Tenant died with rent arrears

Kynthia

OP, I can understand your predicament. What an awful situation to have to deal with and like you I would worry about how to deal with this the best way while still looking after your parents' interests. As I'm sure you know it's how you deal with it that will make the difference, as you can be kind and sympathetic in all your correspondence once you get in contact with the relatives but you're not wrong in wanting to get this sorted.

This link to a thread in landlordzone might give you information from other landlords who've had to deal with this situation. Page 2 is particularly useful on the legalities. http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?2768-T-dies-effect-of-death-on-Letting-Agreement&highlight=death+tenant

Road_Hog

silvercar wrote: »

No, on a landlord insurance policy it allows for gaps between tenancies.

Well the tenant was found on Thursday night, so it was occupied until then.

Yes, but during those gaps, you have access to the property and you will be liable for the upkeep.


Unoccupied house insurance, usually has a number of stipulations, such as, house must be visited on a regular basis, post must be collected, garden maintained and from Oct, the system has to be drained or the heating left on 24/7.


I doubt very much that a corpse would count as the property being occupied. Good luck arguing it out with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay for a flooded property.

Thrugelmir

Have you spoken to the police to ascertain whether the next of kin has been contacted and if so obtain their contact details.

meg72

Road_Hog wrote: »

Yes, but during those gaps, you have access to the property and you will be liable for the upkeep.


Unoccupied house insurance, usually has a number of stipulations, such as, house must be visited on a regular basis, post must be collected, garden maintained and from Oct, the system has to be drained or the heating left on 24/7.


I doubt very much that a corpse would count as the property being occupied. Good luck arguing it out with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay for a flooded property.

Interested to know more about "from Oct, the system has to be drained", due to problems with probate my late ums house has been empty for 18 months, we have insurance but haven't heard anything about this.

silvercar

Road_Hog wrote: »

Yes, but during those gaps, you have access to the property and you will be liable for the upkeep.


Unoccupied house insurance, usually has a number of stipulations, such as, house must be visited on a regular basis, post must be collected, garden maintained and from Oct, the system has to be drained or the heating left on 24/7.


I doubt very much that a corpse would count as the property being occupied. Good luck arguing it out with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay for a flooded property.

If you are arguing that way, the tenant (or estate) are still in occupation having not surrendered the tenancy, and would therefore be liable for any damage.

silvercar

Was there a deposit taken?

Thrugelmir

meg72 wrote: »

Interested to know more about "from Oct, the system has to be drained", due to problems with probate my late ums house has been empty for 18 months, we have insurance but haven't heard anything about this.

If the heating isn't turned on then there's a danger that the pipes will freeze and burst. Obvious result is damage. So insurance companies will not pay out in such circumstances. Where the policyholder should have taken the appropriate action. Common sense really.

joshw86

Road_Hog wrote: »

I doubt very much that a corpse would count as the property being occupied. Good luck arguing it out with an insurance company that doesn't want to pay for a flooded property.

You seem fixated on the possibility that the tenant was dead in her flat for a couple of months before being found.

This doesn't seem at all likely to me. From what the OP has said, this woman was in work and did not lead a particularly reclusive life. The chances of someone in this position being able to go AWOL without something spurring the police to pay the residence a visit within weeks if not days are pretty remote.

Recently a very elderly woman in the flat above mine died. She had no next of kin, no regular visitors and lived an essentially hermetic life. Even so only four or five days passed between her death and both we and another resident of the building contacting the police to check up on her.

I may be wrong, but it seems wildly implausible that this woman could go missing from her work and social circles for such a long time and for a landlord dealing with arrears to be the first person to suspect something was up.

Road_Hog

meg72 wrote: »

Interested to know more about "from Oct, the system has to be drained", due to problems with probate my late ums house has been empty for 18 months, we have insurance but haven't heard anything about this.

Do you have unoccupied insurance? If you have standard house insurance, it is unlikely to cover you.


There are three types of unoccupied insurance, a bit like car insurance - third party, fire and theft and fully comp.


The fully comp version is the only one that covers you for the things that are most likely to crop up.


The current insurance I'm using stipulates that the heating must be on (all the time, not on a timer) from the 1st Oct to 31st March or the system must be drained and stopcocks turned off.


http://www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/home-and-property/product/unoccupied-property-insurance/?gclid=CJ_P1Kv3ursCFW_MtAodC38AgA


http://www.ukinsurancenet.com/unoccupied-insurance.asp

newbutold

silvercar wrote: »

What would they have done if the keys hadn't been returned?

There is a big difference between an elderly person who died due to old age or illness and a young person's suicide.

The council would still insist on the property being emptied and keys handed back within a week or 2 regardless of the deceased age. Also local council here gives 2 weeks rent free but if you go over this, rent is payable by the estate.