Time to clear rented house after death

Doody

Greetings,

could I have some advice for my husband regarding his elderly and ailing mother's home?

She has a house she has rented for about the last 50 years so has a protected tenancy. I do not know details. My husband does not anticipate her living much longer and is concerned about getting her house cleared to hand back to the owner. It is full of the possessions gathered over that time. Some of which are valuable family photos and papers, much is tat.

How long does the family have to clear the house?

Rain_Shadow

Time for a conversation with the landlord.

marksoton

The poor woman's not dead yet!

Rain_Shadow

So what. She may be terminally ill with a few weeks left. I don't see the point in not planning ahead.

Mags_cat

I agree, talk to the landlord. If they're cooperative, fine - you could offer to pay the rent for as long as it takes to sort out if you can afford to do that. Or if they want it back asap could you look at getting *everything* boxed up and moved to a self-rent storage unit for a period of time? That way, you have the time to go through it al without the pressure.

And no, nothing morbid about planning ahead. You won't want to be trying to sort this after your MiL has died. Much better to prepare ahead of time, then you can spend what time she has left making memories.

Doody

Thanks for the constructive answers. If only talking to the landlord were an option, I suppose in time we will be able to but at the moment my MIL would be extremely upset if this were done. She is also a bit of a hoarder. There are cupboards you can't get to because of other furniture full of stuff in front of them. She's not extreme but there is a lot of stuff to look through to find important papers and photos.

MIL had the idea of leaving a cheque made out for a month's rent for when this happens but of course bank accounts get frozen after death. I've no idea how much that would be. Perhaps us covering it would be the easiest option if it's not too much. She has no fear of death, and talks openly about it but at the same time has strange ideas about how we can handle the aftermath.

davidmcn

The tenancy ends on death (assuming there isn't another resident who could succeed to it), but any eviction requires a court order (and then some advance notice to the occupiers), so even in the worst case scenario you'd have at least some weeks to sort things out before actually having to vacate the property.

Doody

davidmcn wrote: »

The tenancy ends on death (assuming there isn't another resident who could succeed to it), but any eviction requires a court order (and then some advance notice to the occupiers), so even in the worst case scenario you'd have at least some weeks to sort things out before actually having to vacate the property.

Now THAT is what I was telling my husband but he wouldn't believe me. Mind you, I suspect we'd need to do some lock changing to feel her property was safe. Thanks.

marksoton

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

So what. She may be terminally ill with a few weeks left. I don't see the point in not planning ahead.

In the grand scheme of things it would hardly be my first concern.

Rain_Shadow

marksoton wrote: »

In the grand scheme of things it would hardly be my first concern.

And there is no indication that it is the OPs either. However, it is apparent the MiL is concerned about this.


It isn't as if the OP is putting the bunting out for the poor woman's death.

Mojisola

marksoton wrote: »

In the grand scheme of things it would hardly be my first concern.

It makes a lot of sense to plan ahead.

Once a death happens, people are thrown off-balance and are grieving and upset - it's not the right time to start finding out lots of information that could easily have been gathered in advance.