Q: Do I have to give someone renting a room in my house a key to my garage?
My father allowed my brother to come stay with him for a couple months while he was looking for his own apartment. During that time, my father passed away. I inherited the house and now my brother is renting a bedroom from me, there is no lease. He insists that I give him a key to my garage and has stopped giving me rent until I give him one. There are a few items in the garage that he is inheriting, which I am not refusing him access to, I just don't want to give him a key if I don't have to. So I was wondering if I'm required to give him a key? Also do I even have to let him continue to store the items he is inheriting in the garage? They take up 2/3 of the garage and I can't store my stuff in it if I wanted to.
A: I am assuming you are now the sole owner of the house and your brother is a tenant at will under an oral agreement with you. In these circumstances, I don’t see any reason why you would need to give him a key to the garage, especially since you are allowing him to access the items he has in there. As far as letting him continue to store the items in there, I don’t think you need to do that either, unless perhaps he had an agreement with your father on that point that survived your father’s death. If your brother has no right to store the items in there, and you decide to remove the items, then you will want to make sure you follow the proper procedure for doing so.
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