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Old 04-22-2008, 08:38 AM
 
3,086 posts, read 7,593,410 times
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Although it no longer matters....I am curious as to what others might have expected to happen in a previous situation we had.

August 2006 we rented a house from a super nice older lady whom we adored instantly. She did a great job on upkeep of her house we rented (which turned out to be the house she had raised her kids in for years). We knew she had been in real estate for years and had many properties in more than one county. We knew very little about her family life other than she was single and had kids, one of which lived near her.

In late January as I am pulling out of the driveway a man appears at the curb and stops us. He is the insurance agent and has come to do his annual picture of the house he says...nothing for us to worry about. Then he tells us the lady has passed away.....two months prior...complete news to us! We had lots of dealings with her before, during and for a short time after moving in, but had no reason to contact her during the last three months.

I would have expected someone to contact us, since this was a privately owned home and not a huge corporation, for at least the courtesy of letting us know she had passed away. Not to mention who to contact for any issues, where to make future payments, what to expect regarding any changes in the terms of the lease (good or bad) due to her death. Someone had to be representing the properties.....even if just temporarily. We got nothing.

Since I doubt this is common.....anyone have any ideas what really should have happened or what you would think should happen? Just curious as stated in the title....lol
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Old 04-22-2008, 02:50 PM
 
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You were not the woman's only business concern. Her business had probably had a manager or co-manager (perhaps her child) for years. It continued as usual. There would have been no reason to inform you of her passing. Would you expect to be informed if the owner of your local super market had died? Or you car repair shop? Your doctor?

Her will may still be in probate, especially if she had a lot of rental property. It may not have been a big corporation, but it was a business. Probably a small corporation, which has tax advantages, in which case the other officers or her lawyer would continue to run it as usual. I think it would have be most unusual if her tenants had been personally informed of her passing.
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Old 04-22-2008, 02:53 PM
 
Location: West Virginia
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Her dying did not change your terms... since the family must have decided to just carry on as usual... Since you were not friends why would you feel you should been notified.
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Old 04-22-2008, 03:11 PM
 
3,086 posts, read 7,593,410 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Padgett2 View Post
You were not the woman's only business concern. Her business had probably had a manager or co-manager (perhaps her child) for years. It continued as usual. There would have been no reason to inform you of her passing. Would you expect to be informed if the owner of your local super market had died? Or you car repair shop? Your doctor?

Her will may still be in probate, especially if she had a lot of rental property. It may not have been a big corporation, but it was a business. Probably a small corporation, which has tax advantages, in which case the other officers or her lawyer would continue to run it as usual. I think it would have be most unusual if her tenants had been personally informed of her passing.
She ran everything completely on her own from her home, no managers, no officers and her children had no control in the matter. She was very much of the old school regarding real estate matters. The lease we signed was typed on her typewriter and copied on a ditto machine....if ya'll remember those. Payments were made to her home drop slot on her door, or mailed to her house. No one else lived there.

Therefore it did not continue as usual.
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Old 04-22-2008, 03:17 PM
 
3,086 posts, read 7,593,410 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie1 View Post
Her dying did not change your terms... since the family must have decided to just carry on as usual... Since you were not friends why would you feel you should been notified.
You don't think there should have been notification of where to send payments from then on since there was no one living in the landlord's home where the payments had been going? Or notification of who to call if you had an issue the landlord needed to take care of since there was no one there to answer any calls or letters?
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Old 04-22-2008, 06:49 PM
 
Location: West Virginia
13,914 posts, read 39,155,306 times
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Nope! They were mourning... Your checks went to the estate!
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Old 04-23-2008, 08:45 AM
 
3,086 posts, read 7,593,410 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie1 View Post
Nope! They were mourning... Your checks went to the estate!
Actually they did not.....as there was no one person actually in charge of the estate due to the court refusing to appoint an exector/trix until a year after the death and then still not due to the sons protesting the appointment of the daughter.

Things did not continue as planned by the landlord .....and the tenants were all clueless. I've got 4 months of rental payments that they can't say for sure where the money went. (all before we knew of the death) Another that had the landlord's name forged on it and the last 2 have never cleared the bank at all still....almost a year later.

We had a repair that needed to be made, and couldn't get done because there was no one who could authorize it or pay for it.

I have no idea if we will ever get our deposit back at this point.

The house we moved from still sits empty. Another property was left by that tenant and one son moved in to prevent anything from happening there.

While it's definitely the family's problem and not mine, I still think had someone notified the tenants, much of this turmoil and loss of revenue could have been prevented. Thankfully for them we were good tenants and stayed for our full lease, made all of our payments and left the house in excellent condition. We could have easily just quit paying and no one would have known for months and perhaps not even been able to prove we didn't make them...ya know?
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Old 04-23-2008, 10:15 AM
 
28,107 posts, read 63,475,753 times
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You are going through mourning and it is totally to be expected.

As for the business side of things... I don't see where her death would effect your rights as renters. Estates can take years to settle and quite often it takes time for the heirs to come up to speed...

As long as you live up to the terms of the Rental Agreement... you have done nothing wrong and you have every right to expect all the services you are paying for.

Your case is an excellent example why some renters insist on only dealing with professionally managed units and others prefer to deal directly with the owner in a more personal matter.

In all probability... her death left no one in charge for a period of time and I would be extremely skeptical if someone I had never dealt with suddenly appeared asking for rent.

Sorry for your loss...
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Old 04-23-2008, 10:55 AM
 
86 posts, read 413,156 times
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If I read this correctly, you haven't got your deposit back? If this is the case you might have to file a claim against her estate to recover it.

Be sure to retain all your records of rent paid, deposit, and so forth, so the heirs don't come after you for back rent as you said some checks were forged signatures and/or are still outstanding (lost). This could take years to sort out.
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Old 04-23-2008, 01:05 PM
 
Location: Central NC
414 posts, read 1,255,378 times
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While it wasn't a business requirement to inform you, it would have been a nice courtesy if one of her children let you know. Sorry most of the responses you are getting seem to say otherwise. :-/
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