What happens when your landlord passes away?
You’ll either be able to stay because the landlord decides to honor or renew your lease.
Or your new landlord decides to start fresh and cancels your lease and now you need to find a new place to live.
SOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT – A CURRENT AFFAIR
For 75-year-old Jane Sayner, it was neither of these options.
Jane Sayner has been living in St. Albans in Melbourne, Australia for 20+ years.
She rented a two-bedroom unit from St Albans multi-millionaire John Perrett for AUD$250 a week.
It was the same amount she had been paying since she moved into the house.
If she needed to move, she wouldn’t be able to afford another house.
She would either need to move in with her stepchildren or go back to work.
Jane had already been working at her last job for 25 years and she didn’t want to work anymore.
To go back because she needed to pay rent is a thought she doesn’t even want to think of.
Thankfully, she doesn’t have to.
SOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT – A CURRENT AFFAIR
In September 2020, her landlord, John Perrett, passed away.
He was a multimillionaire who was never married and didn’t have children.
However, he received a kidney transplant 30 years before his passing which extended his life.
John was grateful that he left a big part of his fortune, around AUD$18.6 million, to the Nephrology Department of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
One flat was sold for AUD$400,000 that was also left to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Two properties were left to two long-term tenants, which included Jane.
Yes, John left the two-bedroom unit to Jane, who is now the owner of the house she used to rent.
Although, it wasn’t the first time Jane heard about this.
John actually called her one day to get her full name.
“Then one day he just rang me and said, ‘My solicitor’s here, can you please give me your full name, because I’m leaving you your unit.’ I thought I hadn’t heard it right. Surely not. For the whole time I had known him, (leaving all his money to charity) was always what he was going to do,” Jane recalled.
SOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT – A CURRENT AFFAIR
While John’s passing was devastating for Jane, it must have been such a relief to know the house is now hers.
Since she moved in 20+ years ago, she has definitely made the place more homey.
“I treated this place like it was my own. When I first came here there was no garden out the back. Because I was living here, I planted lots of plants and flowers, which are still here today,” Jane shared.
John didn’t get mad and actually encouraged Jane to make the place more like home.
He even brought his father’s old pots that Jane could use for more plants.
John and Jane definitely had a relationship beyond landlord-tenant: they were friends.
Jane and John would talk for an hour or so and John would tell her about his father.
She would also cook for him sometimes.
Besides being unmarried and childless, John was also an only child.
It was no wonder he had left the unit to Jane, who gave him friendship.