Adam777

There are heirs, you just don't know who they are yet. Under Intestacy law (assuming she died without leaving a will) then there is a legally mandated list of heirs starting with Spouse and then moving through Adult Children, Parents, Siblings, Nieces / Nephews, Cousins etc in some specific order or other. If she literally has no surviving relatives then the property will belong to the state. If she left a Will then her Heirs are legally defined already.

If she left a Will or not then her estate will need to go through Probate first, a court supervised process which is in effect an audit (and eventually a legal distribution) of her finances. This is a time consuming process at the best of times and can take a few months to a year or more in complex cases. Without a Will this process will be longer than if she left one.

Only when Probate is complete then can the ownership of her property pass to whichever heir it is that gets it (or the state). If she left a Will then someone somewhere has been named the Executor/Administrator of her Estate. If she did not leave a will then the probate court will at some point appoint an administrator of her estate . The Executor / Administrator will manage the probate process and report to the probate court. They are the only person that has any legal authority to deal with her assets and then only in very specific and limited ways. So at some point you will find yourself dealing with this individual (who often might be a professional person appointed by the family).

So between now and you getting proper legal advice (which is essential if you ask me) if any of her distant relatives approach you and make requests of you then they have no legal authority to do so unless they are the Administrator of her estate (and even then what they can and cannot do is well defined). Often such potential heirs do not understand the Inheritance process (at first) and act contrary to what the law says, so if someone does come to you and tells you to do anything (move out, sign a lease etc) then don't do it until you've checked they have legal authority to do so.

So I know for sure you have some breathing room as it's going to take a while to start the probate process. So you've got some time to get professional advice and find out specifically what your options are.

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, it's just a process I've unfortunately gone through a few times and there are a lot of moving parts to this which is why getting professional advice is so important.

dmu

What I was hoping some one would post (but specifying the type of lawyer to give professional advice)!
As an aside, our French Notaire was the "Administrator" of my OH's Estate, and the equivalent of Probate took 6 months. We rent out an appartment and I had to inform our tenants of the change of Lessors, and we all signed an amendment to the Contract. But the OP hasn't got a lease to amend.....
P.S. Since we had a joint bank account, it wasn't frozen at his death and the rents arrived normally.