What to do when your landlord dies?

[BriarRose0708]

I hope I can get some advice! I found out yesterday that my landlord unexpectedly passed away from a stroke. He was in poor health to begin with and last week took a very serious turn.

I am at a loss with what happens next. He passed on Tuesday and I wasn't even going to be informed and wouldn't have found out if I hadn't asked the lady downstairs how he was doing. He had no family to speak of except for a brother who lives out of the country. I would think he had a will or something and hope to hear more information soon. I know there are laws in place that protect tenants but I don't know if I should look for a new place ASAP. My roommate and I already signed our 2013-2014 lease. Any thoughts on what I should do? Thanks friends!!

[dnickels]

It sounds like the place is a rental unit correct? If so the most-likely scenario is either that the brother ends up with the unit as an absentee landlord (hopefully with some sort of property mgt company handling the on-site needs) or it gets sold to another landlord.

You should be fine for awhile no matter what so I wouldn't worry about having to find a new place ASAP. Someone (whether the brother or the court) will be dealing with his estate and that should include things like collecting rents and making sure the lights stay on until the assets are sold or transferred.

If you have them it would be a good idea to get all your information related to the unit handy (copy of lease if you have it, copies of checks or receipts for payment, security deposit receipt) just in case they're needed.

[SBETigg]

In any situation, there should be some consideration that there are tenants and some time given for you to make other arrangements. I would keep an eye out for other situations and start thinking about packing, though. I wouldn't be feeling all that secure right now, in your position. Sorry. I hope it all works out.

[joonyer]

If you have a new lease you should be fine. Just keep on paying your rent, or at least keeping it in an escrow account so that it can be paid when you find out who will be taking over the building. You can't be evicted without the required legal notice solely because the Landlord changes, whether due to death, sale of property or any other reason. The new owner/landlord takes on your existing lease.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

I have no actual experience at all with this issue, but what I think you should be most concerned about is IF the overall property required constant "attention" from the landlord.

You didn't say if this was a single-unit or multi-unit property, but if the landlord was providing things such as common-area lighting, water, mowing, trash service, anything that is shared among multiple tenants, you may find yourself with disconnected community utilities, tall grass and stinky trash very soon if there was not a plan in place for the landlord's death.

Of course if the property was mortgaged that spells trouble later, but you will know that in advance of any action from the bank.

[1DisneyNut]

Your lease is still valid regardless of who the property transfers too or if it is eventually sold. The only issue that may arise is, as Goofy4TheWorld mentioned; if the property is mortgaged and someone doesn't make the payments. Foreclosure of the property would invalidate your lease but you would be notified of problems well in advance.

[BriarRose0708]

Thanks for the insight everyone! For more context: my apartment is in a house with 3 other units and the landlord owned many properties like this all over Ithaca. All utilities except cable and internet are included in the rent as well as garbage & snow removal and mowing. He did not use a property management company for maintenance either, he hired a handy man to do all this for him. I am not sure if the house was mortgaged or if he owned it outright, but I would be surprised if he was making payments on it since he's making much more in rent than what the property is worth but who knows. I am just nervous that if I wasn't even going to be contacted about his death, who's to say I'll be notified about anything else now? With one major Ivy League university and a moderate sized liberal arts college in town, housing is at a premium and affordable housing at short notice is a pipe dream at this moment.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

:(Uhmmmmmmm...., if this guy truly had no family or friends set to inherit and manage his properties, you may be in for some trouble very quickly, as soon at the first utility bill isn't paid.

I am curious, did you mail a check to this guy, or how did payment get to him? I think the tale-tale sign will be next month's rent. If you mail a check and it doesn't clear the bank soon afterword, then I would assume that if nobody is depositing checks, then nobody is writing checks to pay the bills for the property. If this guy had utility payments for multiple properties all over town, then I would expect the electric company in particular to pull the meters very quickly, as he would rack up a substantial bill every month if he had a few dozen light bills suddenly go unpaid.

Like has been said, your lease may still be valid, but realistically it may not be of any help for you. Actually the lease is a catch-22, you can't move out "just in case" since you are bound by the lease, but if the landlord's obligations per the lease are not met your only practical recourse is to move out, but only once they have breached the lease.

[BriarRose0708]

:(Uhmmmmmmm...., if this guy truly had no family or friends set to inherit and manage his properties, you may be in for some trouble very quickly, as soon at the first utility bill isn't paid.

I am curious, did you mail a check to this guy, or how did payment get to him? I think the tale-tale sign will be next month's rent. If you mail a check and it doesn't clear the bank soon afterword, then I would assume that if nobody is depositing checks, then nobody is writing checks to pay the bills for the property. If this guy had utility payments for multiple properties all over town, then I would expect the electric company in particular to pull the meters very quickly, as he would rack up a substantial bill every month if he had a few dozen light bills suddenly go unpaid.
.
This is exactly why I'm nervous. He lived down the street from my house and I hand delivered rent checks to him that were always promptly deposited. There's a sign on his front door with the name and phone numbers for two people in the event of an emergency maintenance issue, and all his leases just renewed August 1st and other new tenants have moved in ok since he passed so someone is stepping in for him, I just don't know who.

[VWL Mom]

If he just passed last week I would give it a bit more time to be notified. In the meantime you can try calling the emergency person listed on his door, perhaps they can help. You can also check your lease to see if there is a name of his lawyer somewhere in it.

[Ian]

Believe it or not, my Grandmother actually found herself in the exact same situation back in 2009.

In her case, the landlord's will specified that all of her assets were to pass to a charity. The law firm representing her estate engaged a real estate agent to assess the values of the property and sell them off to generate proceeds for the charitable organization.

Now in her case, her property was sold to another investor who intended to let her remain living there. But I guess that sort of varies.

[garymacd]

I know rental laws change in every jurisdiction, but here is what we dealt with when we bought our first home in Ontario in 1982 (at 19.25% interest, buy the way, but that's another painful story).

We bought a house with a tenant already in it. We had intended to self-occupy the house, so we had to wait for the tenant to vacate before we could do that.

At that time, if a new landlord bought a tenant-occupied house and agreed to keep the tenant, no problem. If he wanted to self-occupy, the tenant had three months to vacate. If the landlord simply wanted the tenant out so that he could move another tenant in, the tenant had six months to vacate.

If the tenant refused to leave, the landlord had to go a tribunal to evict the tenant. A very lengthy process. The tenant could not be put onto the street in a month with an "R" in it since it's cold up here during those months.

We had a few stressful weeks waiting to see if our tenant would leave. In the end, they left on time and we worried for nothing.

As I said, your situation may be different. I hope everything works out well for you.

[BriarRose0708]

I did hear that someone my landlord knew is stepping in temporarily and is responsible for the upkeep of the properties, paying bills and processing rent. So for the short term everything is ok. The long term remains to be seen, but as this is a college town there are always apartments available somewhere and luckily I have a lot of friends/family in the area to stay with if it came to that. I wish I had enough money saved for a down payment on a house, lol!