My mother just passed away . a small mobile home to sell had a ton of credit cards,do we have to pay them off?

Question

There are 4 children ,she had no insurance but lots of credit card bills.will they come after us if there is a little cash left?

Answer 1

No. You do not have to pay them off. However, if her estate is probated, the court will probably sell the mobile home and pay off as many of the credit cards as possible. It sounds as if her estate may not need to go to probate though. Many credit card companies will close the account if you provide them with a copy of the cert of death.

Answer 2

The proceeds from her estate must go to pay her debts. If you sell the mobile home, that money unfortunately has to go to pay her creditors. You are not personally responsible for her debts, but the debts MUST be paid from her estate before any monies are distributed to her heirs, no matter how bad the need.

The only exception that I can think of to this is if you want to keep making payments on her accounts. You'd need to talk with an attorney on this, and possibly her creditors as well.

I'm very sorry for your circumstances, and your loss.

Answer 3

Hold it! Quite often, there is life ins on credit card debt. Call the cad issuer and see if there is, and how to go about it.
If yourmother took out the ins, then your problem just might be solved.
Good luck.

Answer 4

You won't have a choice. Bills come out of the proceeds first. It sounds like there won't be any left over to divide and the bills won't all get paid off either.