Responsibility of Estate for Credit Card Bills
My question involves estate proceedings in the state of: New York
My mom passed away and I was the sole heir. Within weeks of her passing, I started recieving letters from her credit card companies for me to pay her credit card bills. I believed that I had settled all that I was sent. Now, almost five years later,a credit card company contacted me and told me that I still owe them on her credit card. They said that they filed with the probate court within the legal time frame and I am liable. They also told me that it is on file in probate court. I know this is not the case, due to the fact when I dealt with the probate court, they listed only Medicare as a creditor and no mention of any other creditor. If they did file with the probate court, it did not show up as a crediter.Obviously, my question is, am I liable for this credit card bill? Why they waited almost 5 years to contact me is unbelievable. If they have legal right, I will work with them. Thank you.
Re: Responsibility of Estate for Credit Card Bills
Quote:
They said that they filed with the probate court within the legal time frame and I am liable.
did they? That is easily obtainable by reviewing the probate file. If it isn't in the file, then they are apparently mistaken. If so, tell them they are free to review the exact same file you have access to and if they should find anything you missed to be sure to send you notice of that finding.
If they find something, I suspect you will have to deal with it. Whether you are responsible or not would depend on what was in the estate that got disbursed that shouldn't have. If there were no assets to disburse to creditors of the estate, then they wouldn't have gotten paid then and they are going to get paid now.