Complete Story
 

04/18/2017

Passing of a tenant

Asset Storage - Jack Barnes

We recently were notified of the passing of one of our tenants. The daughter is listed as an Alternate/Emergency Contact and Additional Authorized User. The Rental Agreement says "Lessor may cut the lock and/or provide gate code at request of those listed above. Additional user does not have tenancy rights." The daughter has already agreed to continue to make rental payments on the unit. She also wants to know what will be required for her to remove all of the contents. My question: what is required before we turn over the contents of the unit to the daughter? Do we require that she, or some other person be assigned by the courts as the executrix/executor for the estate before we can allow any action be taken on the contents? Or, because she is listed as an authorized additional user, can she take control of the contents? Thanks.

Printer-Friendly Version

2 Comments

Kevin Leebrick   on Tuesday 04/18/2017 at 05:19 PM

I'm not an attorney first and foremost, so this is not legal advice. This will be worked out in the court and they estate will decide who gets the unit.
That being said,if she is listed on the contract/lease as an authorized user and she has a key, so long as the unit is current and not locked out, she can access the unit. That means, technically speaking, she could move out of the unit and you could find the unit empty/abandoned. If she doesn't have the key, as a listed authorized user you can cut the lock for her, charge her for doing so, and if allowed by your rules and regulations require she buy a lock from you to replace it. She can then move the things out and you find it abandoned.
She can't "take control" because she is not the tenant, so she has no right to close the account make changes to the account etc.

Doug Pierce   on Friday 05/05/2017 at 12:03 PM

Hi Jack,
If the daughter has not been named as the executor of the customer's estate by the court, in my experience she cannot do anything with the account. Best suggestion is, if she has key and code to get in, she has access to the space as long as it is current. She can clear out the space, and if you find it vacant and empty, it would be considered abandoned. Nothing more would need to be done on your part, other than vacating the space.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the comments shown above are those of the individual comment authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of this organization.