tenant passed away, first month as a landlord...

[DJ Cummins]

Hello everyone,
I need some advice. My wife and i bought our first property, a 4 unit building, on April 20. On May 12, one of our tenants passed away. She lived alone, and we have spoken to her two sons about the situation. We don't want to pressue them to move out, but we keep getting calls about the vacancy, and already have a good tenant lined up...he is ok to wait for now, but will move on if this process drags out. The two sons said they would have the place cleaned out by the end of this month, which the tenant had paid. I was at the property yesterday and just looked thru the window of the place. Everything is thrown about in the apartment and it looks like they were just trying to find anything worth a buck. How should i proceed if they dont have things out on the first? The tenant was on a month to month lease, as her year had expired before we took possession of the property. Do we need to talk to a lawyer? Do we start the eviction process? This has been a crazy first month, that is all I can say. I plan to keep moving forward with investing, but this has really been a tough month to deal with.

Please, any advice is appreciated. I have no clue as to what my next steps should be. thank you!
DJ

[Marcia Maynard]

When a tenant dies and lives alone, the first thing you must do is secure the unit. Do not allow relatives/friends to swoop in. You need to know who has the legal right to dispose of the tenant's property. You need to know if you are required or allowed to move and/or store the tenant belongings until the matter is resolved.  The landlord-tenant laws for your jurisdiction may address this scenario. They may not. Washington State is in the process of passing a new law in this regard. This may have been addressed in advance in your rental agreement with the tenant, but most likely it was not. 

At this juncture, I strongly advise you to secure the services of a competent attorney. You could put yourself in jeopardy by allowing the two sons to take possession of her belongings if neither of them are the trustee or executor for her estate. They may or may not be the lawful heirs. Don't count on them to return the unit back to you as you wish. They may even try to talk you out of their mother's security deposit. Tread carefully. Begin the legal process to regain possession of the unit now, with the help of legal counsel. 

There are a few threads on BP about the "death of a tenant"... search the site. If the tenant died in the unit and you discovered it, you would need to call 911 or law enforcement right away and secure the unit.