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My fiancee's father just pasted away. He has a key to his apartment and wanted to go and collect some pictures and papers. He is not executor (as there is no will) and the landlord told him he had to leave immediately, as she wants to be there when he collects his things.
His father was going to move out when his lease is up in a week and the landlord doesn't want any family entering until she comes back from vacation after the lease is up! Can he legally enter the premises without permission from the landlord? Or does he have to wait for her to return? Is there anything we can do if the landlord (also related) takes anything?
The landlord can build a bridge and get over it. The dude has a key (so not breaking in), and this is a perfectly reasonable need to enter. It's not "want", it's need to enter. No one is there, dad's dead!
Sounds fishy to me. I would wonder why the LL is delaying you from entry.. Perhaps to allow herself time to see if anything of value might be around...?
I would quickly seek legal advise, and don't waste any time taking possession of the items left in the apt..
^^^ I agree...Legal advise and otherwise start reading a lot of lawbooks or google to find out more about it...
If there is now will it seems to me (I'm have no legal background) that the children or spouse should be the ones who can enter the premisses to get the stuff out.
I do know that the place has to be empty when the lease is due and otherwise the rent needs to be paid on time by the family in order to avoid the person stuff to be thrown out.
I'm sorry to hear that again during a time of grieve family members seem to make each others life miserable instead of helping each other. I wish you all the best in this hard and difficult time.
By the way what is the family relation between the LL and the person that died...if it wasn't the spouse or child than IMO the child has more right than a sister or brother since the person who died has a family of his own..
If you can find a copy of the soon to expire lease, see who is listed as emergency contact. That person will have the right to enter. I'm a LL and have had that situation. I would only allow the emergency contact into the unit and made an inventory of what was taken. The executor finally showed and I only allowed the executor into the unit...with me. Again, an inventory was made on anything taken. When the will was probabted, only the execitor could take of and dispose of itemd. I refused to allow any other person into the unit.
In your case, the emergency contact should be allowed into the unit to retrieve immediate needs. I guess if the related LL is causing problems, get a lawyer. Michigan rules will prevail.
Being in possession of keys does not constitute legal right to be on the premises or to enter the unit. Next of kin taking possession of the deceased belongings needs to be a supervised activity, for the protection of everyone involved. Since the LL is on vacation, that possession will have to wait until she gets back. If there were items of a time-sensitive nature, such as medication or financial records or directions for burial, a lawyer might be able to take steps to compel the LL to return early or appoint a representative to supervise the activities in the unit in a more timely manner. But the collection of personal photographs hardly constitutes an urgent need.
Also, in lieu of a will, the son claiming the right to certain belongings likely means accepting responsibility for all belongings, including all of the furniture, clothing, and other possessions left in the unit. A lawyer might be able to help negotiate a time frame for removing those items, since the lease will have expired by then, but that might not be necessary. The LL may be agreeable without the need to involve lawyers.
I can see the landlord's point, their property, after all.
Still, if they're on vacation, and you have a key, I don't really see anything that would stop you from going in and taking EVERYTHING...even stuff that might not be his, but belong to the landlord.
Since the Landlord is related, I suspect there's more to this scenario than just the Landlord/Tenant relationship going on, and this is one of those "family" things. Too bad the deceased died intestate, as that can complicate things enormously - a will would have made this quite clear.
I agree, legal advice is needed.
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