Tenant passed away prior to closing on a purchase, Florida

[Hugo Jimenez]

I have an unusual situation and am hoping for some advice from someone who has some experience or knowledge of how to handle the situation.  I am scheduled to close on a duplex on Friday, May 14th.  Both tenants decided to stay with increased rent.  One executed a lease for a full year and other for 6 months.  The 6 month lease was meant to give her plenty of time to find a new place to purchase and move into.  She was older and I wanted to make it work for her so that she would not be rushed to find a new place and be displaced after living at this property for over 20 years.

Last night, I got a call from my realtor that she unfortunately passed away after having a stroke and being transported to the hospital.  I am sad that I did not have the opportunity to get to know her better and am heartbroken for the family that is left to now handle the process that comes along with a loss like this.

My question relates to how I can best handle the situation.  I will of course handle it with compassion and understanding as it relates to the family.  As far as how to handle this from a legal standpoint, it looks like it differs depending on their leases.  If they were month to month, essentially you give the family/next of kin/estate 30 days to clear her personal belongings and treat it similar to an eviction.  If they have a long term lease, the lease does not terminate and you allow them 60 days to clear out their possessions while the estate owes you for the rent.  I want to note that ethically, I do not feel comfortable collecting rent from her next of kin so the component of obligation of the estate is largely irrelevant.

You are also apparently supposed to secure all of her belongings and note anything that is removed by family members that you allow to visit the property.  However, the current landlord has already allowed family members to enter the unit so this may be somewhat irrelevant at this point.

For reference, this is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  She was on a month to month lease with the previous landlord who passed away.  It was transferred to an estate for his next of kin prior to the landlord passing.  She had already executed a 6 month lease with me contingent on the fact that I take ownership of the property.  She had also given me a check for the first months rent.

I'm not asking for advise for how to get revenues on the property for the estate because I do not feel right doing so.  I have plenty of reserves to weather the storm and had planned on fully renovating the unit upon the termination of each lease.  I am asking for advice on how to handle the process of clearing out her belongings in a way that does not expose me to any legal risk and also allows me to begin renovating and improving the unit as soon as possible to decrease the vacancy loss as much as possible while still being ethical and compassionate to her family.

On a side note, the other tenant is a building inspector that deals with code violations for the city...sooooooo, I'm going to be pulling permits for everything related to the renovation and hope to create a positive relationship with him while he lives in the unit.

Thank you in advance for your advice.  I have learned an incredible amount of extremely impactful information from the podcast, books and forums associated with the Bigger Pockets platform.  It has been life changing in the way I have restructured my goals and long term planning financially.