Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas

Estate and a Credit card debt:

My mother passed away in May of 2009 here in Texas, she has a house that is paid for and a car which my sister transferred the title into her name and with her money paid the car off. My mother has 3 credit cards that she owes and I was able to negociate and pay two of them off however on this third credit card they only wanted to shave off a small %. The balance is about $5,400 and they said they would take $4,700 to settle. I told them I don't believe we have that much to pay them. They asked if we were going to sell the house and I told them no, but they said well we will send out a claim. They also said that the house could be sold to pay off debt. They made it sound as though they would proceed to make us sell the house so that they could get paid.

At this point I believe they are the only ones we owe money

Note: We have used the money from the estate to pay off two other credit cards, funeral, court fees, lien on the house and we have a small amount of money left to pay that last credit card but not enough to pay what they are asking for. I think we have about $3,100 left in the estate account.

So my question is, can they sue us to sell the house so that the one credit card company can get paid off? Also can I let the courts know that they were not willing to work out a payoff amount and that I had to use what little money I had in the estate to pay an attorney to help negociate a lower amount? (that money that was in the estate could have gone to credit card debt instead of an attorney).

Thank you


Asked on 11/17/09, 12:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Donald McLeaish McLeaish&Associates;, P.C.

yes they can file probate to collect a debt..but if you had contacted a probate attorney, the other credit cards may have been reduced ...as much of the "debt" may be false late charges/increase interest..etc...so NO a court does not care you made a choice to "negotiate" without knowing the law...but contact a probate lawyer in your area now to know what your rights are

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Answered on 11/22/09, 4:43 pm


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