Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of a tenant passing away at your rental property, resulting in the police sealing the door? If no relatives were available to grant permission to unseal it, what did you do? For reference, the property is located in NYC. Thank you!
Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 5k+ votes
1y
Why would the police seal the door unless there was a crime committed there? I'd talk to the officer in charge of the case and find out why it is sealed and if it is OK to enter. It may be an OD from homemade meth and they don't want people in there until it's cleaned up.
According to a quick search, in New York, residential leases can be terminated upon the death of the tenant so that the estate is no longer liable. Landlords can file a petition to examine the residence with the Surrogate’s Court in the county where the decedent was a resident.
Real Estate Broker · New York, NY · Member since 2020 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
1y
Yeah, unfortunately, it does happen more often than you'd think, especially in NYC where you’ve got a lot of long-term tenants living alone.
When someone passes away inside the unit, NYPD will usually seal the door with an official sticker and tape after they do their investigation. If there's no next of kin immediately available to handle it, you (as the landlord) can’t just cut the seal and go in — that’s a crime (tampering with a police investigation). You have to go through a legal process.
What typically happens next is you need to petition the Surrogate's Court for what's called "administration" of the deceased tenant's estate. If no family steps up, you (or your attorney) can request to be appointed as the public administrator or have a public administrator assigned. This allows you to eventually gain lawful access to the apartment, inventory and store/remove their belongings, and ultimately re-rent the unit. It’s a court process though, and it can take months — sometimes 6-12 months if there are complications.
In the meantime, you can’t lease it, clean it out, or even really enter unless there’s an emergency (like a flood or something threatening the building's safety), and even then you’re supposed to contact the authorities first.
If the deceased was rent-stabilized, it can get even more complicated because sometimes distant relatives try to claim succession rights. So you want to document everything carefully, and it's smart to have a real estate attorney who’s dealt with this stuff before.