what if an older tenant dies in my house?

[Everitt Gill]

I'm looking to buy a property as a buy and hold rental unit, the numbers look good but there is one big potential problem. the current tenant is 80 years old. what happens if she dies in there? should I be concerned with legal problems if she falls in the house and then her family sues me? do I need to buy some sort of special insurance or anything for this? I'm very ignorant when it comes to this, any help would be appreciated. the property is in Florida

[Ashley Hernandez]

I use a form that give authorization to allow access to unit/personal property. This form basically states that in the event that the resident becomes incapacitated or dies that they will grant access to their unit and personal belongings and will hold you harmless. If you do not have this type of form already I would recommend you get one on hand for any properties with aging tenants. It helps in the event that they do pass. Everything seems to happen so quickly and most people do not have a will set up. Family members start to pressure to gain access to things some who have good intentions and others who do not. This way this gets the landlords off the hook and also can help the transition be a lot more smooth. Also I would look up the disclosure laws in your state because in California you are required to tell any applicant for that up that a death had occurred there for the next 3 years. Regarding insurance as long as there is not anything that is a safety or trip hazard that is due to your negligence then I would not be concerned. However consulting with an attorney and your insurance agent would not hurt. Just to make sure you are properly covered in the event that something did occur. I would definitely make sure the house is under an LLC.