Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

I'm sorry to hear about your mother's condition. It's too bad you have to worry about legal problems at a time like this.

After your mother passes away, her estate will be responsible for her remaining bills. (However, if she has co-signers or other co-obligors on any of those debts, the creditors can pursue them.) As long as the executor manages the estate properly, the creditors won't be able to go ofter your mother's heirs.

I don't know whether or how the trust that owns your mother's house would be involved in her estate. Perhaps you should re-post this question under wills & trusts, probate or some other related subject area.

Good luck in this difficult time.

It's always tough to deal with the passing of a life, especially one so close to you. My condolences. Mr. Hoffman is correct that the estate, meaning the assets your mother leaves behind, will be responsible for the debts, not you or anyone else handling those assets (as Mr. Hoffman said, provided you do it correctly). Those debts will have to be paid before anyone inherits anything, however. I'm just guessing that the trust that owns hour mother's house is part of an estate plan that includes a "pour over" will, meaning that anything in her estate that has not been put in the trust before she passes, is willed to the trust to be divided among the beneficiaries according to the trust. This is a very common tool to avoid or at least simplify probate. But of course the legislature would not allow this simple tool to be used to make an estate worthless so creditors could not reach it. So the bottom line is that the creditors will most likely have to be paid out of the trust one way or another. The only exception I can think of is if the trust was not a "living trust" but rather was irrevokable, and the necessary formalities and taxes were paid at the time. Almost NO one ever does that, as it tends to be expensive and receives disfavorable tax treatment.

If the house is the only asset of the estate from which the creditors can collect, yes they could theoretically lien the house, but they would have to sue to do it. If your mother has no other assets out of which to pay the bills, you may have to choose between selling the house and raising the money some other way out of your own resources. That's a judgment call you would have to make as to whether the house will appreciate enough to make it worth it.