If a person dies with unpaid debts, are the debts cleared or does it pass onto the person's family?

Not legal advice: Debts are not passed on to others after death, unless someone else was a joint-creditor or a guarantor. However, first all of the assets of the deceased are accumulated, and then creditors are paid off with those assets in a specific order from most secured (such as a mortgage) to least secured (such as credit card debt) and finally to the Exchequer. No assets are distributed to heirs until all debts are taken care of.
Updated on Monday, February 06 2012 at 11:27AM GMT
Collections: debtcredit card debtsuretycreditorsexchequer