Posted 14 March If German inheritance law applied, you should have inherited half of his everything and his child or children the other half. You would have had 6 weeks after his death or after knowing of his death to refuse inheritance if you wanted to, which would have been appropriate if you knew that there were more debts than assets. Since you didn't refuse the inheritance 3 years ago, you would have been seen as having accepted it, including the debts. If you were to stop paying, the creditors may try to go after you in the UK. Whether the UK court system thinks you owe the money or not may be a different story. You may want to talk to a lawyer about this. One thing to consider if you haven't already would be to ask the creditors whether the loans were insured or not (restkreditversicherung, restschuldversicherung, kreditabsicherung, kreditausfallversicherung). I would assume this had been looked into at the time but it doesn't hurt to ask. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 March 8 minutes ago, travelerworker said: thanks! coudn't find anything about what you mention (that heirs must pay the debt with their own capital)...anyways not my business, just curious If you wouldn't have to pay debts with your own capital, there would be no point in refusing inheritance. According to Erbe ausschlagen – Das müssen Sie wissen | Verbraucherzentrale.de there is another way to handle inheritance which is to apply to the court to appoint an executor to handle the estate until it is clear whether there are more assets than debts. If there are more assets, you end up getting your inheritance in the end, if not, the executor will file for the bankruptcy of the estate. However, the estate pays for the cost of the executor and this can drag on for a couple of years so if you go this route, what little you may have inherited, ends up in the executors pocket. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 March 17 minutes ago, sluzup said: I think it is related to your status. If you don't have to pay German income tax, you are also probably not considered as resident. But I am assuming this does not apply to you. This is only applicable to people working at certain organizations. OK, I see, but at this point not sure about being resident or not relating? We were both registered in Burgeramt as residing in our home address and we were both legally living in Germany. This is more of a question on personal loans and death and marriage etc.. in fact we were married under another EU country law even... this is really difficult for me to understand here how my residence is relating to a personal loan left from my deceased spouse ... I also do not know how it works in the UK but I think this will be personal in UK not passed on but not sure - 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 March you could try to talk to a free debt counseling service. Try Google for "Schuldnerberatung kostenlos". Some bigger cities have those, some may even speak English. For example this one: https://www.schuldnerberatung-richter.de/ 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 March 13 hours ago, i-jalapeno said: I also do not know how it works in the UK but I think this will be personal in UK not passed on but not sure - But it is not really "passed on" to you. Your husband had assets and his creditors want their loans they made to him repaid. This is normal in the UK too. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 March 2 hours ago, i-jalapeno said: yes we were both lawfully residing in Germany at that time So where are you now? Your profile states "Frankfurt am Main". 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
