The short answer
Keep paying the bills that keep the house running, including the mortgage and any car loan. Hold off on any other debt in his name until you have asked whether you owe it.
You're generally not responsible for his debts. They are paid from his estate, and if the estate can't pay, the debt usually goes unpaid. There are four exceptions, named in this chapter, so ask before you pay anything of his.
This chapter explains how things usually work in the United States. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and the rules where you live may differ. Before you act on anything here, check it with one of the people named at the end of the chapter.
What to do
- List the bills due in the next sixty days, and whose name is on each one.
- Keep paying the ones that keep the house running, including the mortgage and any car loan.
- Do not close a joint account that pays bills.
- Hold off on any other debt in his name until you have asked whether you owe it.
- Ask any collector to put everything in writing, and log every call.
- Move important autopays off his card.
- Call the company before you miss a payment, if money is short.
What can wait
- Paying his credit cards, until you know whether any of them are yours.
- Closing his accounts. The executor or the lawyer can tell you when.
- Putting the household bills into your name.
- Sorting his older bills and statements, beyond the next sixty days. Book 2, The Money, comes back to his debts once the estate is under way.
Who can help
A probate or estate lawyer can tell you whether a debt is yours under your state's rules. To find one, call your state or local bar association and ask for its lawyer referral service, or use the ABA directory: americanbar.org/directories/lawyer-referral-directory.
For free civil legal aid if your income is low: lsc.gov. A helper, or a librarian at your public library, can do this search with you.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a page on debts after a death. Go to consumerfinance.gov and search for deceased relative's debts.
The National Foundation for Credit Counseling, nfcc.org, 1-800-388-2227, connects you with nonprofit credit counselors.
The rules, phone numbers and web addresses in this book were checked against the agencies’ own pages in October 2026. They change, so check anything you rely on with the office itself.
From Book 1: The First 30 Days
This page has the short answer and the closing lists from chapter 9. The full chapter explains, in plain words, what exists, what to ask, and who can answer. The book covers the first month.
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