Sad death but no agreement with daughter who was resident?
Very sadly a long term tenant has died. The contract was an AST started in May 2005 and rolled ever since. As no new fixed-term tenancy or ‘renewal’ has ever been signed, and as the fixed term tenancy ended (in Oct 2005) I assume it is now a new ‘periodic’ tenancy that has been created. Am I correct?
The contract was direct with Landlord and Tenant only, but at some point, the daughter moved in. While we knew about this nothing formal was agreed, so no question of ‘permitted occupier’ or anything like that was requested or even considered. She was moving in to save for a deposit of her own. The tenant paid the rent up to the end of June (just before she unexpectedly died). We have on record her next of kin as her daughter. The tenant was not married.
What do we need to do now? While we don’t believe the daughter will want to take on the tenancy herself (various reasons), I need to understand if we have to give her official notice what that notice would be exactly? Ideally a nice phone chat with her may allude to the fact she will be leaving of her own free will as she cannot afford the rent, but what if she doesn’t want to?
What do we need to do now?
We don’t want to offer her a tenancy as thinking of selling now anyway.
DSR
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Member Since October 2018 - Comments: 149
10:49 AM, 24th May 2021, About 5 years ago
When a Tenant dies the Tenancy doesn’t end, it reverts to the Estate & can be ended by the Executors of said estate.
You need to find out who the executors are & if they are willing to end the Tenancy.
Also have a word with the daughter to see what her intentions are.
Member Since February 2018 - Comments: 26
2:34 PM, 24th May 2021, About 5 years ago
I agree with John Mac above.
The tenancy will be a statutory periodic tenancy and will be part of the estate of the deceased. I had an elderly tenant pass away at one of my properties. There was no one else living at the house but the issue l had was getting the family to clear the premises and hand it back in good condition. It took much longer than it should have done. The family gave notice to terminate but took much longer than one month to clear the premises. We tried to steer a fine line between being businesslike and being sensitive to a bereaved family. In the end we took a modest hit and moved on. You need to have a conversation with the daughter to find out what her intentions are. Good luck.