Tenant has died – Police kick the door in!

The police kicked in the door of one of our flats on suspicion of a felon being there and to make an arrest,. They found nothing. Mr Plod did not cough up.

Covered by Insurance?

I would say to you have a heart, be kind to the family, and be prepared to take what sounds like a relatively small loss here due to a very sad situation.

With regards to the damage to the door, speak to your insurer, but it might not be covered.

You’ll need to make sure the tenancy ends ‘satisfactorily’ too, assuming you have a lettings agent they will be able to help you through this situation.

Claim the deposit, write off the rest unless insurance covers it

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 03/10/2023 – 18:02Nonot an insured loss
And by the way
Dan Neidle may well prove to be right because the Revenue may well change their position with some retrospectiveness
They don’t like things done solely or mainly to save tax. Not quite cricket! Schemes can and do backfire.

Legally the tenancy does not end on the tenants death but passes to the executor and then whoever inherits the tenants estate

You should contact the next of kin asap .and ask them who is the executor. You should then inform them they are liable for rent until the tenancy is ended and offer them an early termination of the contract and an end of liability for rent – on return on the property in the condition it was when first let. You should inform they they need to pay rent (from the estate or their own resources ) if they wish to retain use of the flat. If not ask if they want you to move content to the tip or move the contents to professional storage where they will have to pay the storage fee to recover it.

That is the legal response that protects your interests and rights – however we Landlords despite rumours are also compassionate human beings – so you may decide to cut them some slack. It is your choice!

Mark

You will not get compensation from the Police as the damage occurred in the performance of their duties.

As for the rest follow the legal line, but with a degree of compassion.

I too have had a door, (and frame), kicked in by the police and they failed to pay. However, I spoke to the guy running the site; https://crimebodge.co.uk/ and with a letter template from him, i eventually got all my money back for the door repair/replacement.

With regard to your tenant’s death, how you treat the rent, etc is a personal decision. I guess it depends on how he died and how good a tenant he was.

If it were me, I’d definitely chase the police for the full cost and I’d probably speak with the relatives of the deceased and come to a mutual, (& as Tim Rogers comment states), compassionate agreement. After all, since he wasn’t intending to leave, he wouldn’t have left the flat as if he were handing it back.

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 03/10/2023 – 18:02
I’m not sure about insurance. It’s not malicious damage.

My plan was just to claim the deposit back.
And that would be that.

However, as we are getting squeezed by HMG screwed by HMCS margins aren’t what they were.

I was thinking of asking the executors to cover the cost of the front door.
And allowing them to just hand, but the keys after having been in and cleared the property out.

I think it will end up costing me 150 pounds cleaning, plus, let’s say seven weeks rent plus reletting fees plus the front door

Minus the deposit.

And that’s probably 12 months profit as most of you will know !!

Anyhow!!

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 03/10/2023 – 18:07
That’s what I’ll end up doing. I have no doubt.

Because I’m too nice to be a landlord.