Tenant and his wife (Both in mid-70s) moved into my property in May-2021. Move in rent was $950. They also paid $950 deposit. I increased rent to $1050 in 2023.

They paid rent on time and overall a decent tenant. Guy passed away in February. His son moved mom to a nursing home. I was in constant touch with him. It took him 2 months to clean the condo and hand over the possession.

They did not pay rent for March and April, and I found about $300 worth of damage and cleaning issues.

I do not have any forwarding address. How do I go about collecting about 2 months of lost rent? This condo is in Indiana. Is there any option to go after Mom and Son to collect 2 months of rent?

Thanks for your help.

As a practical matter, an old couple renting a $950 per month house aren’t likely to have much in the way of assets. Such people, when in nursing home care soon are flat broke , the nursing home gets the social security check and Medicaid gets billed for the rest.

The only persons responsible for unpaid rent and/or damages are the people who have signed the lease. If one of the persons who signed the lease has died, then that person's estate would also be held responsible.

As Sisco said, you might be trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Renters who end up in nursing homes are usually flat broke. I would say unless son or widow also signed the lease and have significant assets that your state will allow you to seize or garnishee, it's throwing good money after bad to try to collect.

In this case, I would have asked the mom to sign a paper that she was voluntarily terminating the lease early and was done moving out, and then you agree to accept that early termination notice. Then you get keys and possession back right away instead of waiting 2 months.

The problem here is the son say you weren't being proactive, so he decided to treat you like a free self-storage unit. The minute rent was late, I would've filed eviction. Then son would've had "motivation" to get done quickly. It takes my crew 5-8 hours to clean out a unit. Two months is absurd. He took his time. "Why rush when the landlord doesn't do anything to hurry me along?"

Lesson learned: next time one of three things happens:

1) Rent is paid until move out is complete OR

2) Tenant gives back possession immediately OR

3) Eviction is filed.

There is no option 4 where you sit there and lose rent indefinitely.

Can't speak to Michigan law but in Pa, after someone dies, the lease ends. That stands to reason - once someone dies - they can't live in your condo.

With mom being placed in a home, you don't know what mental state they are in. The home isn't going to share that either.

You might be SOL.

Who is the emergency contact on the lease? You could try reaching out to the son - if you need a skip trace website I can give you that.

Living in a state where I can't garnish-- getting possession is 99% of the game. Recouping any lost funds is the cherry on top, but the focus is on cleaning up, rerenting, and moving forward. I don't get taxed on income I don't receive, but I have no tools in my toolbox to make sure I get 100% of what's owed.

So-- you have two tenants, Mom and Dad. The son's not a tenant, so I wouldn't expect him to be on the hook. Yet you communicated with him for two months while he managed things.

Dad passed away in February, so he's off the hook, too. That leaves Mom.

If Mom gave you notice and said, "I can't stay now that Dad has passed away, I'm moving into a nursing home, this is my notice---" then it's on you to say, "I'm in receipt of your notice, this is the move-out checklist, I will take possession on (date) and change the locks." And then you do it.

But not only were you not getting paid by Mom, but you also did not change the locks and take possession. You allowed them to drag out their departure, knowing they weren't paying you. Presumably that money ended up going to the nursing home. You're in Michigan, and the condo is in Indiana--- that's one of the difficulties with long-distance landlording. You can't keep an eye on the property, you can't take 10 minutes out of your day and change the locks.

Overall, if you have a $950 SD, have $300 in damage/cleaning, that leaves $650. In my lease, I'm allowed to use the SD towards unpaid rent. So two months' rent is $2100-- which means you're out-of-pocket $1450.

That's pretty darn good, compared to how some turnovers can be.

So-- figure out where your obstacles are, and how you can fix your processes. If you had a local manager who could respond to a situation faster than you can--- would their cut be greater than or less than $1450 over a three-year period? If you're doing well self-managing long distance, keep it up. If the benefit outweighs the costs, then see who you can hire to be your local presence.

There is no basis to chase the son ... he's not your tenant.

Clean it up and rerent. Don't spend another minute thinking about this one.