Anyone familiar with FL estate law? Know anybody?

I can't answer your question about FL law, but I would advise against paying out of your own funds.  Is anyone named the Executor of his estate?  If so, that person can assume authority to pay his bills from his funds.  (Warning!  I am not a lawyer!)  I had someone pass away in my family a few years ago who left a small estate.  The Executor was able to pay medical bills, funeral expenses, etc. from the deceased's account.

I'm sorry for your loss, by the way. 

Well, IANKIAW (I Am Not Knowledgable In Any Way), but my understanding is that you cannot access his accounts until the court recognizes you as the Executor. 

It may help to call the companies (or individuals) billing your father's estate to let them know that once this is straightened out, they will be paid.  It's possible they may waive late payment fees in this case in order to avoid collection hassels.

Please accept my condolences Susan.



I wish I had some helpful advice but I don't. Being a Florida resident I would venture that this situation is not uncommon as there are many families that are up North while the elders are down here.

I can only advise that you continue to seek legal help as there must be someone experienced with this very circumstance.

best regards,
mike

Susan,   My condolences to you on your loss.  


Call the Florida bar association and ask for the number of lawyers who work pro-bono or in many cases there are legal associations designed to specifically address the legal issues for people with small cases and little money to hire an attorney. 

Every state has them. You could also ask at the courthouse since they will know and could perhaps point you in the right direction. 


Do not pay his bills and costs from your account.  You are not legally responsible for his debt/bills.  The executor's job is to settle ALL accounts with all people and companies once that power has been conferred by a judge. If possible, you may be able to get the utilities shut off so the bills won't keep adding up. Or have someone turn off the heat so the electric is only a few dollars a month...same with water. Have the cable, phone, trash collection and other non-essential services terminated, and inform them of the death and tell them they will be paid from the estate settlement....do not offer to pay them from your pocket.  Tell them to suspend late fees and interest as well due to the death. 

At death (in most states) the will is entered into probate. A judge will hear the case and in most cases order the property disposed of according to the will. The executor of the will is the person charged with doing this. It involves closing accounts and selling the property and paying all bills and debt due, then disbursing the remaining balance (if any) to the surviving parties named in the will according to the terms of the will. 

Probate can take anywhere from a few weeks to many months. 

My wife's uncle died in September of last year. The people named in the will were informed as to who they were shortly after his funeral. This is March. We are now 6 months after and still have not heard much from the executor of his estate. The wheels of the legal system turn slowly so just be patient. But in your case it also helps if you can call them on a weekly basis..... be nice.... but be insistent that they get this resolved as quickly as possible.  
Another thing that may be useful. Have a conversation with the clerk of the court handling the probate. They can very often provide you the information you need... procedures, forms, expected time delays, and such to guide you through the process. Get the name of the person who is helping you and be sure to ask for them each time you call. While the process of probate is a bit mysterious to us who are not inside of it all the time, it is, in the end, simply a matter of filing the right forms, and waiting on the results to move to the next step of the process and eventually the end is achieved. The clerk of court knows that process.   

Hope this helps.... 




Side note: A buddy of mine was married and divorced 2 times. On his third and subsequent divorce.... (6 total to date... you would think he would finally give up on that whole marriage thing) he decided that he would do all the filings and paperwork himself to save the money and he did..... he said it's just filling out forms and filing them with the court. 

Thanks for you condolences, all; much appreciated! Sorry for the late reply.

@Guitarhacker: I won't bore you with all the gory details, but suffice it to say that I didn't have any luck finding help from the FL bar association since I live in NY and didn't get much help from the NY bar association since the proceedings are in FL. 

I had actually decided to go ahead and pay his bills before I saw your post since even though I'm not legally responsible for them at this point there's no one else to take care of them and I'd have to pay them eventually anyway. It wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things, and that way I can honestly say that the estate has no creditors.

Dad's will named his brother as executor, but in the event he declined or wasn't able to perform as such he wanted me to be executor. Uncle Bill is ill and declined in writing, so that role will no doubt fall to me. I'm the sole beneficiary of his two assets (condo and checking account) and with no outstanding debts all digits crossed it will be a simple matter. I've already canceled everything except his condo maintenance fee and electricity.

The clerks of the probate court are clearly coached to say they can't answer any legal questions, and even with a very simple question like "On the cover letter it says I should provide the last 60 days of medical bills. Is that as of date of death or does that include bills that came in later?" I was referred to a supervisor who didn't want to answer either, but eventually did. (This was after calling and leaving multiple messages over several days, BTW. I just happened to luck on a human my last call. I know they're busy, but jeez.)

At any rate, I think I've been overthinking this (how unlike me!) since the supervisor basically said (after denying that it was "their" cover letter -- well, I got it from them, so whose was it?) with such a simple form and small estate they don't dig too deep. I realize it will take a while regardless, but at least once I mail it off (and pay the $350 or whatever it is) filing fee, the ball's in their court.

Thanks very much for your time & advice, and I'll post back with the outcome.

-Susan

Hi Susan,

My condolences also. What a mess this must be for you. I have to agree with Jim (noldar12) on this. I'm not from Florida, but my mother passed away in 07. My father felt he had to pay her debts off, so he did and he didn't have to. Mom had no estate. She left us enough money to bury her. The bills were in her name, they were her debts. You shouldn't have to pay the debts of someone else on your own, especially if you are not the executor. As bad as it is to say, it's Uncle Bill's problem unless there is a legal binding via attorney that he has appointed you the executor. It's not a matter of JUST a piece of paper that he signs...it has to happen with an attorney.

If it has happened that way, all medical bills are then up to you to pay if you decide you want to keep his condo. The smart thing to do is to liquidate Dad's assets so they pay the bills and it's done with. Whatever is left over debt wise if you fall short, you tell them to pound sand up their @sses if you sell everything and it still isn't enough to cover the bills. The estate pays the bills. When the estate is dissolved, it's game over for the people that are owed money too.

Don't let anyone scare you. They can't do a thing and are saying the same crap to the other 300,000 people that owe them money. I'd definitely not pay any of dad's bills though...they are not your bills to pay. Your best bet is to hire an attorney in Florida and pay a few bucks that way instead of paying the debts of your father. This way you'll be protected by someone that knows Florida law. Good luck Susan....and hey, though this is a sad topic, it is nice to see you back here. Wish you were still around like the old days. Take care.

-Danny

Good luck Susan....and hey, though this is a sad topic, it is nice to see you back here. Wish you were still around like the old days. Take care.

That's very sweet, Danny, and I appreciate it! I did finally install the X2 demo, but that's another story for another day...


I appreciate the warnings about paying my Dad's bills out-of-pocket and I'll be careful going forward, but trust me when I say he lived a *very* simple life on Social Security the past few decades or so and I don't think there any creditors who will come out of the woodwork and make a claim against his "estate" after all this time. I'm quite sure he would have told me if he'd known of any, and if some creditor does show up I'd still feel as though it's my moral if not legal obligation to pay them. There's literally no one else responsible.


Thanks again-


-Susan

Thanks, Jim, and sorry for the (very) the late reply.
 
Just to wrap this up in case it helps someone else: I did get a judge-approved Order of Summary Administration just last week. The wrinkle was that Dad's will wasn't "self-proving," so even though it was witnessed, it couldn't be submitted to Probate in Florida as-was. It took a while to get the surviving witness to return the Oath of Witness to the Legal Aid attorney who then appeared before the court on my behalf and got it all settled. Quite a relief.
 
Moral of the story: Make sure your will (if you have one, and you probably should, even if you're hale and hearty, since you never know...) is not only witnessed but notarized.
 
It was less than six months from Dad's passing to this point (and I take it that's a relatively short span in the grand scheme of things) but there was a lot of anxiety and expense and stuff that could've been avoided if his will had been notarized. That just wasn't the kind of thing he thought about.
 
Thanks again, all.
 
-Susan