Tenant Passed Away - Landlord's Right's under a AST

[dandare1980]

Hi,

Our sole tenant has sadly passed away. She was 3 and a half months through an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, so still within the initial fixed 6 month period.

As we understand it, we need to contact her nominated executor/solicitor to register as a creditor?

Does this mean we should claim on her estate to the end of her AST?

Her daughter (non-resident) is currently with the property to sort out the affairs, however she is not an executor.

Does she have any legal right to be there or a right to succession?

Unfortunately she has already contacted us with her demands and was not very easy to deal with (can't blame her). She intends to pay for January's rent due at the end of this month from her late mother's estate, but will be leaving the property at the end of January, 1 month before the end of the AST.

We have requested the details of the executor/solicitor but she was quite irate and so far has not provided us with such details. Is there another way we can find these out?

I believe she has no intention to stay, but should we except a payment from her and allow her to leave the property early?

We have no agreement with the daughter so how do we stand legally in possessing the property if she decided to hang around? Should we be dealing with her anyway? What about our insurance?

Should we issue a section 21 notice asap to cover ourselves?

Any recommendations on what to do with the DPS?

Lot's of questions I'm afraid, but any advice will be most appreciated.

Dan.

[mariner]

Is daughter staying in property over night? Executor should be informed of her presence in case mothers papers disapper ot a new Will in dau's benefit is found by her (call me paranoid).
Dau has no right of succession to property if AST. It could be argued she has a right to visit and stay until disposal of mother's chattels. If dau has offered to cover Jan rent until this is done, then issue a receipt for amount stating Rx £x from <dau name> on behalf of Tenant (decedased).
IMO it would be insensitive for OP to chase mother's estate for final month (Feb) rent. Just conduct standard move-out inspection and be grateful you have access to property and can let in Feb. since you know T is unlikely to return.
s21 only applies to T, dau is not a T.
As for DPS, if no no damages are due, deposit should be returned to Executor. Copy of death cert may assist in early release during fixed term.

[dandare1980]

Thanks mariner,

Yes I believe the daughter is staying in the property overnight.

I am of the same cautious nature as yourself and understand that the executor needs notifying asap. Problem is, we haven't been able to establish who this is yet as the daughter has got funny with us.

She only died last Friday, so they probably haven't sorted out probate etc. or even appointed a solicitor.

Can we legally accept the property back in January from the daughter if she is not acting on an executors say so? Would this leave us unable to rent the property out until a true executor with Grant of Representation rights surrenders the property to us?

Can we still proceed and take the property into our possession at the end of the AST 6 month period in February regardless? Should a Section 21 not go to the executor in this case?

I guess the situation we don't want to be in is hanging on to the property not able to rent to another tenant while a Grant of Probate is obtained (I can't remember how long my mother's took to come through) so it can be legally returned to us.

I have recently been made unemployed so we really want to avoid unnecessary mortgage, council tax, utility etc. costs, but of course don't want to rip the poor girls dead mother off.

I'm very worried we're going to do the wrong thing and get caught out.

Thanks for you help,

Dan.