<p>Our local “Area Board for the Aging” has a part-time, legally trained person who helps elderly people with such issues. This person is paid by the Board, not by the client. See if your community has a Senior Center; you might be able to get a referral to somebody free or almost free for your cousin’s mom.</p>
<p>I give up.</p>
<p>But my advice stands: I would encourage the mom to write a letter to the person that sent the bill explaining that she is not responsible for the debt and to please not contact her about the debt. This is assuming she didn’t sign papers at the hospital for her son.</p>
<p>I would not encourage her to hire an attorney because at this point I don’t see a lot of value in hiring an attorney when a person doesn’t have a lot of money.</p>
<p>Finally, I would encourage her to spend time at the library reading books about settling an estate, or working with a close and trusted family member on this.</p>
<p>Botw, I agree with you. When you have money, it is easy to tell someone that they should hire an attorney. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but many peope have come and gone without the help of one. A letter should suffice in this case, but that would never be enough on cc.</p>
<p>Sorry for your loss. </p>
<p>Did your cousin live with his mom? Is that why she got the bill? As others have said, unless she is executor of some estate, she is not responsible for his bills. That said, if there is insurance involved and there is payment due to the hospital, it is appropriate to direct them to the appropriate place. Surely they got his insurance info when he was admitted. But if not, getting them the insurance info is the right thing to do. Paying the bill is not necessary though.</p>
<p>It sounds like your cousin may have died intestate (without a will). All of his assets by law would probably go to his parent. his mother (state laws do vary, though). </p>
<p>Do not believe it when (or if) the hospital tells you that the debt needs to be paid by a living relative. They can only claim against your cousin’s estate.</p>
<p>If he had a paycheck but no health insurance (sorry I missed that) did he receive medicaid? One has to be qualified for it monthly, but it is a possibility that he may have had it.</p>
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<p>Jym626, even if mom is the exectuor of the estate, she is not personally liable for the debts of the estate. The executor must make sure that any debts are paid prior to disbursing funds to the heirs, but if there are no assets, the executor is not liable to pay debts. </p>
<p>The only way she may be on the hook is if she signed paperwork at the hospital saying she’d pay. And in that case, I would hire an attorney ASAP.</p>
<p>Would some of the information from [url=<a href=“http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/executor-probate/]Nolo[/url”>Estates, Executors & Probate Court | Nolo]Nolo[/url</a>] help? Such as [url=<a href=“http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/question-do-i-inherit-mothers-debts-28018.html]this[/url”>http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/question-do-i-inherit-mothers-debts-28018.html]this[/url</a>]?</p>
<p>And if he was hospitalized, without insurance, steps should have been taken by the SW to enroll him in Medicaid.</p>
<p>Correct BOTW. As executor (actually it would be executrix), she would have to handle funds if there is anything in the estate, but correct, she is not PERSONALLY responsible for bills. Thats what I meant; sorry if that wasnt clear. He might be getting a tax refund and that $$ would be used to pay bills, etc. Executrix would be responsible for getting the decedent’s taxes filed.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your responses. For a little more information I know, he was a part time worker with no benefits. His mom (who is ninety and not originally from this country) found him in his apartment, she said, already passed on. She called the paramedics who tried to revive him but couldn’t, and they took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. </p>
<p>Everyone is telling her not to pay anything yet, this just happened a few weeks ago, but she is the kind of person who can’t sleep if there is an outstanding bill. We are all trying to settle her down, so she doesn’t use all of what little she has to pay the bill.</p>
<p>I will help the family look into all the advice given.</p>
<p>I’d be very surprised if he had a will. As a result, his mother may be his sole heir–but that doesn’t make her the executrix of the estate.</p>
<p>I certainly agree that she shouldn’t pay the bill–or any other bill of his, for that matter. She might need to go to a legal aid lawyer before she’ll believe that advice, though.</p>
<p>Yes, I should have been a bit clearer. The executor (whoever it is) should consult an attorney. This is not a job anyone should undertake without at least a consultation with an attorney. If the mom is the executor, she should. If it is a sibling or someone else, they should, and can advise the mom. State law varies considerably on estate issues, and I would not rely solely on a book or the internet for information (I have several books on the topic myself, but they are no substitute for an attorney with experience in estates in your state). Sometimes I do some research on my own before talking to the attorney to save some fees (just did that last night, in fact), but I always get confirmation (and sometimes find out that there was more to an issue that I expected).</p>
<p>Can you explain what issues that an attorney could resolve in the OP’s case? That is, where a person dies leaving no money but a single $10,000 a debt. </p>
<p>I understand that in your case - settling a multimillon dollar estate - an attorney was beneficial. But that’s not the OPs situation.</p>
<p>Lassie,</p>
<p>Is his 90 yr old mother really capable of handling any of this stuff?? She can decline the responsibility and see if any of the siblings will step up to the plate to help her out. If not, then I suppose the courts would have to appoint someone to manage things, but she might still be getting phonecalls or bills, which it sounds like will stress her out. Is someone having to close out his apartment and sell his belongings, cancel utilities, credit cards, etc? (I am in the middle of this with my late father’s estate, and did this with my mom as well, so am familiar with the amount of time/energy it takes.) I wouldnt wish this on any 90 yr old person.</p>
<p>BOTW-
I think you may have deleted your last post, but since I was in the middle of responding I’ll go ahead. I am not an attorney, but speaking from my own experience, someone has to be appointed to handle the decenents property (belongings, car, etc) contracts ( apartment lease, utilities, cellphone, checking account, etc) file his 2010 taxes, etc. Legal aid can advise a person/family how to start this, and usualy they work at low or no cost. They are not going to take the family on as a private client to handle the estate, especially since there isn’t one and the family has limited funds. </p>
<p>I really hope one of the siblings steps up to help their mother. It is patently unfair to expect a 90 yr old who isnt from this country to be able to handle this process. I have had enough struggles dealing with the day-to-day stuff with my parents estate issues and I have a Ph.D.!!!</p>
<p>What I don’t know is who is appointed to administrate the estate of a person who dies intestate, and no family steps forward to apply to be the executor. It might be that the next of kin is presumed to be the executor, but it also might be that some other person (such as a court official) might be appointed. If it’s the latter, the mother doesn’t need to do anything. If there’s any money, the executor will use it to pay some of the bills, and there probably won’t be anything left for her.</p>
<p>I can tell you that you do not always get accurate information from people like bankers, creditors, landlords (who might be holding security deposits), estate liquidators if there is furniture to be sold, etc. They are not always looking out for your best interests, or following the rules per estate law in your state unless someone holds them to it; many will get away with what they can. And it is easy to misstep (eg, put funds for the sale of items into your personal account when you should have an estate account setup initially, things like that). There are tax returns to file for the deceased person, and sometimes the estate (state and federal). If you have not done it, you have no idea. Even a simple estate has many considerations.</p>
<p>The OP did not say the person only has a single $10,000 debt. That is the issue that prompted the post, but there is surely more to consider than just that. If the family does not know what to do about that debt, it implies that no executor is in place yet – or if they are, they don’t know where to go for legal advice.</p>
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<p>This is a good point. </p>
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<p>And this is also a good point.</p>
<p>Accidentally posted this in the wrong thread-- kinda fits with how overwhelming all this estate stuff is-- my head is spinning! Here is what was meant for this thread:</p>
<p>To give an example of all the little details that pile up-- we were able to sell my father’s car, and when I called the insurance carrier to cancel the auto policy, they said they had to have some form from the DMV showing that the plates were returned in order to cancel the policy. My DH unfortunately got to the DMV to return the plates 5’ after they closed that day (Friday). So, since we are out of state and back in our home state, we had to mail the plates in, which required me going to the post office to do this because of the size of the envelope and needing to get tracking/delivery confirmation for the plates. So ok, the plates show as having been received on March 16, but this is my third call to the insurance agency to see if they were able to get confirmation that the database was updated, as I haven’t yet received this form they are supposed to send. Nope. Headquarters in the state capitol still hasn’t updated their database, even though we can confirm that the plates were received 2 weeks ago. Sigh…</p>
<p>There are a gazillion other details to take care of, though surely more than the OP’s aunt is having to face, since I am dealing with a house and contents to sell, repairs to make to get it ready for sale, bills, insurance companies, credit cards, forwarding his phone (for at least a few months) to our home # out of state (that took 5 calls to Verizon to straighten out, with constant wait times-- on hold for many minutes and screw ups, etc) Fortunately I had set up some of these accounts on line so had some access to account info, but when one has to talk to a human being (ie to change the rate plan on his phone to set up call forwarding and add back long distance which they inadvertently removed which I then had to authorize to be added because they’d deleted it, etc etc etc), if you aren’t already listed as an authorized representative/agent for the account holder, and especially if you use the word “deceased”, roadblocks go up. I am dealing with this with my dad’s mortgage, which I paid on line but the bank sent it to the wrong address and it hasnt posted. We refinanced his mortgage 2 yrs ago to pull out cash for him to live on that was a nightmare) but of course the bank doesnt show all the necessary documents (that were sent to them a gazillion times) to show I am authorized to speak on his behalf. So I played the “hypothetically speakling” game with the guy at the mortgage company… “hypothetically- if the payment was sent erroneously to your payoff address instead of to the monthly mortgage address, when woudl it get to your office sine the bank sent a paper check instead of an electronic payment?” All he’d say is “the account has a zero payment due for this month” to which I replied “hypothetically, what will it show on April 1?” and all he would say is “it shows a zero paymet due (since March is paid”.) This took 2 calls to my bank and 2 to the mortgage co , with no resolution yet. </p>
<p>Didnt mean to hijack this thread, but just giving a flavor for the kind of stuff that has to be handled. As someone upthread said, you don’t understand until you have had to go through it.</p>