What happens when the owner of a land contract passes away and there is a mortgage on the property?

It depends on whether anyone else is on the title. If there are other people who can take ownership you'll probably have to deal with them. If there ends up being an estate, you'll have to deal with that, too.

Lets get terminology straight.. You are the buyer of a property on a land contract, The seller of the property on the land contract passed away..However the seller also had a mortgage on the property Now the land contract is not affected by the death of the seller since his estate should take it over. The problem is that you have no control whether or not the mortgage is being paid and if not when the mortgage company will foreclose which will eliminate your equity and the equity of the seller Generally you need to find out how much the deceased seller owed on the mortgage .. and you then pay down the land contract to that point and take over the mortgage. Ideally the only way to ensure that you are protected is to pay the mortgage directly and pay any excess due to the estate of the seller.