Inheritance Law2026-10-23

My mother has died — how do I get out of her tenancy agreement as her heir?

As an heir you do not inherit your late mother's tenancy agreement for good: there is a special right of termination with its own deadline. I explain when it starts, what takes precedence, and how to get out of the contract without full personal liability.

You have just lost your mother, and somewhere between the funeral, the paperwork and your grief a question surfaces that feels almost cruel: what happens to the flat she was renting? The rent keeps running, the landlord may already be in touch, and no one has told you that, as her heir, you are not necessarily tied to this agreement forever.

In short

As her heir, you do not have to see your mother’s tenancy agreement through to its ordinary end. If no one with a statutory right of precedence (a spouse, civil partner or member of the household) steps into the agreement, it does pass to you — but you can then terminate it by way of extraordinary notice, with a period of roughly three months. What matters is knowing when that deadline starts to run and making sure you do not let it slip, because otherwise you face unnecessarily long rent payments as a liability of the estate.

How I help you

Establishing whether anyone has a right of precedence to step into the tenancy, and whether their own deadline is still running or has already passed
Calculating your personal one-month deadline for the special termination precisely
Drafting the notice of termination so that it is legally watertight and serving it in good time
Where there are several co-heirs, coordinating the joint declaration to the landlord
Where the estate is over-indebted, limiting liability to the estate itself instead of you having to pay the rent out of your own pocket
Settling handover, deposit and any outstanding claims with the landlord

Who takes precedence over you as the heir

Before you can give notice at all, it has to be clear that your mother’s tenancy agreement really does come to you. The law places certain people ahead of the heir:

If your mother ran a joint household with a spouse or civil partner, that person automatically steps into the tenancy on her death — regardless of whether they are named in the agreement. If there was no such person, children who lived in your mother’s household take their place, followed by other family members or people who shared a home with her on a lasting basis. These people with a right to step in can decline it by notifying the landlord within one month of learning of the death; the step-in is then treated as never having happened, and only at that point does the agreement pass to the heir.

If your mother was not the sole tenant but a co-tenant under the same agreement together with someone else (for example, both partners were named in the tenancy), the agreement simply continues with the surviving person. As the heir you are then not a party to it at all and have nothing to terminate — the agreement does not concern you.

Only once both of these are ruled out — no person with a right to step in, no surviving co-tenant — does the tenancy agreement pass to you as the heir. It is precisely for this situation that the special right of termination exists.

Your deadline for giving notice

Once the agreement has come to you, both you as the heir and the landlord can give extraordinary notice within one month, subject to the statutory period. There are two things you need to keep apart here:

The one-month period is a cut-off deadline for using the special right of termination at all. It only begins once you know two things: that your mother has died, and that no step-in or continuation of the agreement by someone with precedence has taken place. If there is a person with a right to step in who still has their own month to decline, your deadline will generally only start once that period has expired or they have declared their refusal — not on the day of death. Miss this one-month deadline and you lose the special right of termination; you can then only end the agreement under the ordinary rules, which for you on the tenant’s side works out almost as quickly in practice, but the particular advantages of the special termination fall away.

The notice period itself — that is, how long the agreement continues to run after your declaration — is roughly three months, with one quirk: your notice must reach the landlord by the third working day of a calendar month, in which case the agreement ends at the close of the month after next. If it arrives any later, everything shifts by a month. So someone who gives notice on the 2nd of a month needs just under three months; someone who misses those first few working days needs a month more.

Your liability for the rent until the tenancy ends

This is where the real financial risk lies: the rent that falls due until the agreement is effectively brought to an end is a liability of the estate. As the heir you are initially liable for it with your entire assets, not just with what you receive from the estate. The longer you put off giving notice, the longer this obligation runs.

If the estate is over-indebted, or you do not know whether it will cover the rent arrears, you can limit your liability to the estate. This is possible through administration of the estate (Nachlassverwaltung) or — where the estate is too small for that — through the so-called plea of insufficiency of the estate (Dürftigkeitseinrede): you then refuse to pay out of your own assets and need only make over to the creditor whatever is still left in the estate. This limitation does not apply automatically; you have to raise it actively against the landlord, or apply for the relevant procedure. Fail to do so and, in case of doubt, you remain liable without limit.

Community of heirs: when you are not the sole heir

If you inherit together with siblings or other co-heirs, you form a community of heirs (Erbengemeinschaft), to which the estate belongs as joint property. The tenancy agreement then passes to the community of heirs as a whole — the termination has to be declared by all the co-heirs jointly and, if the landlord gives notice, must reach all of them as well. A single co-heir cannot end the agreement on their own. In practice this means: before you give notice, you need to be in agreement with the other co-heirs and either sign the declaration together or authorise one of you to act.

A typical case

A client learns of the death of her mother, who lived alone in a rented flat. No partner, no children living in the household — the agreement passes straight to the two heirs, the client and her sister. The one-month deadline for the special termination begins on the day they both learn of the death; since there is no one with a right of precedence, it is immediately clear that no one will step in. The sisters take their time clearing the flat and only give notice after six weeks — by which point the one-month deadline for the special right of termination has already passed. They give notice anyway, now simply without the special ground, with the same roughly three-month period they would have had as tenants in any event. The real damage arises elsewhere: because the estate is modest and no one limited liability in time, both sisters are liable for the ongoing rent with their own money as well.

Common mistakes

Sending the notice only after the flat has been cleared, even though the one-month deadline for the special right of termination has long since been running or has already expired.
No one checks whether there is a person with a right to step in — so notice is given incorrectly or addressed to the wrong party.
Where there are several co-heirs, only one gives notice without the others co-signing or granting authority.
Limiting liability is never considered, even though the estate does not cover the ongoing rent at all.
The notice is sent just after the third working day of a month, needlessly pushing the deadline out by a further month.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to clear the flat straight away as the heir?

No. For as long as the tenancy agreement is running, you as the heir have the right either to use the flat or to clear it until the notice period expires — no one can force you to move out immediately. You should not, however, put the clearance off unnecessarily, since the rent keeps running until the agreement ends and has to be paid out of the estate or your own assets.

What happens to the deposit?

The deposit belongs to the estate, in so far as the landlord does not set it off against outstanding claims from the tenancy, such as rent arrears or damage to the flat. The account is usually only settled once the flat has been handed back and a reasonable period for the landlord to carry out checks has passed.

What if I want to disclaim the inheritance because of the rent debts?

If the estate as a whole is over-indebted, disclaiming the inheritance may be an option — in which case you are not a party to the tenancy agreement either. That is a separate decision with its own, very short deadline, and it affects the entire estate, not just the flat; I will advise you on it separately as part of inheritance law.

When does my deadline start if I only learn of the death late?

The one-month period for the special right of termination only begins when you actually know of the death and of the fact that no one with precedence has stepped in — not on the day of death itself. So if you only learn of your mother’s death weeks later, your deadline starts correspondingly later.

Can the landlord give me notice as well?

Yes. The landlord, too, can give extraordinary notice within one month of learning that the agreement has passed to the heir, subject to the same statutory period, without having to show any special interest. This can actually come as a relief to you if you did not want to keep the flat on in any case.

Your next step

Every day you wait before giving notice can bring the one-month deadline for your special right of termination closer to its end, or run up unnecessary rent costs out of the estate or your own assets. Tell me about the tenancy agreement and your mother’s family situation — I will check whether, and since when, your deadline is running, give notice for you in good time, and make sure that you are not liable for the rent beyond the estate. I represent clients throughout Germany, by video or by telephone.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-10-23.

Christian Czirnich, Rechtsanwalt (attorney at law), Kirchseeon near Munich

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