Cleanup After an Unattended Death in West Michigan

How these deaths are usually found

Most unattended deaths come to light because someone notices that a routine has stopped. A daughter in Chicago cannot reach her father in Hastings. A mail carrier in Greenville sees the box overflowing. A neighbor at a Spring Lake condo notices the same car under three days of snow.

Landlords and property managers find many of them too, often after a tenant misses rent or someone in the next unit reports an odor. In Grand Rapids apartment buildings and in the older divided houses around Eastown, that odor can reach a hallway or shared stairwell before anyone opens the door.

In the rural parts of Newaygo and Montcalm counties, the gap can be longer. Houses sit well apart, and someone living alone on a back road near White Cloud or Lakeview may not have daily visitors. That longer gap is the main reason some rural cleanups are bigger jobs than city ones.

Welfare checks are how many of these calls start. A relative calls the local police or sheriff's office and asks an officer to knock. If no one answers and there are signs of trouble, the officer may force entry, so the door or lock may need repair as part of the job.

The medical examiner comes first

Michigan law, in MCL 52.202, directs the county medical examiner to look into any death by violence, any unexpected death, and any death where no physician attended the person in the year before death unless a doctor can accurately state the cause. Almost every unattended death meets at least one of those tests.

Who answers depends on the county. Kent and Ottawa run their own offices through their health departments; Muskegon, Allegan and Barry share Western Michigan University's office in Kalamazoo; Ionia contracts with University of Michigan Health-Sparrow; and Montcalm and Newaygo use a Cadillac-based examiner group. Kent's office and its investigators take custody of the deceased and arrange transport. Local police or a sheriff's deputy usually arrive first and call the medical examiner in.

Nobody should start cleaning until both have finished and the home is released. The practical steps after a death at home, such as choosing a funeral home and notifying agencies, are in our separate guide. This page picks up once the property is released and someone has to decide what happens to the room.

What winter and summer do to a closed house

Heat speeds decomposition, and so does humidity. A July heat wave in a Wyoming ranch house with the windows shut can turn a few days into a major job. Summer also brings flies, which find their way into a closed house quickly and spread the problem beyond the room.

Winter is not simply the opposite. A furnace running at 68 degrees keeps the house warm and pushes air through every duct, carrying odor into closets, bedding and upholstery all over the home. If the thermostat was set low, the process is slower, but a cold snap can also freeze and split pipes, adding water damage to the cleanup.

Lakeshore cottages are a special case. A cottage near Saugatuck, Holland or Montague that someone used into late fall may sit unheated through months of lake-effect snow. In those conditions a body may be found in spring with less odor than expected, yet the thaw brings moisture, and the company has to work without running water or heat until the owner restores them.

Air conditioning changes the picture again. A house in Jenison or Caledonia with central air running all summer may show less damage than one with the windows shut and no cooling, but the system still pulls odor into its ducts and filter.

The work, step by step

The company starts with an assessment, usually with photos. It checks how far fluid traveled by lifting carpet, pulling a baseboard or cutting a small test opening in the subfloor. In an older Grand Rapids house with hardwood over plank subfloor, fluid can follow the gaps between boards and reach the basement ceiling below.

Next comes containment. The room is sealed with plastic sheeting, and air scrubbers or negative air machines keep odor and particles from moving through the house. Heating and cooling vents to that room are closed off, and the furnace may be shut down during the work.

Then the removal. Mattresses, upholstered chairs and soaked carpet go out first, followed by flooring, subfloor and drywall wherever fluid reached. What remains is cleaned, disinfected and often coated with a sealer that locks in any residual odor before new flooring goes down. The last step is odor treatment for the rest of the house, which may include cleaning the ductwork.

Rebuilding is usually a separate job. Once the company finishes, a contractor, the landlord's maintenance staff or the estate's handyman in Zeeland or Middleville can put down new flooring and patch drywall. A short written summary of what was removed lets the rebuild crew know what is missing.

Manufactured homes, farmhouses and cabins

West Michigan has many manufactured home communities, from the edges of Kentwood and Wyoming to towns along US-131 and M-37. Floors in many older manufactured homes are particleboard over a thin frame, and fluid that soaks into particleboard swells it and cannot be cleaned. Expect the company to cut out and replace a section of floor, and to check the insulation and belly wrap underneath.

Farmhouses bring the opposite problem: layers. An Ottawa or Allegan County farmhouse may have linoleum over plank flooring over an older floor, each one added over decades. Fluid can sit between layers, so the company may need to peel back more than one before it reaches clean wood.

Hunting cabins and camps in the Manistee National Forest area of Newaygo County are often used only a few weeks a year. A death there may go unnoticed for a long time, and the building may lack power, water or a good road in winter. Before anyone drives up, settle how the crew will reach the site and what you need to arrange first.

Belongings, photos and papers

Families usually want to save more than they expect. Photo albums, military papers, jewelry, a tackle box promised to a grandson, recipe cards from a farm kitchen in Ionia County. Most hard objects like dishes, tools and metal keepsakes can be cleaned. Soft and porous items from the affected room often cannot.

Before work begins, tell the company what matters most and where it is likely to be. Ask it to set aside wallets, keys, checkbooks, mail, wills and anything that looks like an estate document. Those are needed later, and they are easy to lose in a room being emptied.

If you live far from West Michigan, ask for a video call or a set of photos before anything is discarded. A family member in Texas should not have to drive to Allegan to decide what to keep, but should have a chance to say.

Pets are a hard part of some of these calls. If an animal was in the home, the sheriff's office or county animal control may have taken it. Ask the responding agency where the pet went so a family member can claim it.

Landlords and the 18-day rule

Michigan has a specific rule for a rental where the only tenant has died. Under MCL 600.2918(3)(d), an owner may re-enter and take possession only after meeting several conditions, including unpaid rent and an honest belief that the renter died 18 or more days earlier and nobody else shares the lease.

The statute then calls for at least 10 days' notice before re-entry. The owner posts a notice on the door, tries to reach any emergency contact the tenant named in writing, and notifies the county's public administrator. If a probate estate is opened for the tenant, the rules change. A landlord in Kentwood or Norton Shores should read the statute and talk with an attorney before relying on it.

Cleanup is a related but separate question. The statute also lets an owner enter temporarily to make needed repairs as provided by law, and a decomposition that threatens other units or the building may raise that issue. That is a legal judgment, not one for a cleanup company, so get advice first.

Keep a dated log of each step you take, with photos of the posted notice. That record is useful if anyone in Kent, Muskegon or another county questions the re-entry later.

When family lives out of state

Many people who die alone in West Michigan have family elsewhere. Children move to Chicago, Detroit or out of state, and a parent stays in the house in Belding or Fremont. The relative who gets the call may never have handled anything like this.

Most of the process can be done from a distance. The crew can meet a deputy, a neighbor or a landlord to get a key, send photos from the assessment, and walk you through the plan by phone. Ask who will lock up each day and how the house will be checked on during the job.

Where an estate is involved, find out who has legal authority to sign contracts for it. Usually that is the personal representative named by the probate court in the county where the person lived. Whether the house is in Ottawa or Barry County, the firm doing the work will want to know who is signing.

What to ask before you sign

Our line puts callers in contact with an independent company that serves their area; that company does the assessment and sets the price. These questions help you judge whether it is right for a job in Montcalm County or Grandville alike.

• How will you find out how far fluid traveled, and will you show me photos?
• What will you remove, and what will you try to clean and keep?
• How do you treat odor in the rest of the house and in the ductwork?
• Will you set aside documents, valuables and items I list?
• Can you work with a landlord, a personal representative or my insurer?
• How will I know the job is finished, and what if odor comes back?

Frequently asked