What would you do if your landlord suddenly passed away?
Most people would expect one of two outcomes: either the lease gets honored or renewed by the new property owner, or they find themselves searching for a new place to live as the lease gets terminated.
But for 75-year-old Jane Sayner, neither of these scenarios played out.
Jane had been a resident of St. Albans in Melbourne, Australia for over two decades.
She rented a cozy two-bedroom unit from the multi-millionaire John Perrett at a rate of AUD$250 a week, a sum that remained unchanged since she first moved in.
The thought of relocating was daunting for Jane.
If she had to leave her home, her options were limited: either move in with her stepchildren or return to the workforce, a prospect she wasn’t keen on after dedicating 25 years to her previous job.
However, in September 2020, a twist of fate changed Jane’s life.
Her landlord, John Perrett, passed away. John, a multimillionaire who had never married and had no children, had lived an extended life thanks to a kidney transplant he received 30 years prior.
In a grand gesture of gratitude, he bequeathed a significant portion of his wealth, approximately AUD$18.6 million, to the Nephrology Department of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
But that wasn’t all.
John’s will had a few more surprises.
He sold one of his flats for AUD$400,000, with the proceeds going to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
More astonishingly, he left two of his properties to long-term tenants, one of whom was Jane.
Yes, the two-bedroom unit that Jane had rented for years was now legally hers.
Jane was in disbelief.
She remembered a peculiar phone call from John, where he had asked for her full name, mentioning that he intended to leave her the unit.
“I thought I hadn’t heard it right. Surely not. For the whole time I had known him, (leaving all his money to charity) was always what he was going to do,” Jane reminisced.
While the loss of John was heart-wrenching for Jane, the realization that she now owned the house brought a sense of relief.
Over the years, she had poured love and care into the property, transforming it into a home.
“I treated this place like it was my own. When I first came here there was no garden out the back. Because I was living here, I planted lots of plants and flowers, which are still here today,” Jane fondly shared.
John had always supported Jane’s endeavors to make the place homely.
He even gifted her his father’s old pots to nurture more plants.
Their bond transcended the typical landlord-tenant dynamic; they were genuine friends.
Their conversations would often stretch for hours, with John sharing stories of his father.
Jane would occasionally cook for him.
Given that John was an only child and had no immediate family, it’s touching but not surprising that he chose to leave his property to Jane, a true friend.
Learn more about Jane and her wonderful gift in the video below.
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