My Landlord is dead :(

[RubyDG]

So I find out today my Landlord is dead . To make matters worse I have been waiting for him to get back to me with the new lease as the old one expired in August. The terms of the new lease were supposed to be the same as the old one but that doesn't help me now . He wasn't the most organised man and apparently they are struggling to find a will. I'm now faced with what to do. While I have the right of occupancy based on my expired lease which rolls over on a month by month basis, after the expiry date they are only required to give me 28 days notice as it's not been renewed yet. Also I don't know if I should keep my debit order going as his estate is in question - some sites say no and just put the money aside until it's setteled but then others say pay it as there will be a record of the transaction and it will affect my rights if rent is unpaid. As it is he died just before I paid in my rent so what happens with that money?

If anyone knows anything about this or has been through something similar I would appriciate some advice. At the moment I have been unsuccesfully trying to contact Citizens Advice Bureau

[Tildauk]

Oh no, how horrible and how stressful.

I have no idea apart from keep trying the CAB

I would personally keep paying I think but its difficult.

[Artisans_uk]

Hi Ruby - what an unsettling time for you and what a shame that you didn't get the new contract. Unfortunately, I do not have any experience of this situation either.
I do however follow an organisation on Twitter which has an online forum. It is aimed at Landlords but I have, as a tenant, asked questions on there before and have always received responses. It might be somewhere for you to get some advice.
Here's the link:-
Landlord/Tenant Forum

I really hope that you get some reassurance soon.

[Shannonmcn]

Oh dear I have no experience at all, sorry but I think citizens advice is a good place to go. I wouldn't think that setting the money aside could be a good idea though, even if they haven't found the will yet the house still belongs to someone so the rent needs to go somewhere. The account will presumably be transferred to the new owner. Could you cancel the direct debit and pay the rent in single instalments until it gets sorted?

Are you looking for somewhere else atm? It all depends on what relative inherits the house whether they want to keep renting or sell it on and you don't want to get caught up in a mess like that

[RubyDG]

Thanks for the link Artisans - I've book marked it!

So I just got off the phone with CAB. I need to carry on paying rent as normal which is fine by me - at least I know the bank will have a record of it. But basically I'll still get 2 months notice if whoever gets the property wants to sell up - mostly because they need to give 28 days notice and then at the end of that we can contest and would get another 28 days. The problem comes in that Hubby and I were planning on moving around December as his mother is coming to live with us and we need the extra space. If this is not squared away by then we are going to have a hell of a time if we want to leave the property and still get our deposit back not to mention not be liable to pay rent for a property we are no longer living in. They said we could notify who we think is most likely to get the property and hope they will be willing to pay out the deposit but they are not required to do so by law. So basically if this mess isn't sorted by the time we want to move we have to go speak to a housing advisor and see if they can sort something out .

[Artisans_uk]

Ruby - was your deposit not registered with a protection scheme? I wasn't sure if Scotland had made this a legal requirement but according to the link below, I am assuming that it is in Scotland also.

Landlord/Tenant Responsibilities (tenant information pack)

If you scroll down on the link, which is one page from the information about the Tenant Information Pack, which is a legal requirement of the landlord to give you with the contract. (I appreciate that your current contract had expired but hopefully you have a pack from before), anyway, scroll down and there is a section about the tenancy deposit scheme.
The scheme should give you protection and ensure that you would get your deposit back.

I do not know what the Legal Aid requirements are in Scotland now. In England, it is very difficult to get legal aid but it might be worth asking the question. There are also online solicitors to which you can pose a question, sometimes for a nominal fee. Also most solicitors will offer say 30 free consultation, so there are some options that you might be able to follow up. The sooner you can get some advice the better, I understand that it's not easy but certainly this situation will occur often and there will be some good advice out there.

[RubyDG]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone - I really appreciate everyone taking the time out of their day to try and help, it's one of the reasons I love HC . I have however had an interesting turn of events. Upstairs neighbour had a phone call from my dead landlord! Turns out his 'son' who was informing everyone of his death was not in fact his son and was trying to run some sort of scam. The authorities have been informed apparently so it's being dealt with. What a headache!! All that stress for nothing . Although obviously I'm glad the Landlord is okay I'm not happy with some dodgy person getting ahold of my Landlords details and through him ours!! Honestly the cheek of some people

EDIT: Also Artisans thanks for that second link too! I've book marked it as it's definietly a good source of information to have if something comes up

[Shannonmcn]

Oh. My. God.

I am constantly surprised at the weird depths some scammers will go to. Glad he's not dead! :/

[RubyDG]

Apparently this person hacked into my Landlord's email account and got a hold of a whole bunch of information. The Landlord's son actually lives in Australia so it's feasible that if that situation did happen they would be stuck trying to sort things out over the phone which can be very difficult. They had an entire conversation with upstairs neighbour who was trying to be helpful although thankfully didn't give any personal information (or more than what the scammer already had). I know I really shouldn't be surprised because these things happen but honestley I'm so aggravated right now!

[Artisans_uk]

Originally Posted by RubyDG

... I have however had an interesting turn of events. Upstairs neighbour had a phone call from my dead landlord! Turns out his 'son' who was informing everyone of his death was not in fact his son and was trying to run some sort of scam. The authorities have been informed apparently so it's being dealt with. What a headache!! All that stress for nothing . Although obviously I'm glad the Landlord is okay I'm not happy with some dodgy person getting ahold of my Landlords details and through him ours!! Honestly the cheek of some people ....

Oh my goodness, what a terrible thing to do, not only for your landlord's sake but as you say, the stress and the worry that it has caused you. I am relieved though that you don't now need to worry, Ruby.
The lengths that some people will go to, though, is shocking.