Tenant incapacitated/unconscious. Lease termination

[Edward Pulido]

I was informed by my tenants family that he was in an accident and currently unconscious. He was unable to pay rent this month due to his condition. They told me they are going to be moving his things out by the end of the month which will break our lease. I have set up an amendment that will terminate the lease and has a stipulation that they must pay the last months rent, but he is unable to sign it and currently has no POA. They are going to try and pay this months rent but no guarantee on that. I want to make sure I'm covering all my bases legally, but want to work with his family where I can to make things a little less stressful for them. Any ideas on how I should be moving forward with this?

[Jill F.]

Honestly, I would not pursue additional money if the family came and cleaned out the place. The most important thing is getting possession of your property back ASAP.  What is legal depends on your state and your lease but it only matters to the extent that you have to litigate so... be sympathetic and try to help the family be successful in removing tenant's property; find out what the hold ups are for them. That is going to be the cheapest way forward. Formally evicting the tenant will be much more expensive (but it's what you'll have to do to be safe if you can't get the family to cooperate).