General Chat

My daughters friend (an only child) mother died last week of Swine Flu, she has a property with a Mortgage and we wanted to know if you have a mortgage do you have to have life insurance. Will the daughter have to try to sell, could the mortgage lenders just take it back if she can't afford to pay mortgage...........any helpful advice please.

Sorry to hear that Carol.

As far as I'm aware life insurance isn't compulsory but is strongly recommended...I'm afraid I have no firm answer for the rest of the question, though suspect that if funds aren't available to pay the mortgage then the mortgage company will generally sell.

I stand to be corrected though x

from personal experience , (ours did)
I would've thought the insurance came with the mortgage,

hope so for the daughters sake.......

hopefully the mortgage supplier should have all the details, in any case

but a trawl through the mother's bank statements might turn up any direct debits that might answer the question......
Bob

Just had a google about and found this on a mortgage insurance site...

Life insurance


Contrary to many people's understanding, life insurance is not a compulsory insurance, but you would be foolish not to arrange this cover, particularly if you have a partner or children or other dependants.

(sorry for the blunt comment re foolishness but thast site were selling the insurance after all ....)

Just wanted to say how sad for your daughter's friend? Are we talking very young daughter or adult daughter?

She is an adult in her early 30's but has no idea how to handle things, she had a falling out with her mother for a while and only became friends again late last year, her mother was taken ill on boxing day and has been in hospital on a ventilator since, they tried to take her off the ventilator two weeks ago but her lungs collapsed and they put her on a special breathing machine, but she passed last week. The daughter is in a turmoil as she knew her mother wanted to be buried in Ireland but she dosn't know how to go about making arrangements ect.

Could she compromise and have her Mother cremated and take her ashes to Ireland? Maybe the funeral directors could advise her.

Sorry to hear this news - what a shock for your friend

An undertaker/funeral director would take care of the arrangements and offer guidance , but they would need to know where the internement needs to be. They may be able to contact the place concerned, but obviously your friend would have to have some idea - possibly where her mother was born, lived or where her parents are buried?

Although not directly relevant to your query, the DirectGov site has a useful check list. A print out would help to concentrate her mind.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Death/WhatToDoAfterADeath/DG_10029808

If the death is not already registered, it would be worth paying for several death cerificates so she doesn't have to wait for the only one to come back before sending it off elsewhere.

If a life insurance policy *was* taken out to cover the mortgage, the mortgage company would know, even if it was not with them, as they would be the primary benficiaries.

My sympathies to your daughter's friend Carol.

It was a timely reminder to me, and sent me downstairs to sort out my own life insurance. Have added to my 'have you made a will' thread, as a more appropriate place..

I do hope the young lady can find a helpful funeral director who will make the ordeal much easier for her.

Rose xx

My sympathy for your daughter's friend.
I agree with all the advice given on here
1. Order several death certificates
2. Get the funeral director to sort out the funeral and any wishes but find out the cost before agreeing to anything. The compromise of a cremation here and ashes in Ireland sound sensible but it all depends how much money is available.
3. If there is money available, get a solicitor to sort the lot. Yes they are expensive but they can take away a lot of the worry at such a difficult time.
4.Hopefully there will be an insurance taken out for the cover as I was advised when I took out a mortgage in my later years.
I wish your daughters friend a worry free time-jl

I have a 38 year old daughter and during her younger years, as a widow, I re-mortgaged the house without life insurance but there were other monies available. Your friends daughter needs to look among her mother's papers for anylife insurance policies/endowment policies. Unfortunately any outstanding mortgage is likely to have to be paid off somehow. The mortgage provider will advise.

The funeral director will deal with all queries from your daughter including arrangements for Ireland.

I offer my sincere condolences to you and this young woman who will be looking for support at this time to guide her through.

Regards

Vera

A sad and scary time for your daughter's friend and I send my sympathy to her on her loss. I am glad she and her mother were reunited before this happened, as it would have been so much worse to cope with had they not made up their differences.

I wonder if there is a social worker or someone at the hospital who could advise her initially on the procedures to go through. If not, I am sure the funeral director she chooses will help her make the right choices and decisions and show her to see how to get help with funeral costs if she has no money to pay.

Lizx

hello carol, so sorry for your daughters friend. glad that she was on speaking terms with her mother though before she passed.
re mort insurance, when we bought this house my husband was self employed and we could get no insurance anywhere as he could not be made redundant. has since changed his job but in this climate companies are not paying out on claims quite so easily.

she could go to citizens advice bureau for info and they are free and always helpful. hope she gets on ok.
florence

We had to have life insurance to cover the cost of the mortgage. For example if the mortgage was for £150,000 then the life cover had to be for £150,000. And this is for the life of the mortgage.

I'm so sorry to hear of your friends sad news