Tenancy Agreement when Someone dies

paulie38

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice. My mother recently passed away & she was renting a HA Property. I have informed the landlord, & they have sent a Notice to Terminate Tenancy in my name. They are asking that all carpets, flooring, shed etc be removed before handing back the keys. They have also stated in the Tenancy Termination that anything left or needs to be removed after vacating the property, that i need to sign to agree to them diposing of anything, & that I myself would be charged for this.
My question is, can they legally charge me personally, or does anything "chargeable" be paid for from the estate, (she left a will). I have no problem removing all of her personall belongings & furniture, but I dont want to rip up carpets & laminate flooring that is all in very good condition & usable.

doodle-bug_2

This happened to me a few years ago. My mum died and my dad had to go into residential care. I emptied the house of furniture etc, but spoke to a very nice guy at the council regarding the carpets etc. It seemed such a shame to trash everything like that.

He came round to see the wool carpets and the shed, all in excellent condition, along with all net curtains etc. My mum also had a brand new gas fire and wood surround. He was very happy for us to leave them in situ.

Strangely enough, I don't believe the house ever made it back onto the books for other tenants to 'bid' for - but was moved into very quickly. I've never been back to see if it was actually him!

getmore4less

Don't agree to pay for anything personaly

Who is the named executor in the will?

What is the likely size of the estate.

Mojisola

paulie38 wrote: »

My mother recently passed away & she was renting a HA Property. I have informed the landlord, & they have sent a Notice to Terminate Tenancy in my name.

They are asking that all carpets, flooring, shed etc be removed before handing back the keys. They have also stated in the Tenancy Termination that anything left or needs to be removed after vacating the property, that i need to sign to agree to them diposing of anything, & that I myself would be charged for this.

My question is, can they legally charge me personally, or does anything "chargeable" be paid for from the estate, (she left a will). I have no problem removing all of her personall belongings & furniture, but I dont want to rip up carpets & laminate flooring that is all in very good condition & usable.

It does seem stupid to have to rip up good flooring. Ask if someone will come round to inspect the house with a view to leaving them. If the HA won't allow it, offer the floorings on Freegle/Freecycle - someone will reuse them.

If the HA insist that everything is removed and you don't do it, they will charge the estate for the work.

Don't sign anything they send - you don't have any personal responsibility. If you are the executor, that's where your responsibility lies.

getmore4less

Don't agree even as executor ask them for proof of the estates liabitity in writing.

get a copy of the tenancy agreement, go through it carefully.

HA and councils sometime try anything as in a lot of case they deal with insolvent eststes so get the relatives to agree to pay..

BobQ

paulie38 wrote: »

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice. My mother recently passed away & she was renting a HA Property. I have informed the landlord, & they have sent a Notice to Terminate Tenancy in my name. They are asking that all carpets, flooring, shed etc be removed before handing back the keys. They have also stated in the Tenancy Termination that anything left or needs to be removed after vacating the property, that i need to sign to agree to them diposing of anything, & that I myself would be charged for this.
My question is, can they legally charge me personally, or does anything "chargeable" be paid for from the estate, (she left a will). I have no problem removing all of her personall belongings & furniture, but I dont want to rip up carpets & laminate flooring that is all in very good condition & usable.

Sorry for your loss.

No they cannot charge you unless they persuade you to sign something to that effect. So refuse that. Insist any mail is addressed to the executor (and if that is not you pass it on to them).

Your mother's estate is responsible for paying her debts. If after her funeral costs have been settled, there are funds left, the costs of terminating her tenancy are debts that needs to be settled along with any other debts. Those costs include returning the property in the agreed condition.

Clearly if you are a beneficiary of her estate, you may want to save yourself these costs by doing this yourself.

Is there an inventory stating the condition when the let began. If so you (ie your mother and her executor) are only obliged to return it in the same condition (less normal wear and tear).

Regarding carpets and flooring if they are serviceable I would explicitly ask the landlord if he really wants this removed when it will make letting the property more difficult. But ultimately if they want this done there is no choice if she had them installed.

paulie38

Thanks for the replies so far. I am joint Executor with my sister, & the estate is worth approx £30,000. All the stuff i want to leave in the house is all in excellent condition, my mum did not smoke & had no pets. i'm sure there were carpets in the house when they moved in, but all were replaced with new carpets & laminate flooring. The house will be left in a clean condition. I will contact the HA for a copy of the tenancy agreement, & proof of the estates liability. If they are going to charge for anything, I just want to make sure it will lbe charged to the estate, & not me personally. We will take photos of the property when we vacate it, & i will be also asking for proof if they intend to charge for anything removed or work carried out.

McKneff

if you leave anything at all, they will bin it, could you get onto some local selling/free sites and just give it away.


Im sorry you lost your mum....

madbadrob

Local Housing Authorities are not allowed to leave anything in a house according to my mate who works for ours. They have to assume that these items will cause a fall or worse and that they would be sued if they left them in or the new tenants may want to have their own in and charge the council to remove them etc.

I would suggest having a look in your local area and see if there is one of those companies that collect stuff for free and then sell it cheap to people who are on poor money and moving into a new home or need to add something to their home. They would collect it as well although where a carpet is concerned you would have to lift it

Rob

pollypenny

That good carpets and flooring could be taken up and dumped is amazingly wasteful.

Surely they could be inspected by a local EHO?

Those who need HA housing are not rich, by definition.