A few weeks ago I'd received a call from a man informing me that my tenant (his mother) had just passed away unexpectedly. I confirmed this with the local police department as well. The tenant was an older woman who lived alone but had children and grandchildren living nearby. Apparently they have access to the property and were the ones to discover her deceased when they went to visit. The son did not say whether he was the executor of the estate or anything like that but did promise to remove all of her things and clean the unit within a month. I did not grant explicit permission of entry but as stated it did sound like she had provided a key to her family and I was hopeful that everything would be taken out without me needed to get involved much.

I had not heard anything so I visited the property to ensure the heat was on now that it's getting cold and whether her items had been removed and it didn't appear that anything had really been removed or changed since other then some documents laid out on the bed. I was also worried about items in the fridge, etc.

She was a good tenant who always paid on time and it is an unfortunate situation all around but I'm wondering how I can best deal with this situation to ensure that I'm following the legal guidelines of my state (Minnesota) while also minimizing financial losses. I did not receive November rent of course and even if the unit was completely emptied and cleaned so that I could start trying to re-rent today I'd miss out on at least 1 additional month and most likely 2 additional months to re-rent and find a qualified tenant. This is thankfully the first time I've had a situation like this but not one I'd really planned for so I'm asking for advice on the best path forward as I can see this adding up to a substantial amount for me and I have a feeling there may be a lot more work involved to clean out the unit and the remaining property.

Reading the MN state law it does appear that the fixed term lease is still in effect even if the tenant passes but I would be satisfied with covering my expenses for cleaning, utilities, any storing of property, and the months it takes to re-rent the unit. How would you proceed?

Saint Paul, Minnesota

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