Short answer. Yes. Rule 87, Section 5 provides that a mortgage belonging to the deceased's estate, whether held as mortgagee or as assignee of a mortgagee's rights, may be foreclosed by the executor or administrator, without needing the mortgagor's cooperation or the heirs' individual consent, since the administrator already has authority to manage estate assets.
What the law says
A mortgage belonging to the estate of a deceased person, as mortgagee or assignee of the right of a mortgagee, may be foreclosed by the executor or administrator.
Rule 87, Section 5 — Mortgage due estate may be foreclosed. Read the full provision →
Foreclosure is within the administrator's authority
A mortgage the deceased held is an asset of the estate just like any other, and the administrator's authority to manage estate assets extends to enforcing this one when the mortgagor defaults. The rule confirms that such a mortgage may be foreclosed by the executor or administrator, so recovering on it does not require a separate, specially authorized proceeding brought by the heirs individually. This matters because a deceased mortgagee's rights do not lapse or transfer automatically to any single heir; the administrator alone holds the authority to pursue collection, whether through foreclosure or another remedy, on behalf of the whole estate. The foreclosure sale itself still follows the same requirements that would bind any mortgagee — proper notice to the mortgagor and whatever redemption period applies are not shortened simply because the mortgagee has since died.
Covers assigned mortgage rights too
The authority is not limited to mortgages the deceased originally entered into as mortgagee; it also covers mortgages the deceased acquired as assignee of a mortgagee's rights, treating an acquired mortgage interest exactly the same way as one the deceased held from the very beginning of the original transaction itself. That matters because estates commonly include mortgage interests the deceased bought or received by assignment from someone else's original loan, not only mortgages the deceased personally extended, and the rule makes clear the administrator's foreclosure power reaches both kinds without distinction.
Why foreclosure authority matters for the estate
Letting the administrator foreclose directly, rather than requiring each heir to sue individually, keeps the recovery of estate assets efficient and centralized in the person the court has already vested with authority over the estate's property. A defaulting mortgagor cannot use the deceased's passing, or a later assignment of the mortgage, as grounds to delay or avoid foreclosure. Foreclosure proceeds simply through the ordinary courts, following the same procedure any mortgagee would use, and nothing about the estate proceeding changes that process. Proceeds recovered through the foreclosure become part of the general estate, to be applied first to the expenses of administration and the decedent's other debts before anything passes to the heirs, rather than going directly to whichever heir might have expected to inherit the mortgage credit itself.
Related provisions
- Rule 87, Section 5 — Mortgage due estate may be foreclosed
- Rule 87, Section 4 — Executor or administrator may compound with debtor