Do not immediately pay rent to your dead landlord’s relatives- lawyer cautions Kenyans
Death is inevitable, and worse so if it is the death of someone who meant much to you in one way or another.
For some, it is family, close friends, a particular relative or a perfect stranger while for others, it could be the landlord who has been careful and gracious with them about rent during seasons of either financial stability or instability.
A good landlord’s death hits all his tenants hard. It can be made worse when the deceased’s relatives begin coming out of the woodwork to claim the property without legal premise or rights, thus beginning a long dispute over who will receive the rent from the tenants.
One Kenyan lawyer on TikTok by the name of Elvis Abenga, who works at Begi’s Law Offices and Chambers, advised Kenyan renters that they had a right to refuse to pay rent to the dead landlord’s relatives if they did not present signed court documents to them first.
“If your landlord unfortunately passes away, you have a right to refuse to pay rent to any other dependent or family member without a court order in the form of a grant. Either a grant in the letters of representation or a grant of probate. Under the law of Succession Act and the rules of succession, when someone passes away, their relatives or dependents make an application to court for what is called a grant of representation.
There are two types of grants. If a person dies with a will, the relatives or dependents get the grant of probate, but if there is no will, they get a grant of letters of administration.
The court appoints administrators or executors of the estate or property of the deceased person. And it is only at that point that you can then pay rent to the administrators or executors.
Most times they would create a special bank account called an administration or execution account where all rental money or proceeds from the estate can go,” said Mr Abenga.
He explained that the risks tenants faced paying rent to the dead landlord’s relatives before being given these court documents would be paying rent to the wrong person.
When the right person appears, they may or will demand backdated rent because the tenant dealt with the wrong person before knowing the facts of the matter.
“If your landlord passed away and their family is coming and asking for rent, ask them to give you a grant. The grant will tell you who are the executors or administrators of the estate, then you can make payment to them, and they should give you an estate account for that purpose,” concluded Mr Abenga.