What am I legally responsible to pay if my mom passed away?

Nothing insofar as your personal liability is concerned. Did you seek to probate an estate for your mother? Did she have any assets justifying probate? How was the house titled? It sounds like the home is still in your mother's name and that no estate has been opened yet. When someone dies owing debts, there should be an estate probated if the estate has probate assets (which it does if the house is solely in your mother's name). If your mother lived in PA at the time of her death then the estate will be governed by PA law. If you are the sole heir and there is no spouse or other siblings, then this is for you to do. You file the petition for probate. You notify all the creditors and run an ad in the newspaper. You inventory all the assets. You pay all the claims against the estate from estate funds and if there is not enough money you pay the claims in order of priority. Claims get paid before the heirs get anything and if there is only the house, then you will have to sell the house and use the proceeds to pay the claims. When you run out of money, you stop paying claims and deny the balance of the claims. If there is little to no equity in the home AND no other probate assets, then I would tell the lender to foreclose and not seek to probate an estate because there are no funds. In that case, I would write to the creditors, tell that there are are no probate assets and that you are not personally liable for the debts and they can seek to probate an estate or not. Since you are unemployed, if you are living in the home, then I would stay there as long as you can rent free. I don't know if the house is mortgaged or not. If the house is mortgaged, you cannot deed the house into your name until the mortgage is satisfied and this would require you to get your own mortgage. I would just leave it be for now and pay the mortgage or home equity loan as you can. If you do not pay, the lender will foreclose on the home. The lender will not seek a deficiency from you but they will foreclose. You need to figure out what the home is worth and how much is owed. You also need to start making payments on the house to prevent a foreclosure. The house not being in your name is both a blessing and a curse - its a curse because you cannot file bankruptcy on the house debt or even get financial help from the housing agency because the house is not in your name. Its a blessing because you could just walk away from the whole mess without any financial liability on your part.