I inherited a house in Washington and the mortgage is behind. What do I do?

These steps are in the order they usually matter. Some overlap, and a probate attorney should guide the legal ones.

Call the servicer and ask to be confirmed as a successor in interest

The servicer is the company named on the monthly mortgage statement, which may not be the bank that made the loan. Find the most recent statement in the mail at the house. Call the number on it, say the borrower has died, and ask how their successor in interest process works.

They’ll ask for documents. Expect a death certificate and something showing your connection to the house, such as a will, letters from the court, a trust, or a deed. Send what they ask for, keep copies, and note the date you sent it.

Once a servicer confirms you as a successor in interest, federal servicing rules generally require it to treat you much like a borrower. You can get statements and account information, and you can apply for the same kinds of help a borrower could, such as a repayment plan or a loan modification. Confirmation on its own generally doesn’t make you personally liable for the loan.

While you have them on the phone, ask for these in writing:

• The amount past due, and a reinstatement quote with a good-through date
• A payoff quote for the full balance
• Whether a notice of default or a notice of trustee’s sale has gone out, and the sale date if there is one
• Whether property taxes and homeowner’s insurance are paid through an escrow account

Can the lender call the loan due because the owner died?

Generally, no. A federal law, the Garn-St Germain Act, keeps a lender from enforcing a due-on-sale clause just because a home passed to a relative when the borrower died. The loan stays in place on its original terms.

The payments still have to be made, though. What triggers a foreclosure is the default, and the default continues whether or not anyone living knows about it. Inheriting the house also doesn’t usually make you personally responsible for the debt unless you signed the loan. The mortgage is attached to the house, and the house is what’s at risk. An attorney can confirm how this applies to your family.

Who has authority to act for the estate

The answer depends on how the house was titled when the owner died.

If it was held jointly with a right of survivorship, or a surviving spouse holds it under a community property agreement, the survivor may already own it. If it was in a living trust, the successor trustee named in the trust usually acts. Washington also recognizes transfer on death deeds, which pass a house to a named beneficiary without probate. The deed on record with the county will tell you which of these applies.

If none of them do, someone generally has to be appointed through probate. That means filing in superior court. Washington generally lets the person filing choose the county, and families often file where the owner lived or where the house sits: Pierce County Superior Court in the County-City Building in downtown Tacoma for a house in Tacoma, Puyallup, or Lakewood, or King County Superior Court for one in Kent, Renton, or Federal Way. Your attorney will know whether your situation limits the choice. The court appoints a personal representative and issues letters that prove their authority. Being named executor in a will isn’t enough by itself until the court makes that appointment.

In Washington, a personal representative granted nonintervention powers can generally sell real estate without asking the court to approve the sale. Title companies will want to see the letters. A probate attorney can tell you which kind of appointment to ask for and how long it usually takes in that county.

Check the calendar, the taxes, and the insurance

Notices from the trustee often go to the house, addressed to the owner or to the owner’s heirs. Check the mailbox weekly or have the mail forwarded, and put every notice in one folder in the order it arrived. The dates on those notices decide how much room you have.

Ask the county about property taxes too. An older owner may have fallen behind on taxes as well as the mortgage, and an escrow account doesn’t always mean the taxes are current. The article on unpaid property taxes in Pierce and King County covers how that works.

Then call the homeowner’s insurance company. Policies often limit coverage on a house that sits empty, and a burst pipe during a January cold snap is expensive. Tell the agent the owner has died and ask what they need to keep the house covered. Keep the heat on low and the water supply watched until someone is living there or the house is sold.

Keeping the house: catching up, assuming the loan, or refinancing

If someone in the family wants to keep the house, there are three common routes. Each depends on the servicer or a lender, so start early.

Catching up means paying the past-due amount and fees through reinstatement, from estate money or from an heir. Assuming the loan means taking it over in your own name on its existing terms. A confirmed successor may be able to do that, and it’s worth asking the servicer directly, especially if the old interest rate is attractive. Refinancing means replacing the loan with a new one in the heir’s name, which often requires the title to be in that heir’s name first and income that qualifies. When one heir keeps a house that several people inherited, a refinance is often how the others get paid their share.

Selling an inherited house before a trustee’s sale

If no one wants the house, or no one can carry it, a sale before the auction protects whatever equity is there for the estate. The person with authority signs the listing. At closing, escrow pays off the mortgage and any other liens, and the rest goes to the estate for final bills and distribution to the heirs.

Most of the practical work is the contents. Let family members take what they want first, the china in the hutch and the photographs off the walls. Keep every piece of paper about the house, including old tax statements, the deed, and loan letters. After that, an estate sale company or a cleanout crew can clear the rest. Many inherited houses sell as they are, and buyers expect that.

Work backward from the date on any notice of trustee’s sale. The guide to what you’d walk away with after selling in foreclosure shows how to estimate the estate’s share, and the options page lays out the alternatives side by side. Ask a tax professional how the sale is treated for the estate and for each heir.

When several heirs share the decision

Heirs rarely want the same thing. Someone hopes to keep the house, someone else needs the money, and a relative out of state mostly wants to be kept informed. The foreclosure calendar doesn’t wait for the family to agree.

What helps most is getting everyone the same numbers at the same time: the payoff quote, the reinstatement amount, an honest opinion of what the house would sell for, and the sale date. If heirs end up owning the house together and can’t agree, a court can order it sold in a partition case, which is slow and costly. That’s a conversation for an attorney.

Reverse mortgages follow different rules

If the loan is a reverse mortgage, most of the above doesn’t apply. There are no missed monthly payments to catch up. The loan generally comes due when the last borrower dies or moves out, and heirs get a limited period to pay it off, sell the house, or let it go back to the lender. Federally insured reverse mortgages have rules that can let heirs settle for less than the full balance. Call the servicer right away, and talk with a HUD-approved housing counselor, because the time allowed for those choices is short.

Questions

Am I personally responsible for my parent’s mortgage?

Generally not, unless you signed the loan or later take it over in your own name. The debt is secured by the house, and the estate settles it through a sale, a payoff, or an agreement with the servicer. A probate attorney can confirm this for your situation.

Does a foreclosure stop when the homeowner dies?

No. A foreclosure that was already under way can continue, and a new one can start if the loan stays behind. That’s why the first call goes to the servicer and the dates on any notice come before other decisions.

Who should keep making the payments while probate is open?

Keeping the loan from falling further behind protects every option, including a sale. Whether the estate pays or an heir pays and is repaid later is a question for the personal representative and their attorney. Keep records of every payment either way.