My mother passed a few months ago. She was in long term care on Medi-cal "Calif" for 3 years. All she had was Social Security which all went for her care, except her monthly allotment of $35.00 which was used for her basic stuff. I had notifed all credit card companies when she went long term. Even tried to settle. 2 companies wrote off. The other 4 didn't. I havent heard from them since. But now since she is passed getting letters from collection agencies wanting to know who executor of the estate. There is no estate to say. no money, no property. All she had was Social Security which was judgement proof, & SS took back her last payment. She has $37.00 Left in account. My question what do I do with the collections that are sending letters? They know of her death because it's address to Estate of XXXX. The others may know she is passed also. Thank you.
Tell anyone that calls that she is deceased and further calls will be considered harrassment and dealt with according to the law. Be sure and ask the person what their name is, what company they work for and get their mailing address and phone number before you tell them that you will be dealing with the harassment according to the law. Do this everytime they call and do some research on how to report them and get their calls stopped.
I am sorry for your loss. I pray that you can stop this nonsense quickly.
Familiarize yourself with the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, and cite it in your letters to them advising that:
1. Your mother is judgment proof and there is no possibility of their collection anything.
2. You invoke the provisions of the FDCPA and will not after the current letter (sent certified) be speaking with them, responding to their letters, or communicating in any way.
You don't need to cite the specific provisions; be all inclusive and cite the act:
3. Therefore, they should cease any and all attempts to contact you.
I didn't check the provisions to see if they've been updated since I last read the Act, but at that time a recipient of a collection letter had 30 days within which to respond in writing. Thereafter, the debt collector should by law cease its correspondence and/or harassment.
If it doesn't, you can report it to the FTC; whether the FTC has time to do anything is another question, but you still don't have to respond to the debt collectors.
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text#806
Even IF there was an estate with money - unless you were the court appointed executor or personal representative - as some states now call it instead - this isn’t your problem or responsibility.
As a courtesy, you could send them a copy of your mothers death certificate along with a brief sentence written to say that as your mothers POA, your responsibility in regards to her affairs ended at the time of her death. Which it did.
After that - I’d ignore and toss any further correspondence from these collection agents. They get paid a LARGE percentage of any money they recover so they will go to extreme and often illegal lengths to bully/pressure/scare folks into paying bills left behind by deceased relatives.
My hubby fell for it once with a large debt his mother had - and it was like the company sent up smoke signals to all the others his mom owed. They harassed him endlessly. Eventually, hubby started giving them the address and phone number of the cemetery where his mom was buried. Probably a dirty trick to play of the poor cemetery worker who answered the phone - but it worked and in a couple of months all the harassment stopped.
they are welcome to watch the estate courts for the next year to prove it to themselves, but...no estate, no estate payout.
since you have no skin in this game, do not hire an attorney....YOU are not on the hook for any of this so why pay your own money to prove it? Just ignore the creditors after explaining the reality to them in writing.