K of credit card debt, thankfully the house was mortgage free so my mother had no worries there. I contacted the credit card company, I think it was HSBC, and they were incredibly helpful. I was sent a form to fill out asking various questions if he had any assets and if he had a will. He didn't have a will and the only asset he had was the house my parents lived in and my mother was at the time still alive and living in the house.
I completed the form and enclosed a certified copy of the death certificate. Roughly a week later I received a letter back from the credit card company saying the balance had been written off and sorry for my loss. I had no idea he had £6.5K of credit car debt but the credit card company were incredibly good.
Looking back now he probably spent that money on my sister, the parasite she was and probably still is.
I completed the form and enclosed a certified copy of the death certificate. Roughly a week later I received a letter back from the credit card company saying the balance had been written off and sorry for my loss. I had no idea he had £6.5K of credit car debt but the credit card company were incredibly good.
Looking back now he probably spent that money on my sister, the parasite she was and probably still is.
First thing to ascertain is if the debts are only in your Dads name and that your mother is not jointly liable. I would then contact all the debtors and inform them of your Dads death and ask them to freeze any interest pending his estate being sorted out…you could potentially intimate that there will be a shortfall they will no doubt let you know if any of the loans are secured ie the car finance.
It would probably be better to sell the car and pay the outstanding amount try we buy any car, Motirway etc for valuations. Letting the finance company repossess the car will undoubtedly incur excessive costs and diminish the return to your Dads estate.
If there is a deficit and no secured loans etc then the proceeds should be split prorate.
As it appears funds are limited I would suggest contacting citizens advice.
It would probably be better to sell the car and pay the outstanding amount try we buy any car, Motirway etc for valuations. Letting the finance company repossess the car will undoubtedly incur excessive costs and diminish the return to your Dads estate.
If there is a deficit and no secured loans etc then the proceeds should be split prorate.
As it appears funds are limited I would suggest contacting citizens advice.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
If the estate assets minus the debt is positive then after all the creditors are paid what is left is distributed to any beneficiaries, if the estate assets minus debts is negative who are the creditors going to chase? This assumes there is no one else legally liable for the debts, creditors will b
h and moan under these circumstances but there is no one to chase for the debt.Worth considering that funeral expenses have first charge against the estate. So pay off the £400 personally, sell car, pay for funeral (be a crying shame if you accidentally ordered too much of the good stuff, anticipating that there would be many mourners with a penchant for nice booze)
Regrettably after reconciling the accounts, there doesn't seem to be anything left for the creditors of the estate, after funeral expenses are paid....
Regrettably after reconciling the accounts, there doesn't seem to be anything left for the creditors of the estate, after funeral expenses are paid....
V8 Bob said:
First thing to ascertain is if the debts are only in your Dads name and that your mother is not jointly liable. I would then contact all the debtors and inform them of your Dads death and ask them to freeze any interest pending his estate being sorted out…you could potentially intimate that there will be a shortfall they will no doubt let you know if any of the loans are secured ie the car finance.
It would probably be better to sell the car and pay the outstanding amount try we buy any car, Motirway etc for valuations. Letting the finance company repossess the car will undoubtedly incur excessive costs and diminish the return to your Dads estate.
If there is a deficit and no secured loans etc then the proceeds should be split prorate.
As it appears funds are limited I would suggest contacting citizens advice.
My dad passed recently with a car on finance, none of the obvious buyer (WBA, motorway) wanted to touch it because of ProbateIt would probably be better to sell the car and pay the outstanding amount try we buy any car, Motirway etc for valuations. Letting the finance company repossess the car will undoubtedly incur excessive costs and diminish the return to your Dads estate.
If there is a deficit and no secured loans etc then the proceeds should be split prorate.
As it appears funds are limited I would suggest contacting citizens advice.
If the V5 wasn't in my name - no chance
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