Question: My partner suddenly passed away. We lived together in his home, where I currently still reside. How do I know when to move out?
Loraine’s Answer: Because you don’t refer to your partner as a spouse and you don’t state that you and your partner were legally married, my answer assumes that you were not married.
If your partner had a Will or other estate planning document in place, you should find out what those documents say because you may have been given rights by those documents. If he did not have estate planning in place or if the documents do not name you as a beneficiary or give you any specific legal rights, then you will need to discuss the issue with your partner’s family.
You likely have some rights under landlord-tenant law, even if you did not have a written lease with your partner, and you should consider consulting an attorney about those as soon as you can. But in general, if you are not a beneficiary of the estate and you don’t have a written, long-term lease in place, you may well need to move within a fairly short period of time (think one to three months) unless your partner’s family is willing to let you stay longer.
Key Estate Planning Takeaway: If an unmarried couple has been living together and one of them dies, the deceased partner’s estate planning documents, if there are any, will determine if the surviving partner has any rights to stay in the shared home.
This “Q&A with Loraine” blog series is inspired by answers from Morgan + DiSalvo Partner Loraine DiSalvo to actual user questions posted by individuals on www.avvo.com. This blog is a more in-depth response than can be given on their site under their character limits for answers. To view the original question and Loraine’s original response, click here.
