Mortgage Liability of Beneficiary

In the state of South Carolina, can I be held financially liable for my deceased father's mortgage? His ex-wife is still living and listed on the property deed/mortgage. In addition, there is no mortgage protection or life insurance to pay off the property/mortgage. I am not in a financial position to assume the mortgage. If I allow the bank to foreclose, can they legally pursue me to settle the debt? Will this destroy my credit rating? Thank you for your time.

Children do NOT inherit the debts of their parents. If you signed on the mortgage, that's something different. If you inherited the property, you probably inheritied subject to the mortgage. If you took assets of his, that would have been used to satisfy a judgment, that's a different story.

Thank you for response. In reference to using assets to satisfy a judgement, it is my understanding in the state of South Carolina that the first debt to be settled is funeral expenses. In my father's case, the funeral expenses far exceeded the value of his personal assets. Was I advised correctly that funeral expenses are to be paid first under South Carolina law? Thank you again for your time.

Sorry, that's too local and I am not from SC. But it sounds as if it should be right, at least to the extent the costs of the funeral were reasonable. If it was a million dollar funeral.... The last thing the state wants is bodies going unclaimed and unburied, and someone has to pay for that.