I think there a a big difference between being soft and being fair. Obviously ira going to be a hard time for the relatives left behind so while the tenant may have owed you money, they will have a lot to deal with and your debt will probably be the least of their worries.
Some of you clearly haven't actually dealt with these situations before. If someone who rents from you gets murdered or drops dead at an early age, you'd better be careful how and when you approach their survivors - particularly if these people did not live there themselves and were not on the lease.
To be honest, I have never heard of this happening in any situation. But hey, depending on the amount of the debts, this makes sense.
I agree that it's a sensitive situation and considering the tenant die we need to handle the situation with respect for the relatives and for the tenant. After a while yes, financial situation should be solved.
If it was a small amount of money, I'd just let it go. Odds are that you might not see it. Taking legal action for it is just throwing good money at bad. However, it was a sizable amount, and that wouldn't be super likely in a typical rental situation, I could see tactfully pursuing it.
Yeah, and if the tenant was a good tenant and a responsible person, there's a good chance that any relatives or estate executor or administrator would contact you within a short period of time to settle any monies owed and get everything moved out quickly, etc. Otherwise, if the tenant was not such a good tenant, it may take every bit of spare time and effort you have just to get any relatives to get everything out in a reasonably timely manner so that you can rent it to someone else. Any back rent owed is probably going to be very difficult or impossible to get much of without lots of trouble and possible expense.
And that was exactly my point. If you do think it's worth persuing a debt that's owed, then people will have to tread very carefully and can probably expect a long hard fight depending on the family left behind. Nobody likes to cut their losses and walk away but this is sometimes the best option all round.
Sure, but at the same time a person died so we need to respect that. If the property is good we will be able to rent it again so no major losses either.
This is where you file it as 'bad debt' and move on, because seriously, IMO, I wouldn't want to anger people further...quite a delicate issue, never thought of it like that, need to digest that and think deeply.
Over here, situations like that would depend on the relationship of the tenant and the landlord. If they are friends, non-payment of rent due to death would be nothing to the landlord. That locking of stuff is only done when the landlord is at odds with the tenant. I have known some tenants who are rude and who has that attitude that the landlord is always doing something illegal. And there are also landlords who are always suspicious of their tenants.
