One man’s junk…
I have just been helping my Aunt downsize and move into a retirement home. We have spent hours, days WEEKS, dealing with her INCREDIBLY PRECIOUS collections. Most of which are essentially valueless. “collectable” dolls that are pretty much un-sell-able at any price.
My uncle (who died last year) had an office room. She wanted me to simply clear everything off to the dump. She believed it was all simply complete crap. Just junk. “Nobody would ever want this junk”
I’m about to list five unsmoked hand carved pipes on ebay for $250 each. Old french gambling dice will go for $150. Lots of other stuff as well. And I was able to find his WWII medals and other memorabilia to send to his nephew in Netherlands, who was REALLY happy to get them. Was unable to save the original lithographs he had that she declared “ugly” and gave away to a neighbour. I estimate that they were worth upwards of $5,000. The neighbour said he “loved them”. I expect to see them in the local auction house next month.
I don’t see him as trying to turn it to his advantage; he is involved with a complicated situation in a property that is essentially an investment. I would not expect my landlord to mourn me or let a rental property not make money, unless it were a friend or relative. He’s already had to put more effort than a landlord would with a typical tenant; it’s not clear if she was charged more for this.
I’m guessing you haven’t seen what a hoarder’s residence looks like. DummyGladHands didn’t specify exactly how bad her tenant’s situation was, but hoarders in some cases will collect so much stuff that it becomes a dangerous place to live because:
-it may not be possible to reach exits quickly in the event of a fire
-doors may be difficult/impossible to open because of stuff piled in front of them
-stuff may be piled so high that there’s a danger of stacks collapsing onto a person
-stuff may be piled so high and broad that the structure of the house becomes overloaded, causing floors to collapse
In some situations there may also be a biohazard because of infestations, collection of animal/human waste, dead animal bodies, and so on - but it sounds like that’s not an issue here, just an overabundance of stuff. In other words, “take it all to a storage unit” may involve many, many days of labor, not just an afternoon of moving furniture.
The King Of Soup and DeepLiquid, both seem to disapprove of what the OP is doing, but don’t really offer any idea of how the OP should operate. Are you supposed to enter into a deep emotional connection with people you do business with? Or are you supposed to lose huge chunks of money if someone happens to die while engaged in business with you? Yeah, it’s easy on a message board to go on about how much You Care about a person you don’t know and shame someone for trying to handle real world concerns instead of writing a bunch about ‘I Care Deeply about this person I don’t really know’. But in reality the rest of the world keeps on moving after someone dies, and most people don’t form deep connections with everyone they do business with.
Gigi and Pantastic are right. I spoke harshly without justification because I am dealing with a superficially similar situation, and I’m too emotional about it. I apologize
NP, she was a friend, I knew somewhat about her situation, but I cared for her as a person. So when her landlord was going to boot her, and feeling sorry for her, I bought the property so she could stay. And like I said, when it got out of control, I made her hire a maid, so that although cluttered, the place is clean. I really don’t suck, I’m sad she died, but I have a property now to worry about.
So I was advised to change the locks, but the person who oversaw her business and financial affairs, and who I consider to be an honorable person, begged me not to. There are 2 cats, and while I’d never neglect them, there is a woman who took care of my tenant while she was sick and the cats are used to her. So the locks stay unchanged.
Security deposit is long gone; as I said, she was a friend and I fixed a lot of her problems with the property, problems she caused.
I’ve spoken with the 1 and only relative who is out of state and totally overwhelmed and not much help, but of course it’s a shock. The man who was tending to her affairs said they’ll bring in a crew to empty the place, with the relative’s permiso. Of course, worry wart that I am I’ll worry about my liabilities for this “crew”. It’s a shitty situation and as she was there over 15 years, I have a shit ton of work to do to rerent.
Good luck with this. Although you don’t want to let this fester for weeks & weeks, you also want to proceed deliberately enough that you don’t make a dumb move on the spur of the moment.
There needs to be good communication between “the person who oversaw her business and financial affairs” and the relative. And you need clarity on who is the administrator of the estate as named in the will, assuming there is one. All these arrangements could have been very formal or very informal prior to her death.
Now that she is dead, the courts will eventually become involved and will not look kindly on [del]lots of stuff[/del] anything being done informally. If there is no will and hence no administrator the you all need the county public guardian involved *before *you or anyone else does anything more than feed the cats.
With the best of intentions you all can collectively paint yourself into a very expensive legal mess. And if anyone anywhere in the chain is less than honest it really snowballs.
Until the end of the lease as I understand the terms. Not paying rent will end up letting you terminate the lease before the agreed term, but it won’t happen immediately after a missed payment and is normally going to require filing paperwork with a court, if not something like actual eviction proceedings. Exactly how it works depends on local and state laws and the wording of the contract, and is the kind of thing where you can easily get yourself into a mess if you don’t know what you’re doing.
So? Depending on state law, terminating a month-to-month lease for nonpayment STILL requires formalities. In my state, for example, the landlord is required by state law to give written notice to the tenant or the legal representative of her estate (who’s that?) giving three days to pay up; only after that time passes can the landlord go to district court for an eviction order. If he just starts tossing the stuff without a court order, he is liable to her estate for the full value of the goods tossed, plus attorney’s fees, and depending on the local prosecutor’s mood could find himself in criminal court too. Your state, or the OP’s state, may have entirely different laws, but the OP better know what they are before landing in a precarious or even ruinous situation.
Interesting responses. My husband’s uncle died. My husband contacted the landlord, and sent a check for the next month’s rent. The landlord never cashed the check, and claims he threw away all the stuff. I suspect he stole it, as it included an oriental rug collection that was relatively saleable. I figured we were SOL. Husband has talked to a lawyer, but I’ve stayed out of it.
NYC, rent-controlled apartment, which explais why the landlord was more interested in getting the apratment clear than in collecting rent on the existing lease.
If you read my other posts in this thread you’ll see I’m well aware of the legalities. And that I have been one of the ones counselling the landlord of the necessity to proceed legally & carefully through the process, not to just willy-nilly steal or dispose of the tenant’s goods.
I was responding to the posters immediately above me who were discussing the lease as if a long term lease was a factor in this case. Which it isn’t. A simple point of fact, not of law.
I know you are. I was simply adding further details about how the month-to-month situation has very little effect on the formalities required. As far as the law is concerned (here, anyway), the month-to-month lease renews automatically every single month until it is formally terminated, and that formal termination follows pretty much the same path and in about the same time whether it’s M2M or long-term.
Cool. Thanks. I misunderstood you to be dinging me for cheerleading to throw the tenant’s stuff in o the street the day after the rent wasn’t paid. All good.
In a case like this, is the landlord legally required to accept the check from “random person”? That could have legal consequences as the random person could claim they should now have some type of legal access to the property since they paid the rent. I would think that only the person on the rental agreement or their legal representative could pay the rent. So maybe if your husband was the executor of the will then he could pay the rent and prevent the landlord from clearing the apartment.
