Originally published at: Landlord bills dead tenant's relatives $15k because she broke her lease - Boing Boing
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And I’m sure he listed it as available immediately. Bastard.
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Unsurprisingly, it seems that the ghoulish landlord in this case is a corporation (named Management Support).
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A wholly-owned subsidiary of Non-specific Assholes Incorporated.
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Credit card companies also routinely try to get next of kin cover the deceased’s outstanding balance, even though credit-card debt is unsecured.
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The apartments are owned by the Frankel Family Trust which is owned by one old rich California doctor and his kids. I’d suggest people in the 3 states they have apartments in (TX, AZ, and CA) avoid renting from them
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In the plutocratic oligarchy, you get two votes: at the polls, and with your dollars.
In this case vote with your dollars and avoid these f#ckers.
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I was with a family member as they passed away at a hospice facility. That morning I have gathered the belongings and was headed out the door when a woman sat me down and asked me to start signing documents about liability. I laughed in her face and continued out the door.
Thanking boing boing here because I believe I first heard of this debt transferring scam here.
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US student loan agencies came after ME when I tragically and unexpectedly lost my wife, demanding $45K in student loan repayments. What utter bullshit. I’m not ashamed of the torrent of profane abuse I poured on the caller making the demand. I didn’t sign for her loans, incurred previous to our marriage! The same went for the asshole from AmEx that called demanding her credit debt be paid my me. I was not in a great place at the time and in no fucking mood to be trifled with by her debtors. “When I get a fucking letter from your attorneys, on legitimate law practice letterhead, I’ll talk it over with MY attorney, and you will still be told to go fuck yourself. Call me again and I’ll consider it harassment and take legal action.” That did the trick. Know your rights people!
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Well done you! and I’m so sorry you were put through that shit!
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After mom passed, I started getting lots of calls from credit card companies, a credit union from which mom had taken out a small loan (she’d had an acc’t w/them for decades), and a nasty creditor who refused to ID themselves.
The latter always demanded to speak to whomever was in charge of her estate, and its being in probate and my being her only offspring meant nothing to them. They were invariably unpleasant, too. I gave them the probate lawyer’s name and number, but they kept calling! They finally had someone nice call me, so I calmly laid it all out for her, too. I explained that ppl from her office were calling several times a day, that I always explained everything to them, they wouldn’t tell me who they were, and were V rude. I went on: there was no estate other than the house, I’d already provided my probate lawyer’s info, and I was not going to be held responsible for any of mom’s unsecured debt. I thanked her for listening to me - that no one else at her office had done, told her to have a great day (and obvs meant it), said goodbye and hung up. They never called again. Bless her soul! I hope she’s well and happy!
Then there was the day a high mucky muck from the credit union called, demanding I pay off the loan. I laughed at her at first, and explained there was nothing to pay her with, I have no income, the house was in probate, that I would not be responsible for a loan I never signed off on, and I’d explained all that to everyone else from the CU who’d called. She got mad, and told me that b/c both our names were on the acc’t, I had to pay.
I got madder. Why didn’t I say right then and there, “Oh, you mean the shared checking & savings acc’t that you cleaned out and closed b/c she died, even though I didn’t and my name was on it?!” Oh, well. Good as that would have been, what I did say certainly worked.
I repeated that I had not signed mom’s loan papers, and have no income. She tried talking over me, and I finally became furious. I’d had more than enough, and yelled, “Once again, There Is No Estate! There is only the house, it’s in probate, which will take Who Knows how long (it took over two years), and I Will Never Sell My House To Pay Off That Loan!!!” My BF tried to calm me down, but that woman was so awful I wasn’t having it. (I’d put her ass on speaker so he could hear her garbage, too.) I had to yell a few more things at her, but she finally fucked off and I never heard from them again.
I almost cried that time - but out of anger, not grief.
ETA: I have cried twice since mom died, for reasons related to her passing, but not from grief.
I cried all the way home when we discovered that, despite her promise, she’d never put my and my BF’s names on the deed to the house. Had I known it would lead to thousands in lawyer’s bills etc, and a two year probate, I would have cried even louder, harder, and a lot longer.
I cried when my BF and I finally finished with probate, went Downtown to file the new deed with both our names on, and he came out and told me The House Is OURS. We stopped on the way home to get a well-deserved coffee for him, and some well-deserved goodies for us both at the neighborhood coffee house/bakery, and I couldn’t get out of the car for five minutes b/c crying again. It was just such a fucking relief that it was all over.
It was like seeing the Sun after six months of thick clouds, only it had been two years!
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As a PSA to anyone who might worry about this, my brothers, mom and I have created a living trust and have moved her assets into its care. This way there is no worry about probate, we have access to the funds needed to clear out and sell the house, and there is no one liable for any remaining debts once mom dies. Well worth the 3,000$.
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