Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

within 30 days of the administrator's request¹

within 30 days of the balance is disclosed¹

within 5 days of the initial communication, if not given in it²

within 30 days of receiving, or being assumed to receive, the validation information²

within 30 days, excluding public holidays and weekends of the request³

within 60 days of the company's response⁴

Debts are generally paid from the estate, the money and property left behind, according to state law. If there is no estate, or the estate cannot pay, the debt generally goes unpaid.⁵

Co-signers are responsible for the debt, and joint account owners may share responsibility with the other owner's estate. Authorized users on a credit card are not responsible; in a small number of states, necessaries statutes can make spouses and parents responsible for necessary costs such as healthcare.⁵

A surviving spouse is generally not responsible for a deceased spouse's debts, unless they co-signed the debt, were a joint account owner, live in a community property state that requires surviving spouses to use jointly held property to pay them, or state law otherwise makes them responsible.⁶

Community property states treat most debts incurred during marriage as jointly owed by both spouses. The CFPB lists Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, plus Alaska if a special agreement is signed.⁷

For a credit card account under an open-end consumer credit plan that is not home-secured, the issuer must give the estate administrator the balance in a timely manner on request; 30 days is deemed timely. None of this applies if a joint accountholder remains on the account.¹

Once the request is received, the card issuer must not impose fees such as a late fee, annual fee or over-the-limit fee, and must not increase any annual percentage rate. If the disclosed balance is paid in full within 30 days after disclosure, additional periodic-rate finance charges must be waived or rebated.¹

A debt collector must not contact these people at an unusual or known-inconvenient time; any time before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. local time is presumed inconvenient. They can tell a collector which media and times to use, and a written refusal-to-pay or cease-communication notice stops further contact.^{8, 9}

A collector is presumed to violate the harassment rule if it places more than seven calls within seven consecutive days about a particular debt, or any call within seven days after a telephone conversation about that debt.⁹

A collector can discuss the debt with the surviving spouse, the parent of a deceased minor or the personal representative, but cannot state or imply that they must pay it from their own assets unless they are actually liable.¹⁰

Anyone else may be contacted once by a collector looking for the personal representative's location information. The collector must not say the deceased owes a debt, and generally cannot contact that person again.¹¹

A debt collector must not bring or threaten to bring a legal action to collect a time-barred debt, one where the statute of limitations has expired. The rule's only stated exception is proofs of claim filed in a bankruptcy proceeding.¹²

The statute of limitations varies by state and debt type, and separate state probate law governs how and when a creditor presents a claim against an estate.¹²

If you dispute the debt in writing during the validation period, the collector must stop collecting until it mails you verification. The validation notice itself carries the deadline date.²

A successor in interest includes a person who receives the mortgaged property by devise, descent or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, by a transfer to a relative resulting from the borrower's death, or by a transfer where the borrower's spouse or children become an owner.¹³

Once the servicer confirms a successor's identity and ownership interest, the successor is considered a borrower for the mortgage servicing rules, including loss mitigation and foreclosure protections, whether or not they assume the loan. Confirmation does not by itself make them personally liable for the debt.^{14, 15}

On notice of a borrower's death, the servicer must promptly facilitate communication with potential successors, promptly determine and describe the documents it reasonably requires, and promptly make a confirmation determination.¹⁶

For residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, the lender may not call the loan under a due-on-sale clause for a transfer on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, a transfer to a relative resulting from the borrower's death, or one making the borrower's spouse or children an owner.¹⁷

The CFPB does not receive death reports, pays no benefits and sets no deadline of its own. Notification goes to the individual creditors, card issuers and the mortgage servicer.⁵

Regulation F (debt collection), Regulation Z (credit cards) and Regulation X (mortgage servicing) remain in effect as codified federal rules regardless of the agency's staffing or enforcement posture. They can be enforced by other regulators and, for the FDCPA, in private actions.⁵

Under Regulation F, the "consumer" a debt collector deals with includes the consumer's spouse, the consumer's parent if the consumer is a minor, the legal guardian, the executor or administrator of the estate if the consumer is deceased, and a confirmed successor in interest.⁸

A complaint is forwarded to the company. Complaint information is published, without information that directly identifies you, in the public Consumer Complaint Database.⁴

Submitting a complaint online usually takes less than 10 minutes; by phone it takes 25 to 30 minutes.⁴

CFPB guides for surviving spouses and partners: taking control of your finances with the most pressing tasks first, housing decisions, debt collection rights as a survivor, responsibility for a spouse's debts, sharing financial information, an inventory of virtual valuables, and caregivers and nursing home debt.⁶

Who qualifies: Surviving spouses and partners

The CFPB accepts complaints about debt collectors, mortgage servicers, credit card companies and other financial companies. File online at consumerfinance.gov/complaint or by phone.⁴

Who qualifies: Any consumer, or someone submitting on a consumer's behalf who discloses their relationship to the consumer