Hi -- Even had the house been held as joint tenants rather than tenants in common... there would still be no guarantee that a claim could not be made on your Fathers share had the property been, "made over" within the last five years.

As it stands now your Father's creditors do have a legitimate claim on the half share of your Fathers house (equity), because it is now a part of his estate.

Your Mother can negotiate to pay off the creditors in order to keep the whole house if she desires, or they could eventually force a sale to reclaim the monies owed to them.

You or other people are not personally liable for any debt that cannot be repaid out of your Fathers estate.... unless they were joint loans of course, see enclosed article below.

http://www.multikulti.org.uk/en/debt/what-to-do-about-debts-when-someone-dies/

My father recently passed away and my mother has requested that I deal with the estate (I'm a named Executrix). All looked as though it would be pretty straight forward until we started getting all the finances through.

It seems that my father's estate owes more money than it is due (no investments / shares etc.) all he does have is half the house that my mother lives in. This is not held in Joint tenancy therefore does not pass directly to her (they signed a legal document to declare this) and my fathers half of the house is due to be put into a life time trust for my mother held by myself and my brother.

What we are worried about is if we are going to be forced to sell his half of the family home to pay his debts. We also wanted to know if we are going to be held liable for any debts due from the estate.

Thanks very much for any advice you can give!!