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My situation is as follows: up until a few months ago, my father, mother and I lived in a house (in Canada) which was solely in my mother's name. There is a home equity line of credit associated with the house with quite a bit owing on it. My mom recently passed away, leaving just my dad and myself living in the house. My dad is the sole inheritor of her estate and we would like to stay in the house if possible.

That said, nobody seems to be able to give me a confident answer regarding what will happen to the line of credit now. Assuming my dad and I are able to make the payments on it, can we just carry on with it as it is? Or will the bank force us to pay it off in some kind of lump sum? Or will they force my dad to re-qualify for the loan based on his current income?

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  • Did you ask the bank?
    – chili555
    Aug 11, 2015 at 20:09
  • We've advised the bank of the situation and they've told us they'll look into things. This was two months ago. Presumably, eventually, they'll come back to us with the definitive answer, but in the meantime we need to rework our household budget and it would bring me a lot of peace of mind if I had a good idea what was coming down the tunnel.
    – Swiftheart
    Aug 11, 2015 at 21:27

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I'm sorry for your loss. You will probably need to repay in full before disbursing the estate or refinance the debt in your/father's name, but the right person to talk to would be the estate attorney you're working with. If you don't have one yet - that's a good time to find one.

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  • Can you expand at all on what's behind the "probably?" Despite having a home, the estate isn't exactly huge and I'm not sure we can spend the money on an estate attorney if it's at all avoidable.
    – Swiftheart
    Aug 10, 2015 at 1:47
  • @Swiftheart since I'm not familiar with the actual laws and the loan contract in question, I can only speculate. Probably comes to show that I'm speculating. Your estate attorney is familiar with the actual laws and will familiarize him/herself with the actual loan contract and will be able to provide more definitive answer.
    – littleadv
    Aug 10, 2015 at 6:18

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