Am I obligated to pay my deceased husband's debt?
Full Question:
My husband died intestate in Colorado. His and my only descendant is our daughter who was 21 years old at the time of his death. We were supporting her while she attended college. She was a junior when he died. Most of our property and assets were held jointly, including our home, cars, checking and savings accounts. I was the beneficary of his life insurance and a savings account and 401k's established through his employers. Basically, all assets of value became my sole property because they were held jointly or passed to me as a beneficiary. I did not obtain legal advice as there was no will to probate and no estate to settle as his only personal property (his clothing and jewelry I gave him as gifts) would be worth less than the $26,000 which Colorado excludes from an estate to go to the surviving spouse. He had no other property that was titled in his name only - only personal property such as clothing, jewelry, a few tools he brought to the marriage and possessions like that. My husband had a credit card in his own name. I was an additional card holder only. After his death I made payments on the card for almost two years even though I was not contractually oblilgated to do so. The payments totalled about $7,000. I recently informed the card company I can no longer make the payments and that I was not a party to the contract and had no responsibility to pay off the debt. They referred the matter to collections which says the estate is responsible for satisfying the debt. I do not want to incur the legal expense of having to "prove" to the collections company that there was no remaining estate by getting legal counsel and having the matter settled by the courts. However, I don't think they're going to go away with just my explanation of why there is no estate. I'd like to know if I'm correct in my assessment of my standings with regard to (1) my not being responsible for the credit card debt, and (2) there being no estate to settle. Additionally, if I am forced to incur legal expenses to defend my position on the lack of an estate to pay the credit card debt, is there any recourse against the collections company? Do they have the burden or proof or do I?
05/12/2007 |
Category: Debts and Credit |
State: Colorado |
#4566
Answer:
Regarding the credit card debt, you are obligated if you are on the contract. Regarding the estate and the debt, the credit card company can file a claim against the estate and try to establish the claim and then go after the assets, if any, that could have been in the estate. Whether they will go through this is unknown. Your knowledge appears to be good and you may be able to resolvbe it with them by continuing your communication with them.
