My dad passed away after fighting cancer for several years, he lost his job about 2-3 years ago and had since been on unemployment or lately disability. He left behind my mom, my siblings (16 in school and 21 in college) and myself and my older sister who are 24 and 25. I'm financially independent now, making enough to pay bills and save any extra. My older sister refuses to help financially.
My dad’s cancer had left him in a horrible state physically and mentally and it was difficult if not impossible to manage for my mom who took care of him. Their financial situation got worse when my mom lost her normal job taking on part time work. He opened up credit cards under himself, but also my mom sometimes without her knowing so that he could pay expenses or buy things he thought were necessary. He handled all of their finances, and was very controlling of everything so my mom knew little about what was going on and while he did work he made most of the family’s income. He was horrible with money, and they had used up all of their savings and drained their 401k where my mom now owes back taxes I'm sure as she cashed out about 25k.
I have now taken on the priority of helping my mom through this, and getting her on her feet. She has an hourly job making roughly 30k a year with no benefits so while she’s working during all of this I’ve taken the time off I’m fortunate to get to figure this all out. She has a basic understanding of which credit cards and accounts she has and I've mostly tried to collect as much info from her through pulling her credit report and seeing what is on it:
Mortgage: Our main house at best might have about $40-50k of equity. Its been on the market for months and she cannot afford the monthly mortgage payment. The other was an investment property they had bought, which is mortgaged only under my mom and not my dad. The house is smaller and significantly less so my mom is planning to move there with my siblings.
Credit card debt under my mom’s name: $14,000 This was very difficult to figure out, most of it was research through her credit report to figure out what was actually hers and not my dads who had several thousand more. Spread across 10+ credit cards with 2-3 listing my dad as an authorized user (verified on his report).
Personal loan: $18,000 According to her credit report this was charged off and sold off, she got a notice from a new lender with a settlement payment of $15,000 as she has been past due since last fall.
Car loans: They’re all joint accounts with my dad. They have three cars, but for one of them I sold my car and took over the payments on it... $21,000 financed car no equity (-5k) equity ($490/mo) $12,500 financed car ($390/mo)
Student Loan: My one sibling in college had to take out a plus loan, and my mom currently has deferred loan obligations until 2020.
On top of all of this, she has a civil judgment for $1,300 for a medical bill and $200 in collections from other medical expenses. My dad had been in and out of the hospital for about a year, with multiple surgeries but insured under Obamacare. I’m sure there are an immense amount of medical bills and I don't know if they'll fall on my mom or not. I didn’t know things were this bad and I’m trying to get her back on her feet by selling the main house, moving her and my siblings to the smaller more affordable home and leaving her with just one car and helping her find a better job where they’ll be moving.
I’m looking for advice on how to handle all of this because I’m losing my mind after losing my dad. He personally had another 27k in credit card and personal loan debt on his credit report, and as far as I know my mom was not on those accounts. I don’t think lenders can go after my mom for that debt, but what about their joint assets (cars, house)? I’m hoping to get some direction on this. He had no will, and no life insurance.
Submitted June 19, 2017 at 12:12AM by askingforafriend98 http://ift.tt/2sqRRZv
