Forgive my ignorance in advance.

We tried to communicate with them to add the brother and remove the ex but every attempt has been ignored.

clearly unconstitutional and can be ignored.

While I can't count the number of astonishingly ignorant questions we seem to get here in the forums asking for legal advice on dealing with tenants, the even greater number of responses that disregard the fact that the law in one area is not the same as in another is really disheartening.

Probably should have sent official notice right away but was a more personal relationship so took 3 months, maybe more, to pin them down as they ignored or didn't show to all my requests for phone call and meeting to discus. 

Maybe it's simple ignorance, ok but that's actually not ok if you want this to work and not just waste everyone's time until someone who knows better gets a hold of it. 

Forgive my ignorance and thanks for any info! 

What we're after is keeping the upper hand in the situation, so they have deadlines and can't just bury their head in the sand and ignore their rent obligation.Suggest the GoFundMe idea, the local nonprofits, etc for funds to cover the funeral and/or rent. 

Inspector's don't like to be ignored and the notice to appear happened.

Then, when the tenant agrees to half the cost you know they were the culprits and not the victim.I would say; since there is no evidence that the break-in was the result of some sort of criminal act then the tenant is obligated to pay for the damage and the burden of proof is on the tenant.While this may not seem kosher many tenants are ignorant enough to fall for this action.