They started in on me not a month after my father passed away. He didn’t have many debts, just a few small ones, but I had to go ahead and pay them out of my own funds as they were turning stuff out to “collection agencies” (evidently bone pickers)immediately after I wrote them notification of his death and my intention to pay within weeks.
Once they learned of his death, they hardly waited until they had sent out their first bills after his death to start harrassing me, so I paid them myself in order to get them to quit calling and got his estate settled out a few weeks later. (I would have paid them as my Daddy would have NEVER let his bills go unpaid.)
I’m not sure how your father’s estate was handled, but bills should have been submitted to the estate, unless you were taking care of the whole thing. While legitimate debts should be handled before distribution to the heirs, the whole ‘collections and harassment’ thingy is just an example of how uncivil our culture has become. Merely submitting the bill should have been sufficient.
Sorry for your loss.
The hospital called on the day of my father’s funeral, over a small bill that the insurance had not paid. It was the insurance’s fault, but I can tell you I was very upset to answer the phone after coming back from the graveside to hear, “when can we expect payment on Mr. ____ account?” Not paying what my father legitimately owed was never a consideration, but when one says “he just died give me a few days to sort this out” and you get nastiness on the other end...you may lose it.
The doctor and the hospital both wrote us letters of apology.