Estate with Debt

Could I ask what to consider when a person dies with no assets except a house (which does not have a mortgage) but with possibly considerable debt to finance companies/ misc. creditors? There is one (adult) child who would be the beneficiary, but who also would not any financial means. Many thanks for any advice.

I'd imagine probate will show up the debts, etc. These debts will need to get paid unless a deal is done. Either the beneficiary of the property pays or, the place is sold to satisfy the debt. My opinion.

"When you die, any debts you have must be repaid from your estate before any other claims on the estate can be met. This is the case whether or not you have made a will." More info available here: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/debts_after_death.html

Surely if none of the debtors have a charge on the house then the debt is not collectable ?

elcato said:

Surely if none of the debtors have a charge on the house then the debt is not collectable ?

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Why not?

If the deceased had creditors, it is the executor's responsibility to pay them. It makes no difference whether the creditors had security.

Brendan

Just to add the caveat that applies so long as the estate is solvent.

If there is insufficient funds in the estate, then there's an order of priority.

Thank you for all your replies. I had thought similarly but I'd hoped there might be way to prevent the need for the sale of the house. I don't see how, though, since he doesn't have any means to settle the debt himself. Does the fact that it is his home (as in he has always lived there) make any difference? Just to clarify, this isn't an attempt to avoid paying what in due as such, it's just that the house isn't of great market value and while I'm unsure of the amount of the debt (but I suspect it is a lot of relatively small amounts), the sale and settling of debts will probably leave him with out benefiting at all, but more importantly it will leave him without his home. Without going into too much detail, the circumstances are very sad.

I suppose at the point where the creditors have been identified, it would be possible to contact them to ask to continue with whatever token payments were being made so that he could remain in the house. Some of the creditors would be UK based. I assume if that is not something that they want to do then they could refuse the offer and demand full settlement. Until we know who they are and the amounts involved, we really won't know where we are.
On a separate but connected query, I was going to check if Legal aid would cover probate but in light of the potential complexity perhaps that wouldn't be a good idea. Could I ask your opinions on that too please?

How do you know there are debts. Are there demand letters in the home.