What Can Creditors Legally Do When Collecting From a Deceased Spouse?

When your spouse dies leaving behind debts, your spouse's creditors have the right to try to collect those debts from your spouse's estate, the property your spouse left behind. In general, the creditors cannot pursue you for your spouse's debts, though there are some exceptions. Talk to an attorney for legal advice about what actions a creditor can take in any debt situation.

Probate and Debts

If your spouse dies leaving debts, her creditors can recover the unpaid debt from her estate. An estate is all the property, both assets and debts, that a person leaves behind after death. In order to recover unpaid debts against an estate, the creditor has to file a timely claim with the estate administrator, who is sometimes known as a personal representative or executor. Probate laws differ among states, but in general a creditor has a limited time to file a claim against an estate once the estate administer publishes notification of the debtor's death.

Estates

A creditor can take property from an estate to satisfy an unpaid debt, but not all property the decedent owned is included in the estate. An estate generally consists of the decedent's individual, not joint, property. Also, some individual property may be exempt from creditors. For example, according to Poyner Spruil LLP, a North Carolina law firm, a "year's allowance" is exempt from creditors in North Carolina as of this article's publication. A year's allowance is an amount of assets between $10,000 to $20,000 to which the decedent's surviving spouse and children are entitled and which creditors may not take.

Joint Debts

As long as the debt is an individual one your deceased spouse owed, you are generally not responsible for repaying it. However, if you and your spouse had a joint debt, the creditor does not have to file a claim against the estate. Because you are alive and are a co-debtor, the creditor can hold you responsible for the debt. For example, if you have a joint credit card with your deceased husband, you are still responsible for paying the credit card bill after he dies even if you never used the card and didn't make the purchases.

Considerations

A handful of estates have "community property" laws that apply to married couples. Essentially, these laws mean that spouses may be joint owners of the other spouse's property and debts. In these states, a creditor may be able to pursue the surviving spouse for the debtor's property, though community property laws differ.