My 94-yar old father had been in and out of the hospital a few times since June. Upon the advice of his doctor, I was told to place him in Hospice which I did, in my home. Unfortunately, he passed away this past Monday. I am getting a lot of bills for the hospital for the weeks prior to his passing. I know I am not responsible for his bills and cannot pay them. How do you handle them. I don't want to just ignore them. Should I contact the biller and just let them know that he has passed? I had been taking care of him for the past 14 years in my home.
My father had no money, save his checking account where his social security was deposited. No other assets at all. The money he did have in his account was used for his medications, personal needs, and for his cremation services. Never owned property or cars or anything.
Can the biller come after me for his bills? I am on SS myself and cannot afford to pay his old bills. Thank you for your help.
No, your are not responsible for your Dads bills. So do not let them intimidate you.
At 94 your Dad did have Medicare, did he have supplimental/ secondary insurance?
Get the bills together and sort them by doctor and hospital. Then call their billing departments. Tell them Dad had no assets. There is no money. They probably will need a copy of the death certificate. Not sure how you will prove he has no funds. Maybe a letter from a Bank officer? I would not send them anything with his acct# on it. I was able to pay off Moms balances before she went on Medicaid so I didn't have to call creditors.
There will be someone who has dealt with this.
Let us assume your father were still alive and had no money at all. They could still do nothing but bill him, and finally go to court and get a judgement against him. We don't have debtors prisons. His credit would be ruined. The collectors would eventally sell the debt to collectors for pennies on the dollar.
Wishing the best and so sorry for your loss.
1. a form “to whom it may concern” letter stating your dads name and his old address and his DOD (date of death) and that at the time of death he had no assets therefore no after death Estate. His debts are / were his alone & he died a widower. Probate will not be opened and this letter is notification that there are no assets / no funds to pay any of his debts.
The letter is short & sweet, basically a notification. You do not have to sign you name onto the letter, unless you choose to.
2. You mail the letter to each debtor letter that comes your way. Each letter sent certified mail with the return registered card (the green postcard that gets affixed to the mailed envelope) from USPO. It costs abt $8.00 for the duet. It legally establishes that they are notified and the green card will be signed off by whomever receives your letter, and the green card is returned to you. On the return registered card, you do put in your name and your address…. This way it comes back to you.
3. You get a binder going in which attached to every letter you get, you staple the certified mail receipt and then the green card.
Should any of the debtors try to pressure you to pay or imply that his debts are yours, or any other drama, you have legal dated & signed verification that he died w/out an estate & his debts were his alone. Should they sell his debt to secondary debt collection- which they likely will - you make a copy of that letter & write across it “not a valid debt” and send it plus a copy of the original form letter & the certified mail and the return registered card. (The certified mail & RRC will have the creditors name & address so you have a definite match up). This too you do the certified mail & return registered card duet. Rinse & repeat.
really truly you want to do this. The secondary debt collection outfits are notoriously bad; they will send letters addressed to you personally not dad but you personally, and if you do not do something definite within 30 days to let them know it’s not your debt, they can - if they are motivated to do this - they can take you to court to get a judgement against you for his debt.
Carefulky read the bills, most will have a time frame in which to respond to the validity of the bill. You need to get your USPO duet postmarked within that period. Once you do the first few, it’ll be easy peasy to keep it up. Good luck and get organized!
As said, collection agencies are a pain but laws are more strict with them than they are with collectors within the company calling you. The FTC oversees collection agencies. If they say they will sue, they must follow thru. If you ask them not to call you again, they can't. If you give a date that you will have the problem rectified, they cannot call you again until that date.
All you need to do is find out what they need too wipe off the debt. Send it to them certified with a cover letter. Once that is done, so is your responsibility. If they call, tell them info was sent certified, you have the date and the time and a signature if u go with the green card. The info is there, probably sitting on someones desk. Please don't call again. I one time did not send info certified. I kept getting calls it was not received. I told them it didn't come back to me either. I told them it was probably on someones's desk. The last time I got a call, I told the lady the same story and she said "must be on someones desk or forgot to enter it and filed it". No more calls.
It was an original death certificate to my Dads former employer. They had already closed down her benefits and pension it was just back up. Told them I was not sending another copy. They acted like they were the government.
No, you aren't responsible for his bills. It would probably be best to contact the biller, in writing, stating that your father is deceased and has no assets. Return receipt would cost a little more, but at least you'd have documentation that they received the notice.
If you don't notify the billers, at some point they will send it off to collections, who can possibly start harassing you. They CAN'T make you pay, but you don't need or want the harassment!
Per SS, only certain situations allow for "garnishment" and this is NOT one of them (your dad's medical debts.)
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.01/handbook-0129.html
129.2 Can Your Social Security Benefits Be Levied Or Garnished?
Listed are:
* unpaid Federal taxes
* unpaid child support and or alimony
* Court Ordered Victims Restitution (this is NOT a victim restitution!)
* delinquent debts owed to other Federal agencies, such as student loans owed to the Department of Education.
Basically, SSI payments cannot be levied or garnished.
Keep copies of the bills, but send a copy with the letter stating your dad is deceased and has no assets. Keep copies of the letters and the return receipts. It might speed up the process if you call each biller while preparing the letters, so they can be prepared to write off the debts.
Typically they can attempt, through the courts, to capture any monies owed through probate, but since he has/had no assets, there won't be any monies for them to claim as there won't be any probate.
IF these billers are jerks, they might send debt off to collectors. Don't take their crap, they aren't allowed to harass people - see this:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/debts-and-deceased-relatives
If they DO harass you, see this:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/debt-collection-faqs
I'm going to assume you never signed anything that said you were a party responsible for payment.
In addition to the advice you've already received - if/when you get phone calls from the collections people DO NOT in any way, shape or form agree to or even intimate agreement to take on responsibility for these bills! For example, if they ask for dad, and after you've explained that he's deceased with no estate, if they ask "then who is responsible to pay these bills?" just repeat "he's dead, and there is no estate". Don't even offer to "check" to see if there's any way the bills could be paid. Once they get some sort of acquiescence for payment, they can run with it and hold you responsible. They will threaten, cajole, urge, etc. someone - anyone - to agree to pay. If they continue to harangue you, hang up/don't answer.
Good luck.
They'll be trying to ding the credit of a dead man, so let them go for it. If collection agencies call, you tell them no such person lives there and do not call again -- end of discussion. If they continue to call, keep track of those calls (date, time, name of caller/company, what they say), but do not engage with them at all. These are the bills of someone who is not you, so there's no reason for you to discuss any of it.
Under NO circumstances do you pay one dime to anyone. If Dad has any money left at all, keep it in the account untouched for a while in case someone tries to garnish it. They might be able to do that -- I'm not a lawyer, so I can't tell you if that's the case, but it sounds like the amount in his account is insignificant.
I am so very sorry for the loss of your father. Praying for peace and comfort for you.
Make a list of each company you call and the date you called them so you have a record. Any more bills arrive after telling them???? Trash can.
I say don't order more than two or three copies.
The collectors do have a chance to submit a claim against the Estate. Check the laws in your state about this.
You're not responsible for his bills, like the other responders have mentioned.
You know you don't have to pay. so don't worry about the bills. You have several ways to deal with them. If you're grieving and don't feel like doing anything, then you can ignore them, and throw them out. Or if you want to notify the creditors properly, follow igloo's advice. And if any creditors try to be an @ss, give them your dad's forwarding address to the cemetery where he was buried, or where his ashes are kept, be sure to include cemetery name and plot #.
Any that name your father, I should write "deceased - return to sender" on the unopened envelope and pop it back in the mail.
After that, she began recycling all mail that she didn't understand. That included the hospital bill. I figured it out a few months later when I spotted a notice that her apartment insurance had been terminated due to non-payment. Along with changing her contact address for every financial institution, utility, and every other service to my own address, I contacted the hospital to give them her new billing address.
I never did see that bill from the hospital, so I guess they do give up eventually.
Do not open these bills. Write "Deceased - Return to Sender" on the envelope. You are not his spouse and the hospital cannot come after you to pay his bills.
Any bills that come in the mail with his name on them, write DECEASED on the envelope and Return To Sender, then put them back in the mail.