My tennant died.. 2 months behind on rent

bedbandit

my tennant died on Wednesday this week . he was behind on his rent 2 months ,£680 . he also owed me 200 pounds that i lent him. the police had to force entry into the property because he would not answer the door . he was alive at this point and shouting at the police to leave im told . he had not been well for a while and it appears that he had lost control of his bowls , so there extensive damage to the property. on top of that his dog has been stuck in the property for 3 days already ( taken out for walks only) causing more damage.oh and i never tuck a deposit for the house .

The family told me today to ring them in 3-4days . they will try to fix the place up a bit , so im not expecting it to look to good.they told me today that some items like the couch well have to stay , there's already an old couch in the back garden..

im not happy about the dog being left for a week in the property , i really expected the family to clear out the property at weekend but that dose not look like it will happen

before anybody thinks i don't have any sympathy.. i do .
when i say family i mean his aunts family .... his parents are deceased and he was not close to anyone ... if fact he hated them . so its annoying me that the house is now being used as a dog kennel and is going to look a right mess .

is there anything i can do ,where do i stand . what would you do ?
thanks for any advice comments
Bob

Littleweedj

What a dreadful situation.......but the dog is not your responsibility and the property is......the dog can't be left alone for a week, perhaps you can report it to the RSPCA as abandoned and they will hopefully help.

robpw2

bedbandit wrote: »

is there anything i can do ,where do i stand .
Bob

not in the dog mess its gets in the carpets

bedbandit

yea that's what i thought . i rang the RSPCA
according to them i have to give family time to re-home the dog,
the dog is not abandoned as the neighbour is poping in to feed it . im to ring them if the dog is still there when i get my keys back ...
crazy situation ... they wont pay the 70 pound for a local cats and dogs home to collect it .

sequence

Start getting prices to fix everything up ? (and get saving to pay for it, doesn't sound like the tenant left anything of value ? )

marliepanda

If you didnt take a deposit then really you have made a mistake there as they are for exactly these circumstances.

I assume there wasnt a rent guarantor either?

If no, and he hasn't left an estate, then you are going to be majorly out of pocket I think. I don't know the legalities of inheritance law but you may be entitled to the rent through his estate IF he has any money? No idea...

Notmyrealname

bedbandit wrote: »

is there anything i can do ,where do i stand . what would you do ?
thanks for any advice comments
Bob

Phone up the RSPCA and get the dog taken away. Other than that, not much you can do that won't cost you more money.

This is just one of the downsides to being a Landlord and therefore in business. Just get the place cleaned up, write off the cost against tax and move on. Learn your lesson about the deposit and charge the next tenant one.

Tiddlywinks

The liabilities for the rent, damage etc rests now with the deceased's estate. If there is no money left from assets, insurance policies or whatever then his extended family is NOT responsible. Frankly, they don't even have to clear anything in the house.

You had a business agreement with your former tenant - that should have included taking a deposit - if you failed to do that then you only have yourself to blame.

I'm afraid (unless you have insurance to cover the damage) it'll be down to you to foot the bill.

Littleweedj

bedbandit wrote: »

yea that's what i thought . i rang the RSPCA
according to them i have to give family time to re-home the dog,
the dog is not abandoned as the neighbour is poping in to feed it . im to ring them if the dog is still there when i get my keys back ...
crazy situation ... they wont pay the 70 pound for a local cats and dogs home to collect it .

I don't think the response you have been given from the family or RSPCA is good enough! I would reiterate it is not your dog and you would have to state categorically again you do not wish it to remain in your property unsupervised. It may be getting fed but it also needs to be taken out for walks a few times a day.

And how long should you give family time to re-home dog. They may not be at all bothered ...... so it could be weeks, months??? You are also owed two months rent and therefore personally think the keys should be in your hands within a few days and not when the family are ready.

Do you have a contact address; advise them that new tenants will be moving in asap - so, if at all possible, I would take the dog round to their house and they can then re-home the dog at their leisure.

tbs624

Littleweedj wrote: »

I don't think the response you have been given from the family or RSPCA is good enough! I would reiterate it is not your dog and you would have to state categorically again you do not wish it to remain in your property unsupervised. It may be getting fed but it also needs to be taken out for walks a few times a day.

And how long should you give family time to re-home dog. They may not be at all bothered ...... so it could be weeks, months??? You are also owed two months rent and therefore personally think the keys should be in your hands within a few days and not when the family are ready.

Do you have a contact address; advise them that new tenants will be moving in asap - so, if at all possible, I would take the dog round to their house and they can then re-home the dog at their leisure.

This is not how it works. A tenancy does not just cease to exist because the original T has died. LL needs to establish who will be responsible for formally winding up the T's estate and proceed from there. If there is a will then its the executor(s), if no will then the administrator(s)

OP if your T was claiming LHA/HB do check that the local office has been made aware of the T's death. You would have a claim from the T's estate for unpaid rent but it may be that you have to simply put the loss down against your rental income for tax purposes, as another poster has already suggested. You may also want to check that the CTax office know.

As you didn't take a tenancy deposit you presumably [typo edit: didn't] bother with an agreed inventory at the start of the tenancy either - to be able to claim from the estate for damage etc to the property you'd need to be able to show what the tenancy start condition of the property was and that the damage was down to the Ts acts or omissions..

Whoever deals with the T's Estate will probably be happy to bring the tenancy to an early close, given that the liability for rent continues ( although if there is no money in the T's estate that liability does not pass to the relatives instead.)

As for the 200 loan, again much depends on the late T's final finances and whether you can adequately [typo edit: demonstrate] that you are indeed owed the return of this money . How long ago was the loan made and when did you last request its repayment?

antrobus

tbs624 wrote: »

LL needs to establish who will be responsible for formally winding up the T's estate and proceed from there. If there is a will then its the executor(s), if no will then the administrator(s)

Or quite possibly, nobody at all.

The tenant was two months behind on his rent, and owed his landlord a further £200; he doesn't appear to be the kind of person who had a few k stashed away. If the deceased had no assets, then it is perfectly possible that no one will be interested in doing anything about his estate. You have to ask the question of the next of kin, of course, but you have to be alive to the possibility that the question will be answered by a shrug of the shoulders.