My spouse died a month ago. Will I be responsible for his Mortgage and Credit Card debt?

amarillogal · Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 1 1.96 Dollars($)

My husband committed suicide partially due to his losing his job two years ago and the financial mess he got in as a result of it. We were separated for two years, never filed for divorce. The house he was living in, I was on the Warranty Deed and Deed of Trust, but NOT ON Mortgage or Promissory Note. Lender does not even have my personal information, including social security #. I have spoken with both the Customer Service Dept and the Foreclosure Dept of Bank of America, the loan was with Countrywide but they re-did the loan for him back in Jan/Feb. I never signed any papers there also. They said that in no way would they report a foreclosure on my credit. As of this date, there is no NEGATIVE credit in my name as far as any of his debts. I will be getting a significant amount of life insurance but because of where he died (the house) neither my son nor I want to live in the house. I was planning on just letting it go, letting them take posession of the property. It is worth MORE than is owed on it.

But because of that, I'm afraid his other creditor's may say I didn't do my best to get all I could out of the property and try to sue me for the credit card debt. I do not even know if I'm going to do anything about all his debt. I mean, a lawyer said I should decide whether I want to be the trustee of his estate. The only thing that has any equity at the time of his death was the house. I would have to bring loan it up to date $5,000, do some repairs, $3000, pay realtor fees of $8,500 (if I got the full tax appraisal price of $143K, loan balance is $125K), continue to make monthly payments on it till it sold, average time on market in my area is 4-5 months which would be approx another $5,000, plus buyer usually wants part or all of their closing costs, another $5,000. So, if I did all that, plus assuming I got the full asking price, I would be in the hole approx $4,000 and that's if everything went as planned.

So, I'm wondering if I did do the trustee thing, could the credit card companies (now all in collection) come after me. The lawyer said they have up to 4 years to sue me. If they didn't figure the assets (which are negative) of the estate the date he died, and looked at my assets in the future (quite a big difference), Can they sue me? Oh, all but two of the credit cards he had were in his name only. The ones that are joint with me, I plan to payoff.

I know there's a lot of info in these questions, but I'm desperate here, my husband would be the guy who I'd normally go to to help me out. He was my "go to" guy who usually always had the answers. Unfortunately, after just one mistake two years ago, everything just got worse and worse until he "just couldn't take it anymore", according to a sentence in his goodbye letter. He only waited 2 months after the suicide clause provision was over (2 years) before he did took his own life. I'm just said I didn't see the signs. That was the one bill he made sure he paid every month, on time, every time. I should have known.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bensonclive · Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 91 -0.12 Dollars($)

amarillogal

It is really a detailed explanation of your whole story.First of all sorry to hear about the bad demise of your husband.Financial debt has a deep impact on the people's life.So if one goes through proper counselling these worst situation will hardly arise in one's life.

Regarding your question, as you are not on the mortgage, all your husband's creditor won't come after you.

Regarding credit card debt, I think if you can pay off the credit card debt from the money received through the insurance it will be lot more easier for you.It is just one of the suggestion.Even if you are not paying the credit card debt it will not be a big impact on your credit.

sara · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:48 am Post subject:

Hi amarillogal,

It's really sad to hear about the death of your husband. May God give you the strength to bear the pain.

You have mentioned that your name is mentioned in the deed of trust. I hope you are mentioned as the "trustor". In such a situation, you would be responsible for the mortgage in case of your husband's death and the lender may ask you to pay it off. If your name is not mentioned as a trustor, then you should not worry about the foreclosure. The foreclosure won't effect your credit and thus, you can walkaway from it.

Credit card debts are unsecured debts. The credit card company cannot make you responsible for your husband's credit card. Thus, they won't be able to sue you for that. As you would be paying off the joint credit cards, they would be safe and you will not have to bear any debts.

Take care.

jheard · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:35 am Post subject:

Unless they are joint accounts, the credit card companies can't come after you personally, only the assets of your husband's estate.

Also, if you are on title, you will be named in the foreclosure action, so it will go on your record, even if you were not on the mortgage (I don't know how that happened as they require all owners to sign).

All times are GMT - 7 Hours

Page 1 of 1