sole tenant died with no executor or estate; children would not clean out the apartment; what to do?

If you were my client, I would advise you to post and mail two Notices of Abandonment as allowed by the Civil Code, one for the premises and one for the contents. There is a two week waiting period after the Notices are posted and mailed. The rental value of the apartment is probably more than all of the contents and more than the cost of the following procedure. In order to get the apartment ready for re-renting as soon as possible, you could have a bonded moving company move everything in the apartment to a storage unit, and at the end of the two weeks have the storage unit vacated and the contents taken to the dump. That way, if the family chose to go through the stuff looking for valuables or mementos, they could still do so. If you do this, have the movers take everything, even what to any reasonable person appears to be trash or garbage. And take pictures of everything and make an inventory. You don't need to count the socks and forks, but the more detail the better.  Don't sign a new lease for the apartment or send the contents to the dump until the expiration of the two weeks. Since you'll have to rent the storage space for a month, you might as well wait three weeks. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack