Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Texas

In general, spouses and other heirs of the decedent are not responsible for the individual obligations of the decedent. As an interested party in the decedents estate, a creditor has standing to request an administration of the estate in order to determine whether there are any assets in the estate that could be sold to pay the debt. Typically finance companies won't waste the time or money to do so unless they have reason to believe that there are substantial assets to be sold.

In this particular situation, I generally advise my clients to contact the creditor, let them know the debtor is deceased and provide them a copy of the death certificate. Generally the creditor will cease any further collections of the debt. Of coarse, you need to be absolutely sure that the decedent was the only debtor and there were no other debtors or guarantors associated with the debt.