When a tenant dies on DIY landlord software — ending the lease, stopping autopay, deposits, belongings, Colorado’s Letty’s Act

• Is: a side-by-side of how to close out, shorten, or hand over a lease in RentRedi, TurboTenant, and Avail after a tenant’s death, with the legal orientation you need to set the right end date and final balance. Colorado is the worked state, with a decision table, a worked $1,850 example, a checklist, and an FAQ.
• Is not: probate advice, a guide to handling a death you discover in a unit (call 911 first; the tools are irrelevant until the authorities are done), or a cleaning and remediation guide.
• Not the same as: a living tenant breaking the lease (see early termination & lease breaks), a roommate leaving while others stay (see roommate & co-tenant changes), or a replacement taking over the lease (see subleases & assignments). This page links to each where the paths overlap.
• Uncertainty rule: we didn’t run a death scenario in a live account. Vendor behavior comes from current help-center articles (RentRedi Aug 2026 and Jul 2026, TurboTenant’s current lease-ending articles), a search-index copy of Avail’s “Cancel a Lease or Change the End Date” article (the live URL returned 404 tonight), and a 2023 Avail community thread. Check each step in your own account before you rely on it.

• Default rule in many states: the lease survives the tenant. A New York court put it plainly in 100 West 72nd Street Associates v. Murphy (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1989): a term lease “is not terminated by the death of the lessee,” the leasehold becomes property of the estate, and the estate stays liable for rent until the lease ends or the landlord releases it. A 2015 California memo from Kimball, Tirey & St. John says the same for term leases and notes California’s month-to-month rule (Civil Code 1934: the tenancy ends 30 days after the deceased tenant’s last rent payment). It also says heirs aren’t personally liable when the estate can’t pay, and the landlord still has to mitigate.
• Some states override it. Texas Property Code 92.0162 lets the estate representative of a tenant who was the sole occupant terminate the lease and avoid future rent by following the statute’s notice and move-out steps. Virginia Code 55.1-1256 deems a sole tenant’s written lease terminated at death, lets the landlord dispose of property after 10 days’ written notice to the authorized contact named in the application or lease, and keeps the estate liable only for actual damages with a duty to mitigate. These are contrasts, not a full survey; check your own state.
• “Death counts as 30 days’ notice” isn’t universal. TurboTenant’s landlord guide says that for a month-to-month lease “the tenant’s death will act as the 30-day notice.” That matches California’s statute, but it isn’t a rule everywhere. Read your state’s month-to-month termination statute and your lease.
• Talk to someone with authority. Family members are not automatically the estate. The California memo advises giving access and possession only to an authorized person (a court-appointed executor or administrator, or someone authorized under state law) and avoiding entering or removing anything without that person or officials present. If there’s no next of kin, it points California landlords to the county public administrator. Colorado has its own small-estate shortcut, below.

• Letty’s Act, C.R.S. 38-12-801(3.5)(a). If a rental agreement “is terminated before the end of the term … due to the death of a tenant,” a clause requiring any of these is “void and unenforceable”: (I) liquidated damages; (II) “the acceleration of rent for a period that is beyond the end of the month or more than ten business days after the dwelling unit is vacated after notice to the landlord of the death of the tenant, whichever is later”; (III) payment or refund to the landlord of “any concessions or move-in discounts”; (IV) “any other fee, damages, or penalty assessed as a result of the early termination.”
• Possession without an eviction case, 801(3.5)(b). The landlord may take possession without filing an eviction or getting a court order if (I) the personal representative of the estate notifies the landlord that the premises are surrendered, or (II) thirty days after the death, rent remains unpaid or substantially all of the tenant’s property has been removed. Note the gap: a relative who isn’t the appointed personal representative may not be able to surrender under (I), so you may be waiting for day 30 under (II). That’s our reading; ask counsel.
• Deposit for death-related damage, 801(3.5)(c). If the death “results in damage to the property,” the landlord may keep enough of the security or damages deposit to cover that damage.
• Which leases it covers. The act took effect September 1, 2025, and “applies to rental agreements that are entered into on or after” that date (session law Section 3). A lease signed in, say, June 2025 for a September start may be outside it. Whether a renewal signed after September 1, 2025 counts as a new rental agreement isn’t stated in the act; our reading is that a signed renewal or new lease probably does, but that’s a question for counsel. The session law says “Approved: June 4, 2025,” while the Division of Real Estate summary says “Signed: June 6, 2025.” The effective date is the same either way.
• Small-estate affidavit, C.R.S. 15-12-1201 and JDF 999. At least ten days after death, a successor (or someone acting for one) can collect the decedent’s personal property, including money owed to the decedent, from whoever holds it by presenting a notarized affidavit, if no personal representative has been appointed or applied for and the estate is under the year-of-death limit. JDF 999 (rev. April 28, 2026) lists $88,000 for 2026 deaths and $86,000 for 2025. A refundable security deposit is money you owe the decedent, so this is a likely route for the deposit refund when there’s no probate. Under 15-12-1202(1), as quoted on the form, a holder who pays under the affidavit is discharged “to the same extent as if” they’d dealt with a personal representative, and one who refuses without reasonable cause can owe attorney fees (1202(3)). It isn’t filed with a court, so ask for a signed, notarized original and a death certificate copy, and keep both.
• Deposit deadline. Colorado’s general deposit-return rule still applies: one month after termination or surrender and acceptance, whichever is last, or up to 60 days if the lease says so (C.R.S. 38-12-103(1), verified on our security deposits page). Send the itemized statement and refund to the personal representative or the affiant, not to the deceased tenant’s bank account.
• Belongings. We didn’t find a Colorado statute specific to a deceased tenant’s belongings (unlike Virginia). Colorado guides commonly point to C.R.S. 38-20-116, a general abandoned-property rule for lienholders: property is presumed abandoned after the owner fails to contact the lienholder for at least 30 days, and at least 15 days before disposing of it you send notice by registered or certified mail, “signed by the addressee only,” to the last-known address, then publish once in a county newspaper if the mail comes back. Whether and how that section applies to a residential landlord holding a dead tenant’s things is not settled by the text we read. Get advice before you dispose of anything, and in the meantime let only an authorized person remove property.

• Post the final balance before you unlink. Add the prorated last rent or any allowed damage charge to the unit while the tenant is still linked, so it sits on the record. Then the estate pays outside the app and you mark it paid.
• Delete Lease asks about future charges. After you confirm, choose “Yes, Delete Charges” to remove charges after the end you’ve agreed on, or “No, Keep Charges” if the estate is still responsible for them. RentRedi’s article warns that deleting a lease “does not automatically delete future charges.”
• Unlink keeps history and pauses AutoPay. Unlinking “does not delete their charges or payment history,” which stay under Properties → Units → Charges and Tenants → Prior Tenants → Charges. AutoPay turns off when a renter is no longer a current tenant. RentRedi’s Delete Tenant article (2022) says signed leases, payments, and maintenance records stay linked to a prior tenant, so prefer Unlink over deleting the tenant card.
• The unlink notice goes to the deceased person. RentRedi says the tenant “will receive a notification once they are unlinked.” If a family member is monitoring that email or phone, tell them first.

• Change the end date. Lease Profile → Edit → Edit Term. TurboTenant says the profile “can be scheduled to archive on the updated end date.” It also says this doesn’t terminate the signed agreement, so get the estate’s written confirmation or your attorney’s sign-off on the date.
• Delete the monthly rule and any already-sent charge. TurboTenant has no Break Lease button; its guidance is to “edit or delete recurring charges that should no longer continue.” Our early termination research found monthly charges go out about 15 days before the due date, so check for one already sent.
• Post the final charge before Convert to Past Lease. Past leases can still pay existing unpaid charges, but “new payment charges require an active lease.” Record an offline payment when the estate’s check arrives.
• Co-tenant survives? Use Move Out Tenant on the deceased tenant only; the lease stays active for everyone else. Don’t use Remove From Lease, which is meant for a tenant who never moved in.
• Treat the education article as general. TurboTenant’s “Landlord Guide: Steps After a Tenant’s Death” recommends getting written notice of death, not touching property, and treating a fixed-term lease as broken with rent until re-rented. For a covered Colorado lease, 801(3.5) caps that.

• Change end date removes later charges, even paid ones. The indexed copy of Avail’s article says the change removes rent charges after the new end date, “including those with payments.” If the estate has prepaid a month you’re refunding, write down the payment details before you change the date.
• You can’t just swap out a deceased signer. In the 2023 community thread, a landlord whose tenant died couldn’t find a way to stop rent reminders to his email. Another user explained that Avail “ties signers of a lease to the invoices for payment,” and that starting a new lease ends the old one and deletes its remaining payments after the term date, which also stops reminders “except perhaps for those with balances.”
• A family member staying needs their own lease. The poster in that thread was signing a new lease with the tenant’s daughter outside Avail. Put the new lease in Avail too, so charges and reminders go to the person who actually signed.
• Stop AutoPay. If the deceased tenant had AutoPay on, confirm it’s off after the end-date change, and contact Customer Care if a payment is still scheduled.

Hypothetical, for arithmetic only. Sole tenant, single-family house, $1,850 a month due on the 1st, $1,850 deposit. Lease signed Monday March 16, 2026 for April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, so it’s inside Letty’s Act. The lease has a two-month ($3,700) liquidated-damages clause and a clause requiring repayment of a $925 move-in concession if the lease ends early. The tenant paid October rent by autopay and died Thursday, October 8, 2026. A daughter calls Monday, October 12 and emails a copy of the death certificate. She isn’t an appointed personal representative and plans to use a small-estate affidavit. She removes the belongings and returns the keys Friday, October 30.

• Rent cap. The later of month-end (Saturday, October 31) or ten business days after the unit was vacated after notice: Monday November 2 through Friday November 13 is ten weekdays, counting Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11). If you don’t count Veterans Day as a business day, it’s Monday, November 16. Pick the later date if unsure. Through November 13 that’s $1,850 × 13/30 = $801.67; through November 16 it’s $986.67. Whether you can charge even that much without a lease clause allowing it is a question for counsel; the statute voids clauses that go further, it doesn’t create a charge.
• Void items. The $3,700 liquidated damages and the $925 concession clawback are unenforceable under 801(3.5)(a)(I) and (III).
• Possession. The daughter isn’t the personal representative, so her handing back keys may not be a surrender under (b)(I). Thirty days after death is Saturday, November 7, and by then substantially all property was removed, so (b)(II)(B) applies. Our reading: don’t re-let or change locks before November 7 unless counsel says the October 30 handover is enough.
• Deposit. No death-related damage. $1,850 − $801.67 = $1,048.33 refund, by check to the affiant named on a notarized JDF 999 (available after October 18), with the itemization. If you treat November 7 as the date of termination and surrender, one month later is about December 7; refund sooner if you can.
• Software (TurboTenant). Post a $801.67 one-time charge, then Edit Term to November 13, delete the monthly rule and the November charge already sent around October 17, and Convert to Past Lease after you record the deposit refund outside the app.

Wrong outcomes this avoids (example data):

• November autopay pulls $1,850 from the deceased tenant’s account, which the bank may freeze or reverse, and the return triggers an NSF fee (see NSF & returned payments).
• Billing the estate $3,700 + $925 = $4,625 in void charges, plus a remaining-term claim of $1,850 × 4.5 ≈ $8,325 for mid-November through March that the cap doesn’t allow.
• Mailing the $1,048.33 refund to the tenant’s name, or refunding the tool’s stored account, instead of to someone with authority.
• Deleting the lease or the tenant card to “clean up,” which can wipe the payment record you need for the estate claim and your Schedule E.
• Avail: changing the end date before writing down a prepaid November payment, which removes that charge with its payment.
• Letting the daughter move in on the old lease without signing anything.

1. If you’re first on the scene, call 911 and touch nothing. The software can wait.
2. Get written notice of the death and a copy of the death certificate or obituary, and note the date you were told.
3. Find out who has authority: an appointed personal representative (ask for letters), a small-estate affiant (Colorado JDF 999, 10+ days after death), or nobody yet.
4. Check whether any co-tenant survives. If so, this is a roommate change, not a termination.
5. Check your state’s rules and the lease date (Colorado: signed on or after September 1, 2025?).
6. Work out the last chargeable date and the final balance in writing, and strike any clause your state voids.
7. Make sure the next rent charge won’t hit the deceased tenant’s autopay. Delete or edit the recurring charge and any charge already sent.
8. Post the final one-time charge while the lease is still active.
9. Change the end date (TurboTenant Edit Term, Avail Change end date) or decide on future charges in RentRedi’s Delete Lease prompt.
10. Coordinate belongings with the authorized person only; inventory and photograph what’s left. Don’t dispose of anything without advice.
11. Don’t retake possession or re-let until your state’s rule allows it (Colorado: PR surrender, or day 30 with rent unpaid or property removed).
12. Do a move-out condition report and separate any death-related damage with photos and invoices.
13. Refund the deposit with an itemization to the personal representative or affiant, outside the deceased tenant’s payment account, and record it.
14. Archive (Unlink in RentRedi, Move Out Tenant or Convert to Past Lease in TurboTenant). Never delete the lease or tenant record.
15. Export the ledger, lease, death notice, authority documents, and refund proof to your document vault.
16. For the future: collect an emergency or authorized contact on every application and lease.

• Can I just delete the tenant from the software? Don’t. All three tools keep history when you archive or unlink; deleting a lease or tenant can remove the record you need for the estate and taxes.
• Can I talk to the family? Yes, but a relative isn’t automatically entitled to the unit, the deposit, or the tenant’s records. Ask for letters of appointment or a small-estate affidavit before you hand over money or property.
• Should I log in as the tenant to pay or cancel autopay? No. Fix it from the landlord side, and contact vendor support if a payment is still scheduled.
• Does Letty’s Act mean I get nothing? No. It voids early-termination fees, liquidated damages, and concession clawbacks, and caps rent acceleration. Rent through the capped date and death-related damage are still possible, subject to your lease and counsel.
• What if a family member keeps paying rent and living there? Sign a new lease with them after screening. Taking rent from an unsigned occupant can create a tenancy you didn’t intend.
• What if I can’t find anyone? Keep the lease, ledger, and belongings intact and get legal advice. In Colorado, the 30-day possession rule in 801(3.5)(b) is the earliest no-court option we found.
• Does the 30-day rule let me throw out the belongings? Not by itself; it’s about possession of the unit. Belongings are a separate question (see the 38-20-116 caution above).

• RentRedi is the most predictable for stopping money: unlinking automatically pauses AutoPay, and the Delete Lease prompt makes the future-charges choice explicit. The downside is that the unlink notice goes to the deceased person’s contact.
• TurboTenant has the clearest end-date and archive steps, plus Move Out Tenant for a surviving co-tenant. Watch the charge that’s already been sent, and post the final charge before archiving.
• Avail handles the end date cleanly but can’t swap a deceased signer; plan on a new lease for anyone staying and a support ticket if reminders or AutoPay keep going.

• Avail’s end-date article returned 404 tonight; its wording comes from a search-index copy. The AutoPay Customer Care route comes from our earlier research, not a re-check tonight.
• We didn’t verify where TurboTenant’s deposit-return flow sends money, or whether any tool can change a payee to an estate.
• Colorado: the 10-business-day count (holidays), whether a non-PR relative can “surrender” under 801(3.5)(b)(I), whether renewals after September 1, 2025 are covered, and whether 38-20-116 governs a deceased tenant’s belongings are all unresolved in the text we read.
• The New York case and California memo are illustrations of the general rule, not Colorado law. The California memo is from 2015.
• No case law applying Letty’s Act turned up in our search.