Unattended death of a tenant

[Andrew George Dennis]

I am looking for some advise on an unattended death situation.  I have a tenant who was a hermit. No family members, friends, or neighbors noticed she was missing. She apparently passed away in bed, and it could have been up to 2 months before she was discovered. I just found this out and still have to here from the coroner and get a certificate of death.  I'm really concerned with the odor that has been left behind.  I'm already planning on tearing out all the carpet etc.

Has anyone dealt with odor mitigation in a situation like this???

To make matters worse, this was the first rental I bought about 8 years ago.  This lady was my one and only renter in this place up to now.  I was totally green and had no idea how to be a landlord. I now, of course, keep good records, but I now cannot find the original lease!

I live in Colorado.  Anyone deal with a scenario like this?

Any suggestions are highly appreciated!

[Jay Hinrichs]

Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:

I agree there's no reason to care about the lease. Even if it did exist, I assume you never signed a renewal or extension so it is now a month-to-month tenancy. You can't give notice because she's dead.

The bigger issue is, how do you get rid of the stuff? If she truly had no relatives or friends, I suppose you could donate it or dump it and nobody would ever care. Just be careful. I had a similar tenant that lived in a rental for nearly 30 years and we didn't know of any family. Turns out she had a sibling and a couple nieces several states away that wanted to retrieve her belongings.

Once she's out, renovate and move on.

out our way and not sure in other states but death automatically cancels the lease to both parties..  As for the smell having been in the rehab / distressed real estate space.. we have dealt with hoarder houses.. or houses that are covered in nicotine like above.

most of the time kilz works or something like that.. in some instances we had to go to studs.. and in many instances we just bulldozed the house.