This has never happened to me before...

some of you may know that i own a house in ongar in essex. when i moved here nearly two years ago now, i tried to sell this house, but it proved impossible. negotiations with the building society weren't particularly helpful either and it took the intervention of a financial adviser to allow me to rent it out. fortunately i struck gold and a potential long term tenant was interested, he had had to retire due to ill-health and his daughters, who lived near ongar, wanted him nearby.

today i got a letter from the managing agents telling me that he has died. as the title to the post says, this has never happened to me before.

in some ways this is a bit of a blessing, matthew and i are wanting to move, but found ourselves struggling a bit - to get the size house we want in the area we like we really need to sell my house. but you don't want to kick a tenant out, try and sell the house, realise that the market is still poor and then have to find a new tenant. so this does now give us an opportunity to 'test the market'.

however i now find myself with a couple of questions that fall under modern etiquette, and i have no idea of the answers.

firstly do i send a condolance card to his family? i've never met him or his family, but we have had a relationship over the last 17 months, he has paid me to live in my house and i in return have had to ensure that the house was safe and the gas appliances didn't poison him. so does one send a card?

secondly, how firm or lenient should i be in allowing his family to move his belongings out? technically i should have a months notice, but is it easier to tell them they have until the end of may (which has been paid up), but then again that is short notice for a bereaved family?

to be honest, once i realised that the property is potentially vacant, all i want to do is rush back to essex, bring the painters in get an estate agent around to start marketing the property. it will be a lot easier now that we no longer need hips - as announced, appropriately enough by Eric Pickles, the mp for brentwood and ongar!!

slight blot on the landscape, in hunting for a picture to put with this post i have just discovered that my neighbour is again trying to sell his house, my house is the one on the right in the picture.