In the UK, close relatives (e.g. your spouse or children) do not inherit your personal debt after you pass away.

Instead, the deceased person’s debts will be paid from their estate, which includes their cash, assets, possessions and investments.

The executor of the will (or the administrator if there was no will) is responsible for paying the deceased’s debts through the estate as their personal representative, but they aren’t personally liable. However, there may be certain circumstances where the executor could become liable, such as if an unknown creditor makes a claim against the estate after the executor has paid other debts and divided the rest of the estate amongst the beneficiaries (more on this later). They could also become liable if they distribute the funds incorrectly, which is why hiring a solicitor may be wise with more complicated estates.

Am I Responsible for My Spouse’s Debt After Death?

Spouses or civil partners are often regarded as the closest relatives of a deceased person. In fact, if someone dies without a will, then intestacy rules will apply, meaning that the person’s spouse (if they have one) will inherit most or all of their estate by default.

However, this doesn’t mean that they’ll inherit any debt, unless they have a joint debt with their spouse. Joint debts could include a shared mortgage, joint loan or a joint bank account with an overdraft. These debts will become the sole responsibility of the surviving spouse.

Individual debt cannot pass along to a spouse. Therefore, if the deceased person has an overdraft on an account that’s only under their name, this debt will be paid by the estate, not the surviving spouse.

Your family isn’t responsible for paying your debts, but they will still need to be paid following your death. 

An executor pays debts through the deceased’s estate in a certain order. Higher-priority debt will come first, such as secured debts, council tax and income tax, and then all other debts (including unsecured debts) will be paid after. The beneficiaries named in the deceased person’s will can only receive their share of the estate once all debts have been paid.

Assets such as properties can be sold to cover outstanding debt. Even after this, it’s possible that the value of the estate will be insufficient to cover all the debts, and in this case, the estate will be declared insolvent and the lower-priority debt will be written off.

Having a life insurance policy can be a huge help when it comes to paying off your debts after your death. If you have a life insurance policy and die within the valid term, your beneficiaries will receive a lump sum of cash upon your death, which they can use to cover mortgage repayments, bills, funeral expenses and other general living costs.

Most of the time, the life insurance money will go to your named beneficiaries, but if no beneficiaries are named in the policy, this money will go straight to your estate instead. This means the cash will be automatically used to pay off your debt.

Although all debts must be paid following someone’s death (as long as they don’t have an insolvent estate), there’s a particular order in which they should be paid. This ensures that the most important debts are taken care of if there isn’t enough money in the estate to cover everything.

Here’s a quick summary of the different types of debts and their level of importance:

Funeral Expenses and Administrative Costs

Before money is taken out of the deceased person’s estate to pay their outstanding debts, the executor or administrator is allowed to take out money to cover administration costs and funeral expenses. 

However, the amount of money used needs to be ‘reasonable’ based on how much is in the estate. For example, you couldn’t take out a lot of money for the funeral if the estate is very small and the deceased person had a large amount of debt.

If you’re worried about being able to cover your own funeral expenses, a funeral plan could be a great option for you. With a funeral plan, you pay in instalments or pay a lump sum of cash to a funeral plan provider, who will then invest your money into an insurance policy to keep it safe. By paying for your funeral upfront and at today’s costs, you can protect yourself against future price rises and ensure that your entire funeral service is already taken care of, which will be one less thing for your family to worry about.

Secured Debt

The most important debts to be covered are secured debts. These debts are secured against an asset, such as a house or car. A mortgage is a common example of a secured debt.

If the deceased person was the sole owner of the house, then they may have named a beneficiary in their will to inherit the house and therefore take over the mortgage repayments. However, if the deceased person has a lot of outstanding debts, the house could be sold to cover these costs as it is part of their estate before it is transferred to any beneficiaries.

With a joint mortgage, which is where two people both own the entire house as joint tenants, the ownership of the house will automatically be transferred to the surviving partner and won’t be part of the estate. This person is then liable for paying off the mortgage, unless the deceased person had a life insurance policy that can cover the cost.

However, if you’re tenants in common, which means that two or more people own a share of the property each, the deceased person’s share won’t automatically pass onto the surviving partner and will instead become part of the estate. The deceased person can assign their share of the property to a nominated beneficiary in their will, but if this share needs to be sold to cover a debt, this could force the property to be sold.

Priority Debt

Once the secured debts are paid, the executor of the will must then pay priority debts. These include council tax, court fines, utility bills, income tax, national insurance and child maintenance.

The consequences of not paying these debts are more severe, which is why they are considered to be a higher priority. Once these debts are paid, the executor should ensure that all creditors are notified of the death and all future payments are stopped.

Undisclosed Debt

The executor of the will could end up being personally liable for the deceased’s debts if undisclosed debts aren’t discovered and the creditors make a claim after the estate has been divided amongst the beneficiaries. Even if the executor knew the deceased well, they could have hidden debts that they were unaware of.

To prevent this from happening, it’s a good idea to place a Deceased Estates Notice in The Gazette and a local newspaper. This gives unknown creditors a chance to come forward and make a claim on the estate before it’s shared amongst the beneficiaries. The executor should allow at least two months for this because they won’t be held responsible for undisclosed debts after this period.

Joint Debt

As mentioned earlier, no one else will be personally responsible for the deceased’s debts after death unless they had any joint debts. For example, if someone had a joint mortgage, joint loan or joint bank account with the deceased, they will become automatically responsible for these debts.

The same applies if someone has provided a loan guarantee. The guarantor will be liable for this debt if the person dies.

If you have a joint debt with someone who has died, you need to ensure that their name is taken off all future bills. If you’re struggling to make these payments on your own, it’s important to reach out to the creditors, explain the situation and see if you can agree on a more manageable repayment plan. 

Unsecured Debt

Finally, once all other debts have been settled, the estate must pay debts that are unsecured and only related to the deceased person. These individual debts can include personal loans, credit card debt, overdrafts and money borrowed from friends and family members. 

Since these unsecured debts are considered low priority, they’re paid last out of all the owed money. If there isn’t enough money in the estate to cover these final debts, this is called an insolvent estate and these unsecured, individual debts are written off.