My husband was the executor of the will, as well as the sole beneficiary. Thus his attempt to deal with the estate.
I suppose I should have said that in the first post.
In CA we have a Public Administrator. They handle these sort of matters. It’s a county office, so start there.
We wish you would have! 
And worse. Her debit card is being used. The woman who took care of her in her last days, said woman no one seems to know or where she came from and no one has anything except her first name apparently. I was over feeding the cats (which are finally gone to foster),and the last time I did notice a black zippered bag on a table by the couch. And it was blinking. Well, actually it was partially open and I noticed the blink and opened it. It was the deceased’s phone and wallet. After thinking about how much fun it would be to randomly call people and freak them out (no, I didn’t) I shut off the phone and put everything back. I did see a ton of cards, which I didn’t look at, in the wallet.
So when I was told about the missing monies, I mentioned that wallet. Apparently when she died, her effects, which she had with her (she’d texted people from the hospital) were released to the caretaker women. Who’s since quit-left key and a note on the counter saying it was all too sad for her and she was going to Mexico for an extended stay with friends.
So far as I know, there’s been no inventory whatsoever of anything in there. A ton of paperwork from banks, insurance companies, hospitals, investment companies etc. is just lying on the coffee table. And mail keeps coming in tons, which I lay on the kitchen counter. This is a nightmare. Oh, and there is a car, and no one knows squat about the keys.
I hope you’ve contacted the County Public Guardian. This is not going well at all and will get worse before it starts to slowly turn around.
I’ve read thru their site, but I don’t think I have legal standing.
You may not have standing to open the estate process. The coroner may have to be the one to do that absent all other family members.
But as the landlord, you are an interested party. Her stuff is in your place. And you have an economic interest in how and when this all resolves.
So you absolutely need to ensure they know who you are and how you are connected to this case. There will be some process for people who have an interest to “subscribe” to this case. It might not be as simple as all that, but there *is *a process. Talk to a live person down there to learn how to get involved the right amount the right way.
They are under no obligation to seek you out. There are many ways for your rights to be extinguished as a matter of law by you not actively following the case as it proceeds.
It’s not always easy and it’s often not pretty, but it’s how the system works. Work it.
Good luck. I hope you can salvage something out of all this.
At this point I think I’d go ahead and get the locks changed after all. Caretaker may have turned in her key, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t make a copy first. You can put a note on the door with your number for anyone that tries to access the property.
Interesting and relevant NY Times article. “The Lonely Death of George Bell”
StG
The one and only relative has texted me to “throw it all out or donate it.” Clearly, that’s not an option. I asked for paperwork from her attorney. She said I have not signed with an attorney, I will not pursue. She says she has no $$ for an attorney, even though I think the estate would pay, but I guess she has none to start with. The rent was paid for Dec., and get this, as the banks would not allow her to freeze the accts., I could continue getting paid for god knows how long.
I have called the county guardian, and they have no standing nor interest in this. Their words.
I had a stop and chat with a landlord atty, that said if the rent’s not paid Jan. 1, start with the 5 day and then evict, maintaining all the property for the specified legal term. Which I guess it can sit in there then we dispose of it.
I would kill her if she hadn’t died, I swear
Your best course of action might be to tell the relative to get the bank to stop making the payment and then you start eviction procedures after the rent stops. She would need to have the proper paperwork in place to get access to the bank account to stop the payment. If she can’t get that paperwork, she wouldn’t have the authority to tell you to clean out the house. So either she gets the payment stopped or else you continue to get paid until the account has insufficient funds.
Ouch!! I’m sorry to hear this.
Which county in AZ if I may ask? We have some legal pals there that may have some clue on how best to move forward.
The attorney advice you got seems sound. Whether it makes more sense now to move her crap to a rented storage unit so you can repair and re-let the house is an economic decision, not a legal one.
I’d be real wary about accepting ongoing auto-payments from a dead person’s account. Each bank employs people whose job is to scan the county death notices for customers. Eventually they’ll take notice and do something. Which may include wanting to claw back any transfers after the date of death. They’re concerned about their liability to the estate even if that estate never really gets formalized. They can’t safely assume that up front.
Paying the rent doesn’t give you legal access to property that is already under lease.
From what this relative is telling me, the banks won’t allow her any access to or control over the accounts at all.
LSLGuy–Maricopa and grateful for any help. I am going to accept these checks as long as that unit is full of her stuff and that car is out in the driveway. I suspect once I start sending the mail back marked “deceased” the bank will take notice, and something will happen. I know there’s a bank statement in the piles of mail I’ve picked up, I mean it looks like it, I certainly didn’t open it. IDK what to do when the utilities go off–I mean it won’t freeze the pipes (although this week, BRR), but I think I’ll empty the reefer, because I doubt I’ll be notified. You see, she has everything on AutoPay, so it could be paid forever. sheesh.
Huh?
Sorry, I was responding to this post, not noticing that it was at the end of the previous page:
The executor of the estate can get access to the bank account. If your tenant didn’t have a will, there’s a defined procedure for saying which relative is appointed the executor. The relative needs to go to one of the county offices and fill out the form listing all the relatives. The officer will appoint one of the relatives the executor (it would be her if she’s the only one) and give her notarized papers saying she’s the executor. She can then take those papers to the bank and get access to the account.
This is why you should not listen to “a random relative”. You don’t know if that relative has authority to make decisions. Your tenant might have a child or parent who you don’t know about and they would be the ones who should be the executor.
There is only the one relative. I am 100% sure of that as I was told many time by the tenant, who BTW made no will specifically as she didn’t think she needed one with only the one relative. The one & only relative is out of state, and in her words is overwhelmed and does not want to deal with any of this. Her words “I have not hired an attorney and I won’t be pursuing.”
Can you petition a court to have yourself named as the executor?
You know who the one relative is. You know that said relative doesn’t want anything to do with it. You have that text from her. (Did you save it?) You believe that there is no other relative.
If some investigation needs to be made, they would know who that one relative is, so they would know where to start. (Whoever “they” may be.)