<p>It might also be nice to include words that make it clear she is welcome to stay if that is what would work best for her, too. It would be too easy to misinterpret an offer to end the lease. It would be easy to see it as a desire to get the woman to leave, now that she is alone and more frail and etc.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, very good point.</p>
<p>Make sure the wife is on the lease, make sure that your lease does not have a bereavement clause. Talk to your attorney if either the above.</p>
<p>This is very common and should be no trouble but you want to make sure that this person is not living in your house without a lease contract, and that she can pay (especially if she is not on the contract, you can kick her and not have to worry about proceedings depending on state.) </p>
<p>If she is not on the original contract I would have her sign a new contract or give her notice to vacate if when you requalify her for income, she does not meet your expectations.</p>
<p>Barrons, I’m sure the tennant appreciates your thoughtfulness. We had a tenant who lost his job. We offered to waive his last month’s rent and allow him to vacate the premises because of the hardship. He took us up on it & they moved to be with the wife’s family in CA. We did give up a month of rent but it seemed like the right thing to do and we had no regrets.</p>
<p>In this case, I think it would be good to let the widow know she’s welcome to remain or move the end date of the lease up, whichever works best for her. I’m sure she’s reeling and may be for some time now, especially since it sounds like the death was sudden. It is a good idea to double-check the original contract.</p>
<p>BowTieFratty, I think barron’s whole point is that he wants to approach this compassionately.</p>
<p>To me the most compassionate thing is to not allow a person to live in a place that they can not afford, thereby ruining their credit. Today’s economy is tough, I personally would not want to be on either side of this situation, however it comes with the business.</p>
<p>I have unfortunately had to serve people notice when they were having wakes, another time I had evict some people the day that they received the news that a son had been permanently injured in war, i have also had to take the front and back doors off of someones house in the dead of winter because they refused to pay rent, and a myriad of other horrible situations. You must remember that it is not you that has caused this problem and that people must continue to live up to their obligations, or else you are going to be the one who finds out what it is like to have bad credit and owe people money.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure that would be legal here.</p>
<p>Why are you assuming this woman (who’s only in her 60s) won’t be able to pay her rent? Is there a history of late rent? If not, I think you should give your condolences and say nothing about the lease unless she mentions it. She lost her husband not both her arms. Or her mind. </p>
<p>Anyway it seems unlikely she would be ready to up and leave within 6 months. Let things take their course. There’s plenty of time to deal with the financial fallout of her husband’s death.</p>
<p>I just took a call from the daughter to let us know all the accounts are now frozen and that they will being paying the rent a little late. I let her know that that was not our biggest concern and that if her plans for living location changed we would be happy to allow her to terminate the lease early without penalty. She seemed truly touched and indicated that her mom plans to stay where she is as she feels safe and loves the house/location and wioll be able to afford it by herself. So all seems well and under control.</p>
<p>That’s wonderful, barrons. I’m glad you were able to deal with one of the children running interference in this situation. It sounds like you came across in a compassionate but businesslike manner :)</p>
<p>The accounts were frozen? Do they do that on joint accounts? Or does it mean the accounts were in his name only?</p>
<p>Joint accounts are not frozen, so these must have been only in his name.</p>
<p>Every couple should have at least one joint account with some money to get by in case other accounts are frozen. H and I have a joint account which is funded primarily by my paycheck. He has a separate account for his business income which I legally can not be on. If he dies first, that account would be frozen but I would have complete access to the joint account.</p>
<p>As for this situation, the OP is acting compassionately and it appears that they will be rewarded by a tenant who stays and pays rent.</p>
<p>“The accounts were frozen” this is usually a really bad sign. Get out your contract and make sure that the wife is on it. If not give her 30 day notice. </p>
<p>The frozen account scam is fishy and usually used when a tenant has no desire to move out and is planning on being forcefully evicted because they refuse to pay. It is related to the “checks in the mail” scam, and the “my baby daddy is getting a settlement from a wreck” scam: they are all used to by the most shady of tenants as a way to get free rent. </p>
<p>They use the frozen account scam to buy more free rent time because you will not be able to kick them till you file notice. It sounds like these people are up to no good. After all why would the accounts be frozen? Probate does not freeze accounts! It makes no sense.</p>
<p>To see if she really wants to pay call and ask her if she would like to put the rent on a credit card. You can set up a paypal account for this transaction if you do not already take cards for rent. If she refuses or says that her credit card is frozen, you know for sure it is a scam!</p>
<p>BTF -</p>
<p>WOW! I thought that I was cynical but you make me feel positively naive.</p>
<p>Frozen accounts is not always a scam and there is nothing in the OP’s story that leads to that conclusion. Unfortunately, many couples in the older generations left money management entirely to the man. I had to beg and plead with my parents to put my mom on my dad’s accounts. The ironic thing was that her paychecks went in to that account as well. </p>
<p>This is why, as an attorney, I advocate for couples having a joint account for at least some assets so that problems like this can be avoided.</p>
<p>As for putting it on a credit card, how would she pay that if the accounts are frozen? And what is Paypal to do with rent - forgive my ignorance as I have never used Paypal but I thought it was for shopping on e-bay (something else I have never done).</p>
<p>If her H had a will, it should be probated asap. If not, the widow should file to become the administratrix of the estate and ask for temporary letters unfreezing at least part of the money.</p>
<p>wow BowTieFratty. The husband’s probably not even buried yet, the daughter was proactive in calling BEFORE the rent is due to alert the landlord…these do not sound like people who are scheming to screw the landlord. These sound like responsible, decent people who are sorting through a painful period.</p>
<p>I understand that you have to be businesslike as a landlord, and protect yourself and your property. I have been a landlord myself. I have also found that if you are compassionate and kind, things work out okay.</p>
<p>The time for draconian legal measures is after someone has proven that they are out to scam you. I don’t think this poor widow is trying to scam anyone!</p>
<p>
You HAD to or you chose to?</p>
<p>In my area, you would have been arrested.</p>
<p>
You must live in a very tough area.</p>
<p>“Monday we get word that the husband died suddenly leaving just the wife in a large house.”</p>
<p>Got word how? I would wait and see, unless it was from the wife, and she worded it to suggest her lease was a concern.</p>
<p>Of course, I am not a landlord, so take it for what it’s worth. My parents were landlords though, and that was pretty hairy (most memorable was a women in a violent relationship living in our basement, and her abusive spouse, more than once, pounding at our door.) I know I won’t put myself in that situation.</p>
<p>@ Joan: The reason that I am convinced that it is a scam is… how do the banks already have a freeze? First of all banks never place holds on a joint account where there is a sole surviving spouse as the vast majority of these accounts are joint with right of survivorship. Even if for some reason it is a sole account, how does the bank know that the deceased is dead? No bank would just scour through the newspapers looking at death notices and obituaries scheming to put holds on customers accounts. </p>
<p>Of course there is the argument that banks can be required to place a hold on the account by the Social Security Administration, a court order, or the IRS, however no bank is going to hold an account just for the off chance that maybe one of their customers has a debt with someone else, not only does this not make sense but is a breech of fiduciary duty.</p>
<p>On the offchance that some local probate court has placed a hold on the widows accounts, I told the landlord to run a credit card. Credit of course is not governed by the same regulations as banks, and even if for some reason the banks truly are cut off, the credit will not be frozen. After all, I am sure that you have helped clients file the paperwork and include the death certificate to send off to the credit card companies to close accounts. I actually learned about this strategy from my grandmother who read an AARP article on the subject, I have had the chance to use it twice and it worked for both lessees. </p>
<p>You are absolutely correct that paypal is now owned by Ebay and it has become Ebays preferred payment solution. However before paypal was bought by Ebay in 2002 it was a card free processing account company. The reason to use paypal is that it is one of the simplest ways that a person can accept credit cards without setting up a processing account with a bank, which requires a lot of work and some expense as well. With paypal and other nonterminal credit acceptance services (chase supposedly has one that is very good) anyone can accept credit or debit payments. These services do cost more than traditional card acceptance services however, so for those that run many small transactions they are not good. <a href=“https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside[/url]”>Fees | PayPal Consumer | PayPal US;
<p>@zooser: What would I be arrested for? Serving notice is required by our state for eviction, just because a family has suffered a tragedy does not mean that they will not be served. It is strange to think that landlords are looked down on for wanting money when people have had a tragedy.</p>
<p>I bet these same scammers do not go to the grocery store, load up a cart full of groceries and walk past the cashier announcing, “I have had a tragedy so I can not pay you today.” It is the exact same thing.</p>
<p>It’s not a big city and our friend there knew the tenants quite well (as did many folks in the neighborhood) and saw the obit in the local paper and let us know. Small city life. The house is in the elite neighborhood and every long-term resident knows everyone else who has been there many years. Table-hopping at the better restaurants happens every time we go out there. Hard for big city folks to understand.
BTF, you are talking out of you ass. These are fine and gentile southern folks. The furnishings alone are worth a small fortune as she was a high-end interior decorator. They moved to our house from one of the nicest houses in the area because it was too far out in the country and they wanted to be in town.
Here’s his obit. Sound like a family of scammers? Jerk</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsadvance/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=153745724[/url]”>http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsadvance/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=153745724</a></p>
<p>"Hard for big city folks to understand. "</p>
<p>Maybe, but I’ve lived in both. For me this means being mindful of how I got my info, and paying attention to what we call “bounderies” in psychiatry.</p>