How To Handle Tenant Family Member Passing Away

[Darian Mo]

Hello All,

I’ve got a sad situation with my tenants that I’m not 100% sure how to handle. Recently their father passed away and now their mother who has Alzheimer's needs a place to stay with care.. I’d rather them not put her in a nursing home for her safety right now due to my areas handling of COVID-19, and they agreed. So the plan is for a few months to have her stay at the property until things get better and then move her to a nursing home. I’m not sure how to handle a temporary tenant. Do I need to add her to the lease and have them include her on theirs and my insurance policy? I am planning on adding her as a permanent tenant by creating and addendum in our current lease just in case her stay is longer and I don't want to set a hard date as the future is hard to predict right now. Unfortunately the father was the cosigner so it also puts that into question. I'm planning on asking them to find someone else they know to co-sign but don't know if that's the proper way to handle that. Also with the mother's condition I don't know if she can sign for herself or if she needs to have someone sign for her. I want to make sure everything is insured and taken care of but I also want to be sensitive to this situation. If any of my ideas I've said aren't the way to go please let me know I'm looking for any advice I can get. I'm a first time property owner/manager and don't have much experience with any of this. Apologies if my post seems scattered but my brain is little all over the place thinking of how to handle this. Thank you in advance for your help!

[Will Fraser]

Hi @Darian Mo, I would consider adding her to the lease, like I would do with any adult living in the house.  Then, when (or if) she moved into a home later you could modify the lease to have only the original names.

Regarding having a guarantor or cosigner -- after your experience with them so far do you feel that this is still needed?  If so, now is the time to broach the subject (gracefully of course).  If they have demonstrated good communication and financial resilience, perhaps they aught have a cosigner.  In that case this is a convenient time to navigate that.