If you die without life insurance, the mortgage does not disappear: what happens to your mortgage depends on whether the loan is in your name alone or shared, and on how the home is owned. A sole borrower's debt is dealt with from the estate; a joint borrower's usually falls to the person who survives.

Nobody has to decide anything today. A short form on this page takes your name and number, then a call comes at a time that suits from an FCA-authorised broker, free, to talk through cover sized to your own mortgage.

Where a policy does exist, whether life insurance covers your mortgage is a separate question with its own page.

Who has to pay the mortgage if the only borrower dies?

The debt stays and becomes a matter for the estate. The last step in GOV.UK's guidance on what follows a death is for whoever is dealing with the estate to "Pay any debts or taxes owed by the person who's died" before sharing out what is left under the will or the law. A mortgage is one of those debts.

Practically, that means the executor or administrator contacts the lender, and the guide adds that they may need to apply for probate before they can deal with the property and other assets; GOV.UK notes that Scotland and Northern Ireland have different probate rules. One lender's bereavement guide shows how this can look. Lloyds Bank's guide (correct as of November 2023, and about Lloyds products only) says that for a mortgage in a sole name "Mortgage payments will remain due", though the bank does not expect them for up to 18 months from the date of death to allow time to get probate, and that once probate is in place there is the option to pay the mortgage off. Other lenders set their own timings.

Without life insurance there is no separate lump sum to clear the loan, so the money has to come from somewhere else: savings and other assets in the estate, or a sale of the home. Which fits depends on the will and on the size of the debt against the home's value; whether someone who inherits the home could take the loan over instead is for the lender to decide.

What happens when the mortgage is in joint names?

A joint mortgage usually becomes the survivor's responsibility. The Financial Ombudsman Service looked at a joint mortgage in a final decision (DRN-5942774) borrowed on "joint and several terms", meaning the borrowers "are both liable for the full borrowing individually and jointly". It then set out what happens on a death: "where there is a joint liability, and one of the joint borrowers dies, their joint liability passes to the other borrower, who then becomes solely liable."

The Ombudsman added that the several liability of the borrower who died does not simply vanish: it "remains a liability of their estate". In practice, it said, the surviving borrower is often also the executor and beneficiary, and agrees with the lender to take over the mortgage so that the estate is released and the loan becomes a sole mortgage. Lloyds Bank's guide describes the same everyday pattern: monthly payments continue on a joint mortgage, and "Usually the mortgage will transfer to the name of the remaining owner", though sometimes this is more complicated.

So the survivor should expect to keep paying, and should not assume the payments stop because one name has gone. Exactly how a particular lender handles a joint account after a death varies by lender.

Can the family or the surviving partner keep the home?

Whether someone can keep the home depends first on how it was owned, and ownership is a different question from who owes the loan. The Ombudsman put it this way: "The rules of survivorship apply to the ownership of the property, not to liability for the mortgage."

For property registered with HM Land Registry, which covers England and Wales, GOV.UK's guide to joint property ownership describes the two usual set-ups:

  • Joint tenants: "the property automatically goes to the other owners if you die", and you cannot pass on your ownership of the property in your will.
  • Tenants in common: "your share of the property does not automatically go to the other owners if you die", and you can pass on your share of the property in your will.

For a surviving joint tenant, keeping the home is then mostly a question of whether they can carry the mortgage alone, which is what the lender will want to talk about. For tenants in common, or a home held in one name, the share goes under the will or the law, so the people who inherit it, and the lender, are part of the conversation. Where family members disagree about who owns what, a solicitor can say where each person stands.

If the home is in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the lender or a solicitor can confirm how ownership passes there, and so can the broker when they call.

What happens to the payments while the estate is sorted out?

The balance keeps growing if nothing is paid. The Ombudsman noted that where payments are not made, "it will go into arrears and the balance will increase". Lloyds Bank's guide says the same for its sole-name mortgages ("the amount owed will increase"), and adds that the mortgage will fall into arrears, that the Financial Conduct Authority requires it to write and tell the family, and that they do not need to take action when those letters arrive.

For that reason, telling the lender early is the useful step. GOV.UK's Tell Us Once page says that to close or change the person's financial accounts you will need to contact organisations including mortgage providers. The lender can explain which documents it needs and what it expects from a surviving borrower.

If the debt looks larger than the estate can pay, tell the lender before anything is decided.

Could cover still be arranged?

If you are reading this while well and you have a mortgage with no life cover, arranging some is possible, though acceptance and price depend on your age, health and the amount; nothing here promises either. How mortgage life insurance works explains the usual decreasing type, and what lenders expect of borrowers is in the guide on life insurance and a mortgage. If you already know you will have health questions to answer, see mortgage protection with no health questions. Cover on a joint mortgage can be one shared policy or two single ones, as joint versus individual life insurance sets out.

Whenever you want it looked at, the short form here passes your contact details on, and a call follows from an FCA-authorised broker who phones to weigh up cover against your own mortgage, at no charge. The wider set of guides is gathered under mortgage cover.

Frequently asked questions

Do the children inherit the mortgage?

Not as a personal debt. The mortgage is owed by the borrower, and after a death it is dealt with from the estate, with anyone left as a joint borrower becoming responsible too. What passes to children is what is left under the will or the law, after debts. The wider process is on life insurance and probate.

Does a surviving partner have to repay the whole mortgage?

If both names were on it, the Ombudsman's decision says joint liability passes to the survivor, who then becomes solely liable. In the same decision, where ownership of the home was being disputed in court, the Ombudsman did not think it unreasonable for the lender to make no changes to the mortgage until that was resolved.

Sources