Evicting a spouse of a deceased tenant

[Michael L.]

Dear Community,

I've been reading BP for a while now and as it has been said many times before: this community is really amazing and I'm thankful for that. This is my very first post and question on these forums, so I'll take a chance to give a quick introduction. I'm 27, living in Houston area. Bought my first SFR two years ago, mostly for myself but then I realized that instead of living in a 4bedroom house with my fiance, for the time being we might save some money and do a rent swap. Rent the house out while living in a smaller apartment and keep the difference. That's how I've gotten into renting business. This year I've purchased a fourplex and currently trying to put it on it's rails for a smooth sailing. I always try to look for new opportunities and once I get the fourplex straightened out, I plan to try construction of new homes or flipping. BP has been a truly great source of information. After coming here I started thinking more and more about investing. It adds a lot of motivation to find like-minded people and read through their experiences.

Now back to my question. First year of renting my SFR went great. No big troubles, good tenant - a woman with children. Her husband worked overseas at the time so he was not on the lease and there was no plan for him to return to US on a permanent basis. So at one point the tenant got hospitalized and passed away due to some illness, all in a matter of a few days. Now shortly after her husband got back from overseas to take care of kids and moved into the house. I didn't bother him with resigning the lease or adding his name, as at the time I thought that one is legally responsible for deceased spouse agreements anyway, and also I kept getting my rent.

Now few months later this has deteriorated a lot. He started being constantly late, very evasive. Doesn't pick up phone calls or open doors and became outright rude and aggressive.

I'm trying to get rid of him now, but not sure how to file an eviction. His deceased spouse was the only adult on the lease, do I file it on her name or his name? I was trying to get one of the companies to do it, but they told me they can't represent me since his name is not on the lease. Can I do it myself or better have lawyer take care of it?

Thanks!

Mike