Chasing money owed to you can be a tiresome process. Some debtors will do everything they can to avoid you or obstruct your attempts to collect from them. Yet, if you are persistent and get the right help, you should triumph in the end.
When a debtor dies before paying you, you might assume your hope of collecting dies with them. Yet it is not necessarily true.
Who signed for the debt?
If the deceased co-signed with someone else, you could pursue the co-signee for the debt. Yet, even if that is not an option, it still might not be the end of your recovery hopes.
When a person dies, the person appointed to execute their estate should notify you and other creditors of the death. They must also publish notice of their death in the press to give anyone not contacted a chance to discover the death.
The estate cannot be distributed to beneficiaries until the executor settles applicable debts. Whether or not your debt counts as applicable depends on several factors, so be sure to get help to understand. If the deceased does not have enough assets left in their estate to repay your debt, or if they transferred money out of the estate via trusts or other means, things could be far more complicated or perhaps impossible.
Reclaiming debt can be challenging enough when a person is alive. The sooner you take steps to tackle an uncooperative debtor, the more options you give yourself to get the money they owe you.