What if’s… a debate of sorts
Okay, so I have a question to pose and I am really curious the general publics opinion. This is based somewhat on a circumstance I have been in, however its been modified for a few reasons, for this forum.
Lets assume you own some type of rental property. You have a tenant that dies on the last day of the month. Would the family be entitled to the rent deposit?
Now, I know the knee jerk answer. I have the same one. So before you answer here are a couple twists.
What if the tenant died in a drunk driving accident (was drunk) and killed someone, including themselves? Or, what if the tenant was killed by the police during a bank robbery? What if the tenant killed themselves in the unit? Would either of these change your first answer?
Now, legally tenants are suppose to give notice. Since we dont know when we are really going to “check out” this is a tough question to answer I think, and for a few reasons.
Owners are not protected in this case. Assume it takes the family 2 weeks to remove personal property from the unit. No rent is paid for that month. No rent collected is taking away from operational money used to support the building.
We can turn the tables slightly and I will ask this question. Lets assume you know someone that owns rental property. They die. The water bill isnt paid. Tenants no longer have water. This is nearly impossible from happening because laws exist to protect tenants. But assume some type of service is compromised because of an owner dieing or hospitalized, and the bill isnt paid. Who would be responsible? Should the tenants make up for the difference? Is the owner any more or less responsible for paying their bills?
Sadly some of these questions have come up (in the past) and I really dont know the “right” answer. I would like your opinion, so here I am asking…
First: is the family asking for the deposit back? If not– I wouldn’t give it back to them. You lost a month of rent — and they came into the home 2 weeks into the next month. If they are asking: I’d return it. Why add to their pain, and you can absorb the minor loss.
Jason thanks for that. The real circumstances in my experience (more than once) differ from the examples however I did exactly what you said.
If I had been asked for it, I would have returned it.
BTW the deposit was less than the months rent. Either way though, I would have given it to the family had I been asked.
Also, Jason great job on the bridge story. I saw you streaming live on wcco.com, way better coverage than strib or any other local news service.
I’m not exactly an expert at those things.
But I would give their deposit back. After all, they already have someone dead.
I’m not sure if Darr’s told you this, but we’re going to wear the t-shirts out and ask people for comments about it. 
BTW Darr forwarded the “comments conversation” you guys had to me. Did you send the t-shirts yet?
mailed earlier this week. ive found its a little slow to canada for some reason, but hopefully wont be too long.
Awesome! Looking forward to it.
[...] I have also touched on this issue in the past here [...]