Hi All,

My partner's father died a couple of years ago, leaving his wife and three children behind. On his death, an executor of his will was appointed (the father's solicitor) to deal with the estate. It has been two years now and there are still serious problems with debts/bailiffs and properties which have been dragging on and causing lots of worry and stress.

Basically, there is a leasehold restaurant property which was held in the father's name only (as far as I can gather) which has about 25 years left on the lease. After the death, the landlord kept asking the wife to pay money for the property. Unfortunately, the wife in question do not speak very good English, so it is very hard for me to find out exactly what is going on (and my partner prefers to bury his head in the sand about it). I understand that debts cannot be inherited after death, and must be paid off by the estate if the money is available. But what happens when there is a lease-hold mortgage to be paid? If the money to pay it is not available, would the wife have to sell or remortgage her house in order to pay this other mortgage? Does the property automatically revert back to the landlord? The solicitor unfortunately, does not seem to have been very clear about proceedings. She actually 'helped' the wife to 'sell' the property to some other tenants, who have since done a runner. But I am not sure if the wife even had a right to 'sell' the property anyway as the property wasn't in her name. The new 'tenants' apparently paid only half the money and then disappeared and are now somehow asking for the money back. The wife is also receiving visits from bailiffs about phone bills, council tax on the restaurant property, credit cards etc.As you might have guessed, not all of these leases and rentings have been done properly (i.e. if there were contracts the wife doesn't really know where they are or if they are the real deal). Added to this, there is another property with tenants who have also done a runner (This property was registered in another son's name shortly before the death) and another restaurant currently being run by the wife (which is in the name of a daughter).

I have encouraged the wife to get legal aid and go to citizen's advice bureau, which I believe she has done, but I have no idea what has happened with this. I'm sorry to say that I don't trust her solicitor. She doesn't supply paperwork when asked and has refused point blank to complete her job as executor of the will because the wife hasn't paid her. (although, this may be a good reason not to finish the job, I'm not sure!), and I'm also not impressed with her encouraging the wife to sign a property over to people who then did a runner - these people were her own personal recommendation.

I just feel that the wife is now being harrassed for money by her solicitor, the absent tenants, the landlord of the property, bailiffs (and it isn't clear who has sent them), and other bill-chasers, as well as having three other mortgages to pay, all while trying to go through the grieving process. Some of the problems have been down to poor judgement and not doing things properly re: paprework etc. but it would be good to get all of this cleared up and find out exactly what she needs to do to clear the mess up. I guess I have about a million questions but my first one would be, is the wife liable for this leasehold property which was never under her name? If the estate cannot pay for the leasehold payments, does the property revert back to the landlord automatically? At what point would this happen? Also, do joint mortgages held between husband and wife become part of the estate, and can the properties be forced to be sold in order to pay other debts?

I know it is not necessarily my personal business, but as my partner is the eldest son he is being relied upon to sort all of this out, be official translator, and he is realy struggling, and worrying that his mother, sister and elderly grandmother are going to be made homeless to pay off the creditors. I am also personally worried from a quite selfish viewpoint because marriage and children are on the cards to the eldest son and I do not want, and I do not want my children, to inherit any debts/mortgages etc. in the event, god forbid, of the wife's death and my partner's.

I hope this all makes sense and I hope someone can give me some advice!!!!