A citizen of Centre-du-Québec, who is trying hard to collect the $50,000 inheritance left by his sister, accuses the Laurentian Bank of annoying him by putting obstacles in his way, but the financial institution denies having engaged in such a practice.
“It’s heavy to carry. We would have liked to solve the problem quickly and move on to something else, but it has been dragging on for almost a year,” sighs Pierre Hébert, owner of a retirement home in Sainte-Élizabeth-de-Warwick.
“We are already experiencing emotions because it is a grief to be endured, but if we also have this administrative side…” he lets it be.
After chasing down the death certificate and completing the mountain of necessary paperwork, Pierre Hébert doesn’t lose his temper: He claims that the Laurentian Bank is forcing him to settle his late sister’s $8,000 Visa account first before giving him her money pays out.
“As insolvency administrators, we are not obliged to pay out of our own pockets,” complains the man.
For the past few months, he has refused to pay his sister’s credit card bill until he properly received the money. He says he explained it to Visa.
“The visa guy is following me. He does his job well. I told him I would pay him if I had the money,” he says. Visa did not respond to our interview requests.
When we ask Pierre Hébert what he expects from the financial institution, he loses patience and pauses before taking a calm breath.
“I just want Laurentian Bank to call me to make the withdrawal so I can do my job as a bankruptcy trustee,” says the man who filed a complaint to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Laurentian denies everything
When asked by Le Journal, the Laurentian Bank refused to comment on the specific case of Pierre Hébert for reasons of confidentiality.
At the same time, the institution flatly rejected the allegations made against it and assured that it would never engage in such practices.
“However, it is important to emphasize that the bank will not require this
never [souligné et en gras dans la réponse] that the heirs or the bankruptcy trustee personally disburse the necessary funds to settle any outstanding balances of the deceased before accessing the assets of an estate,” said their spokesman Merick Seguin.
Inheritance lawyers consulted by Le Journal in recent days have confirmed that in such cases relating to an inheritance, banks and customers often have difficulty understanding each other.
– In collaboration with Nicolas Brasseur and Véronique Morin
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