Hi BenQ
so sorry to hear about your situation, but I can help advice on the money in your mums bank – I am a probate lawyer and deal with this stuff for a living.
so, lawfully mums account should be frozen – they would s so the moment you provide them with death certificate and even the bills won’t go out.
however, because of the small amount in there the bank will release it immediately without the need for any real formal requirements – I.e go into bank with you ID a death certificate, a copy of her will if there is one and they will make you sign some paperwork and release the funds – can’t say when you would get it but no longer Than 10 days.
If that’s too long, and the bank have not been notified she has died then the account is still active then yes you could access it yourself. It would be unlawful to do so but no one would actually bring any action against you over that amount so if you choose to do that don’t worry. You can then deal with her creditors later on as they will be used to waiting long times for payments when someone passes away (they will actually just pass everything over to a pretty friendly debt collector called Phillips and Cohen associates who specialise in collecting debts from estates when people die so they are pretty understanding)
only the estate is liable for the debt, and not you personally so they can’t come after you anyway and would most likely just write the debts off – as assuming your mum had no other assets you could just say the last £300 was used for funeral expenses and the estate insolvent and the will write off the debts.
hope this helps mate
