Our tenant of almost 9 years passed away in the hospital yesterday. He had been in & out of the hospital since at least November, and was taken by ambulance at 3 am two and a half weeks ago, where he had been since then.

He'd always paid his rent on time until he was struck ill, at which point he received help from a church and from some family members so that his rent is paid up through the end of April.

His aunt (who is only about 12 years older than he) has stayed in close touch with us. He had verbally authorized us to discuss anything with her a few months ago.

Both he and his aunt have had some friction with his brother who seems to be the polar opposite of our deceased tenant. Unlike the tenant and his aunt, we don't get good vibes from the brother.

However, the brother is the one who paid the April rent, so we may have to deal with him.

We haven't had a tenant pass away before. Do we secure the house and change the locks now, inviting the family to come in to get the tenant's possessions at a time that we arrange (during April for which the rent has already been paid)? Or do we let the aunt, the brother, and the ex-wife all have free access to the home during the month of April since that rent has been paid?

(The aunt is no problem at all and we could possibly give only her the access since he had verbally authorized her. The tenant himself had custody of the two young boys most of the time. The ex-wife would have reason to get the rest of her children's things. We know her. She will not be a problem. But we're not fans of dealing with the brother. But since he paid April rent, maybe he should also have free access?)

I would change the locks until an Executor or an Administrator is named and presents the correct paperwork.

What Ken said.

When he verbally authorized her, that would have been the perfect time to put it writing. (Better if was part of your rental agreement in the future)

However, since you seem to have no written emergency contact who can deal with you legally, you need to cover yourself & go through all the legal steps required.

Consider adding something like this to your Rental Agreement:

At landlord's sole discretion - especially in the instance of death, incarceration, or long-term hospitalization/institutional residence of Tenant - Landlord may contact an Emergency Contact designated by Tenant and to allow that person to remove Tenant's belongings from the premises.

and

If for any reason Tenant cannot be reached, or is non-responsive to management calls or notices, such as in the case of an emergency, incapacitation, incarceration, hospitalization, abandonment, or death Tenant designates the following persons as approved to receive mail, notices, phone calls, texts, messages, deliveries, etc. from Landlord for Tenant. Tenant authorizes this person to remove their personal items, and to act on their behalf with Landlord. Each person listed as an Emergency Contact has 100% authority to receive legal notices on behalf of Tenant.

Persons listed must be at least 18 years old. Provide as much information as you can. Please print clearly.

RE: Emergency Contacts.

Thank you. Actually, we have that info in our leases (very similar wording) and the named emergency contacts are listed on the rental application. But none of those contacts were reachable when he was hospitalized in early December. (We called his employer and found that he had to permanently leave his job of many years (due to NAFLD). We eventually got in touch with him.)

keeping emergency contact information is absolutely critical when you have residents who rapidly aging and have hospitalized recently.