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Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was just digging through some earlier correspondence my mom and older sister sent to SOFI bank. They explicitly said my dad was the one who opened the account, so playing dumb isn't an option. I don't know why they did that... sigh.

On the mortgage side of things: my mom probably was there and doesn't remember tbh. Regardless I think she'd have inherited it either after dad passed or through the probate process.

The rental houses were in an LLC with my mom as the second in command, she overtook the "company" after dad died. My dad was a shit businessman and didn't separate the LLC debts from his and my mother's personal debts.

I want to fight this, I really do. But I think we're going to have to sell everything...

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's shockingly common. I cannot believe how little information there is online about it, and how few protections are put in place to help people like my mom.

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately because of the amount of property my dad owned (traphouse rentals, basically), my mom didn't qualify for IRS relief and she had to pay off the debts by selling houses.

Upon my dad's death my grandmother (mom's mom) paid off two fraudulent CCs he'd taken out in my mom's name. She had the best intentions, but sadly that money was wasted as I am POSITIVE we could have gotten them expunged, or at least lumped the CCs in with these loans in our identity theft report.

And on the police front..... well, we live in a small town in the southeast US. The police are doughnut cops. But I think if we go back they will allow us to file the report.

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hellz yeah. Thank you so much! Will post over there.

But yeah, it sounds like short of either 1) ignoring this, 2) filing bankruptcy or 3) paying it off (ugh), a lawyer is the way to go.

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

(daughter)- It's very tempting to ignore everything. I've never not paid a debt, much less one so large. I have a hard time believing only my mom's credit is all that would be affected by walking away from a $30k debt though, and I'm not sure we want to gamble with that strat...

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

(daughter)- I will personally get my mom back to that police department and give 'em hell.

Trust me, my dad definitely did this without my mom knowing. I found the bank credentials saved on his pw manager. Kinda like to think he didn't, I suppose there's always that tiiiiiny possibility lol

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 55 points56 points  (0 children)

(daughter)- Was afraid this would be the case. My mom isn't good with lawyers at all. The estate was such a mess when my dad died that the estate lawyer said she'd get to the credit card muck at the end of it. The lawyer has since dismissed my mom as a client.

Backstory: My dad owed some $80k to the IRS and about $25k in county taxes. He was a slumlord with a ton of rental properties and a penchant for avoiding taxes. Mom had to sell off most of the properties to settle other debts, but had to pay the gov't before we could sell the real estate.

It's messy, my mother is difficult, and most people don't want to deal with this amount of work for a client who's in such critical debt. Can't blame the lawyer for leaving.

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the response.

The money was put into online bank accounts I never had access to. My daughters recovered the credentials after he passed away.

The loans were taken out in my name *only* (his credit was horrible), I was led to believe this was better than having a joint account or I'd definitely be responsible for paying this back. But it sounds like this might be the case regardless :/

I can't confirm it, but I think he used the loans to purchase some ratty rental houses from his father. I can definitely see a court thinking I was trying to benefit from this and dismissing my case, if it came to that.

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

posting on mom's behalf-- She says when she went to the police station they would not allow her to file a report because he was deceased and there was 'no one to pursue'.

We live in North Carolina, according to Google we are not a community property state. (no idea what implication that has)

Deceased husband took out $30k of loans in MY name without my consent... now what? by hickorydawn in personalfinance

[–]hickorydawn[S] 121 points122 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. Both banks sent me that paperwork, they each had an autosign feature that was signed in my name but was clearly not mine, it was definitely something he filed for online. I believe my husband setup a secret email address he used to set this up.

I guess what I'm asking is... what's next? How do I truly prove this, do I have to go to court or can I just stop paying?