Guide
For landlords and property managers in High Point
A tenant has died in the unit, or there has been a shooting, or a welfare check found something no maintenance worker should deal with. You have a building to protect, other tenants to think of, and a family who may be calling you within the hour.
Phone picked up day and night, every day of the week
The first day, in order
Don't enter until told
If police are involved, the unit is theirs until they release it. Give them the key and your number, and ask to be called when they finish.
Lock it and log it
After release, secure the unit, note the date and time, and photograph the door and any damage from the threshold. Don't go further in.
Keep staff out
Maintenance and cleaning staff should not handle blood or body fluids unless they are trained and equipped under an exposure control plan, as OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard requires of employers.
Bring in a cleanup company
Call a biohazard company. Ask for a written scope that separates the structure, which is yours, from the tenant's contents.
Your duty to keep the unit fit
North Carolina's landlord and tenant law, G.S. 42-42, requires a landlord to make the repairs needed to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition and to comply with building and housing codes. The Department of Justice puts it in plain terms on its renting a home page: the landlord keeps the unit in good and safe working order.
A unit contaminated with blood or decomposition is not in that condition, whoever caused it. If a surviving tenant or a roommate still lives there, treat the cleanup as urgent and tell them in writing what is being done and when.
The tenant's belongings
Be careful here. Furniture, papers and valuables belong to the tenant or, after a death, to the estate. Ask the cleanup company to remove only what is contaminated and can't be saved, to photograph it first, and to list it. Before clearing the remaining contents of a deceased tenant's unit, speak with the family and with an attorney or the clerk of court. Who may take possession of a deceased tenant's property is not something to guess at.
The rest of the building
Neighbors, hallways and odor
- Tell adjoining tenants that a specialist company is working in the unit. You don't owe them the details.
- Ask the company whether fluids or odor reached the unit below, the hallway carpet or shared ductwork.
- Have common areas the stretcher or the workers passed through checked and cleaned.
- Keep the written record of the work with the unit's file for the next inspection or sale.
Who pays in a rental
The landlord's property policy, the tenant's renter's policy, the estate and, after a crime, the state's compensation program may each have a part. None of them can be assumed. Ask your own insurer first, since the structure is yours, and keep the tenant's family informed so they can ask theirs. The who pays guide lists what each source asks for.
Questions from owners and managers
Can I charge the cleanup to the security deposit?
That is a question for your lease and your attorney, not for a cleanup company. Ask before deducting anything connected with a death.
How soon can the unit be re-let?
After cleanup come repairs: flooring, drywall, paint. The cleanup company's removal list tells your contractor what is needed, and that drives the date.
We manage many units. Can we set something up in advance?
Ask the company you speak with whether it keeps standing arrangements with property managers. Having a named contact saves time on the day.
High Point and the Triad towns nearby
Nobody in the family should have to clean that room
Give them the address and one sentence about what took place. They will want to know if the officers and the medical examiner are done there, and then they will describe their approach.
When you are ready, call.
Whoever picks up is with a separately owned local firm that does biohazard and trauma cleaning around High Point. Listen to their plan and their price. Whether you hire them is up to you.
Call (743) 256-4780Phone picked up day and night, every day of the week
Your conversation may be recorded. The referral disclosure says who pays for this service, and the privacy policy covers what is kept.