Death of a Tenant: Preparation

[Marcia Maynard]

What do you do when a tenant dies on your property? Or dies elsewhere and never returns to your property? Especially when they live alone. In an effort to be proactive, I'm trying to think through scenarios and set some procedures in place. I'd like to hear about your experiences and thoughts. Thank you.

[Ann Bellamy]

I've had two: a death from natural causes/health issues of an elderly tenant, and a suicide. In neither case did I find the deceased. Here are some comments on each:

Natural causes: The sister informed me, and coordinated the clean out. The family signed a release of the premises. They had the whole place cleaned out within a few days after the tenant's passing. My attorney advised me to go through with an eviction, however, I chose to take the chance there would be no repercussions from the family, based on my conversations with them, and their very responsible communication and actions. I did a minor remodel to remove any stigma attached to the unit.

Suicide: the son called me to gain permission to break into the unit because he was worried about not hearing from his father. It was late at night. The police were with him, and they did very little damage, no kicking the door down. Once the police notified me of the circumstances (tenant shot himself in the head) they told me I should call the detective the next day, and then employ a bio-hazard removal service (It was a during a 95 degree heat wave with all the windows locked, and the tenant wasn't found for 3 days). Once the police released the unit, I located a hazard removal service - they are easy to find online, search for suicide or murder clean up. The nature of the business is they respond extremely quickly and travel long distances. I chose a local company, and they were very sensitive working with the family and completely removed all contaminated material. My insurance covered the entire service after deductible, and since the tenant had tenant insurance, they filed with the tenant's insurance company and retrieved my deductible from them. Again, my attorney advised to go through with the eviction, but again I chose to take the chance based on the family's actions, and sign off of the unit. I did an extensive remodel, and the bio-hazard unit had already removed chunks of antique pine floor and walls. My carpenter matched the best he could, and my insurance company paid for the portion of replacing what was damaged. I paid for the rest of the remodel, since the unit was old and very dated, so it was time to just redo the whole thing. It was probably 8 years ago, and when I advertise the unit, I still get calls asking if this is the building with the suicide. I answer honestly, but haven't really had trouble, because the unit is really cute with the remodel. It's a small town, and people have long memories of things like that. So I just deal with it.

To summarize, they attorney said to go through with the eviction in both cases, and in both cases I took a chance and didn't do it, just got signoffs. It worked out, thankfully. If the family appears to be not responsible, or there are significant other issues, I'd do the entire eviction.