Death of tenant (California)

dperry

Does anyone know of the legal way to handle the death of a tenant's unit in the sate of California?
 

ESS

@MamaDuke7 ?

MamaDuke7

Oh yeah.  Not fun.

1.  Overlock the unit and lock the gate code.
2.  Now the court is involved!
3.  Whomever is claiming they have access to the space must complete legal form Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property California Probate Code Section 13100 and have it notarized.  Then it must be signed off by the court involved in the death (usually probate).  This is provided The current gross fair market value of the decedent's real and personal property in California, excluding the property described in Section 13050 of the California Probate Code, does not exceed one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000).  If it's more than that, they must include it in probate with the rest of the estate.
4.  With those signatures (person and court officer), and once 40 days have passed, you need to be provided with a certified copy of the Death Certificate and the ID for the person with access.
5.  Then you turn over the gate code, remove the overlock, and let them in.

In the meantime, anyone can make payments on the account to keep it in good standing.

Of course, they can always just let it go to auction and bid on it that way, too, but that doesn't guarantee they will be the winning bidders when the time comes.



My current customer base is elderly, so they often ask me what happens if they die.  I always tell them to make sure someone has the key to the lock and the code for access and then DON'T TELL ME THEY DIED!  Just go in and clear it out and let me know it's empty.  Otherwise I have to follow the steps above and it's a lot more complicated.

Also, you don't want to circumvent that just because someone says they have access.  If they end up to NOT be the one who should have access and you allowed it, you can have a huge lawsuit on your hands!  No one wants that!

PS - I'm sorry you have to deal with this.  It's not an easy process and tempers can get difficult!

dperry

thank you. I appreciate the info.

BusyProperties

Anyone know about the rules for Illinois? I have had a two of these in the last year, one was a spouse and one was a daughter. 

dperry

BusyProperties,
In case you didn't find out the info you asked about  and because different states have different laws you can always go online and pull up the info there.

MamaDuke7

BusyProperties said:

Anyone know about the rules for Illinois? I have had a two of these in the last year, one was a spouse and one was a daughter. 

I would contact the IL Self Storage Association and ask those questions.