I just want to wish you the best of luck in getting this all sorted out as quickly as possible. Sounds to me like you are asking the right questions and gettting good advice from the teeming millions.
I believe he let the insurance lapse with all the other bills. Yes, it sounds like a really sad life. He chose it for himself, though, so he must have had some reason for it.
Good advice, tomndebb - we understand that if we walk away, we walk away from the good and the bad.
Thanks, Gut. We’re working on minimizing the mess.
my first thought was featherlou needs “crime scene clean up.” they are an amazing company that cleans up after a crime scene or death like your father’s. they do a fantastic job. i’m not sure if there is a moose jaw office
i’m sorry you are going through this. i hope everything goes as smoothly and peacefully as possible for you and yours.
Wow. That’s just… wow. My sympathies, and your husband is a good man.
I’ve never dealt with anything like this and IANAL, particularly in Saskatchewan, but if I were you I’d walk the hell away if I could. It sounds like you weren’t particularly missing anything in the house before now, so I imagine you can live without it even now that you have the option. I mean, yeah, you never know if there’s a priceless painting in there somewhere, but hey, what you don’t know won’t hurt you. If your one sister wants to look for it, good for her.
Sorry for your predicament, more so for the loss of your father years ago.
I’ve helped my brother in-law clean out his rentals so I know dirty. I’ve hauled over 500 cubic feet of ewww from a single empty house (some people actually keep their dogs inside all the time). Pulling up carpet, washing EVERYTHING, painting EVERYTHING, replacing fixtures,…. It’s a big job cleaning out a house.
Have it appraised as cheaply as possible to make sure you’re in the red. If possible, pull any family mementos such as photographs from the estate and WALK AWAY. The city won’t care if you remove stuff as long as it doesn’t have a lot of value in it. You owe him nothing, you owe the city nothing.
Make sure he didn’t collect something of value that you’ve overlooked. I know of one auction that resulted in the burning of over $100,000 worth of paper items (kids didn’t know their parents collected old documents). Something like that would make it worth the effort to sell the house.
Even if the house is slightly in the black I recommend you WALK AWAY. It isn’t worth your time reliving any unpleasant memories of your father. It is a lot of work both mentally and physically to dismantle a well kept house and distribute the assets among siblings in good standing. You’re looking at a black hole in terms of time spent on the house and also the emotional trauma of squabbling with your brothers and sisters.
I can imagine the relief you experienced writing down your thoughts. Sometimes seeing it in writing makes it obvious what steps you need to take. Good luck.
Wow. My condolences on your loss and the whole situation.
I really have no knowledge of law but I would like to add that if there is anything of value, emotionally or financially and you are letting a “questionable tenant” have the run of the place, chances are those things will be gone before you even knew they existed. Let’s face it, if the smell didn’t bother him before and the decomposing body wasn’t noticed by him then the smell in the house now isn’t going to keep him from poking around.
Don’t forget to check the local banks to see if he had any money squirreled away.
And even though you can’t inherit the debt from the estate, you CAN incur personal expenses that the estate won’t be able to reimburse. The lawyer, the cleaner, etc. if one of you siblings personally cpmtracts with them before an estate is established, you may lose that money, especially if the house is in such bad shape it needs to be condemmed.
We had wondered about that, Boyo. I guess we need to sit down with a lawyer again, now that we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with, and find out all the pitfalls and problems we want to avoid. We absolutely want to minimize our expense in making all this go away, but I realize that we may have to spend a little to avoid spending a lot.
And you bring this up because…?
From experience, you may want to check the HOUSE for money squirreled away. A good friend found $8,000 stuffed in couch pillows in her grandmother’s house.
You will certainly need to see what the city of Moose Jaw has to say about this option. It may not be wise to assume that you can walk away from a property that may well have negative value without repercussions.
Yeah, we’ve wondered about that, too. We let the City take the property for back taxes, and let the creditors and the City fight it out, and next thing we know, we’re getting bills in the mail for upkeep, cleaning, sued by creditors, et freakin’ cetera.
My oldest sister, the eternal optimist apparently, saw that the house was assessed at $56,000 on this year’s property taxes, and thinks we’ll get more money for it. Um, she was there - she saw the condition of the house. A property tax assessment doesn’t take into account the house being totally run-down, crapped up and smelly, does it?
(Don’t worry, Czarcasm - we’ve already thrown out the idea of burning the place down. Be too obvious who did it. 
)
Go through everything first. Make sure that there is absolutely nothing of value. Get an appraisal from the real estate and offer to sell it to the sister who is interested. She can keep whatever she gets for it and she gets to pay all expenses.
If you truly don’t care about it or the stuff, you could call Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity - they may have an interest in anything in good condition, provided there are no bodily fluids on it (ewwww).
I’ve nothing to add that hasn’t already been said, featherlou, other than to also express my condolences for your loss and for the situation you and your family have been saddled with. The departure of a family member should evoke memories of happier times, not add to anyone’s difficulties. I am gladdened to see your levelheadedness and resolve to do what’s necessary and wish you a speedy resolution to this mess.
If it’ll make you feel any better, realize that maybe someone reading here will learn from or in someway benefit from your tale in some precautionary manner.
My sympathy and condolences featherlou. I hope you get the mess straightened out with minimal trouble. 