I suspect my neighbor is dead in her house. What can/should I do?

In My Humble Opinion
1

There is much about this situation I don’t know for sure, so let me present the facts as I know them.

FACTS:

I moved into my wife’s house when we married in April 2011. She has been living here since 1996. Our neighborhood consists of 90-year-old single-family homes on about 1/3 acre lots.

The house next door is owned by a woman in her eighties (I know this by checking real estate records and googling her name.) I have never seen her. My wife saw her once many years ago when she went to her door. She says that even then she was a hoarder with piles of newspaper, etc., all around the house.

I have never seen a light inside the house. The windows that face our house are papered over from the inside.

There was a light burning constantly on the back porch until a few months ago, when it went out.

There is a detached garage in the back. One door is open, and a car is visible inside.

The house has had little or no maintenance in the past few years. A lawn service mowed the lawn a few months ago.

I don’t recall seeing trash or recycling being put out for some time, but I haven’t been specifically looking before this week.

After I found the owner’s name online, I discovered that as recently as August 2012 she had left a condolence message for the family of a member of the nearby church, of which she, too, is a member.

I also discovered that her 2012 property taxes have not yet been paid. (This is public record.) The two previous years had been paid on Sept. 30 of those years.
SPECULATION:

My suspicion is that she has died, and is still inside.

It is possible that she died and that family knew about it, took care of her body without our noticing, and have just left the house untouched. But I think that’s fairly unlikely. I work from home, and although I don’t have the house under constant surveillance by any means, I think we might have noticed an ambulance, hearse, or other vehicles on the property. One would also expect heirs to take some measures to maintain or sell the house.

I have not taken the simple step of simply knocking on the door and seeing if I get a response. I can do it, but I just haven’t yet.

I could also call or go to the church and ask if anyone has seen her or heard from her recently.
QUESTIONS:

So what can/should I do?

Should I notify the authorities? Who? The police? What can they do?

If she has died and has no family or heirs, what will happen to the property? Who determines its disposition if no heirs can be found?

What will happen if I do nothing? What will the county tax office do when it doesn’t get paid?

What suggestions do you have?

2

Tell all to the police-they will check it out.

3

I think I’d do as you mentioned and simply walk over and knock / ring the bell a couple of times. If she answers just mention you hadn’t seen her in awhile and as her neighbor you were just making sure she was okay. If no one answers call the non-emergency number for the police and tell them of your concern, plus her street address and the last date she was actually seen.

4

That was my first reaction, too, but I’m curious to know what they will do. Do you have any experience with a similar situation?

5

Is it a nice house? If so, may I refer you to the landmark case of Finders v. Keepers?

6

Unfortunately, these things do happen with that class of people who become invisible - even her church and other acquaintances may not have noticed her absence.

Do follow through - knock a few times, do what you can to discreetly look inside for signs of trouble, and call the police to check things out if you can’t establish her safety.

What about mail? If it’s an outside box, it should be overflowing. If it’s a mail slot, discreetly see if it’s jammed up.

The rest of the questions aren’t your problem and will only affect you if the house goes up for sale without a “caring” seller.

7

:smiley:

It is no longer a nice house, and I shudder to think what the interior must be like now. Assuming that my wife is right that she and her husband, who apparently died in 2010 (inferred from real estate records), were hoarders, I doubt that it would be worth trying to clean out the place and renovate it. It probably still has the original 1920s plumbing and knob and tube wiring (we still have it in parts of our house) and apart from wood floors with long planks, very little with restoration value. Probably better to tear it down and rebuild from scratch.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people with first-hand knowledge of what is likely to happen next, assuming no heirs come forward.

What will the police do? What will local or state government do? How will the property be disposed of?

8

The phrase I have heard police officers use is “do a welfare check” on such people. It is a common practice. But by all means knock of phone the police. Surely you would want someone to do that much if it were your relative?

9

This is almost unanswerable except in vague terms - even if you disclose what town or jurisdiction you’re in, the process will vary according to whether or not she has next of kin, whether they’re close enough to care about the house (doesn’t sound like it) and might want to keep it or reno it for maximum return, or would choose whatever is the fastest sale route.

With active city/police action, it’s one thing; with the way most towns deal with such things, another. With a will is one route; intestate is another. With interested/motivated family or heirs or not, ditto. House quickly in salable condition vs. a near tear-down, ditto.

I’ve seen most combinations of the above, and lived a few. Too many variables to give a simple answer.

10

Yeah, I would go with knocking on the door once or twice, and if you get no answer, then call the police. Wellness checks are a legit reason to call the cops, and I’d say your situation does sound pretty suspicious at this point.

11

Thanks for all the answers. I will probably try knocking and if I get no response, call the police. I appreciate the concern you have all expressed.

But I’d still like answers to my other questions, if possible.

The house in question is in Baltimore County, MD.

What procedures does the state take to try and find heirs, and how long might that take? Is there a set period of time after it is assumed that there are no heirs and liquidation can proceed?

Let’s assume that there are no heirs, and the owner died intestate. (I don’t know that either of these things is true, I just want to know what would happen in that case.)

Does the state “inherit” the property? Will it turn it over to a real estate agent to sell on its behalf and use the proceeds to pay outstanding taxes, then transfer the rest to general funds?

What department of the state government handles these things?

Perhaps some actual lawyers will know some of the answers to these questions.

12

IANAL, so I don’t know what the laws of intestate succession are in MD, but assuming there like SC, there will always be a next of kin (first, second third, etc cousins that the decedent might not have even known about). Now, whether or not that person can be located is another story. If they can’t locate a next of kin in SC the property would be escheated to the State if no heirs (next of kin) could be located. I suspect that’s not unusual among state laws.

Anecdotal: The attorney who handled my will mentioned that she was familiar with a case in which a small piece of property was being held up because the owner had died intestate, and they were trying to find some next of kin. The value was only about 5000-6000 dollars, but they had to exhaust all possible avenues on finding a relative of some sort before it could be disposed.

13

Okay, I just knocked, and as it happened, she was on the phone to the neighbor on the other side at that moment, who came out of her house and asked what I wanted. I explained I had just been concerned about her, and Neighbor 2 said Neighbor 1 is fine.

So that ends that, for now. It’s nice to know that at least she’s in touch with someone and isn’t completely alone.

I may pursue my theoretical legal questions in another thread.

Thanks for all your input.

14

If the property becomes sufficiently behind on property taxes, it can be put into a tax auction. For just a year or two behind, there would probably just be a lein put on it against any future sale. Property tax auctions are held at the county level, rather than the state, at least around here.

15

Wait, did you actually see Neighbor 1? Because I’m pretty sure Neighbor 2 murdered Neighbor 1 and is now actively trying to stifle your investigation.

I think I saw this on Law & Order.

16

It’s nice of you to be concerned (or morbidly curious). I’m not elderly, and I’m certainly not a shut-in, but I am single. My neighbors the cops will call me if my car is in my driveway when they know I’m usually at work. I appreciate that they care.

StG

17

The first house I ever bought was from the state of Maryland. The house was in Baltimore County. The owner died with no heirs and no will. The house sat empty for two years. The state did advertize looking for heirs. It was 30 years ago so I don’t remember all the details.

18

~Olive~: Thanks for one of the most useful replies so far.

19

I don’t know the specifics of the process, but, in broad, general terms, a person who dies without a will is “intestate.” All states have systems of “intestate succession” – who gets what without a will – that vary by state.

So then if no heirs exist under your state’s rules of intestate sucession, the property goes to the government (even if no taxes are owed), which is called “escheating.”

So, to bring it all together: in the absence of any heirs either by will or by intestate sucession, the property escheats to the state.

20

I don’t know how invested you want to become. But you might use this as an opportunity to introduce yourself to her. Maybe bring her an occasional meal. Offer to run small errands or do light yard work.* The extra human contact could be good for her.
*This would be self-serving in that it would help with property values. And keep her yard from being an eyesore.