landlord passed away and family is here to claim the property. what can we expect?
so my landlord passed away about two weeks ago. his siblings came by yesterday saying that they had papers saying that they would be the new landlords and we will have to start paying rent immediately (today is the 1st). they told us a broker would be coming in a few days to talk to us too. they told us that the house was left to one of the sisters and handed us a paper, but it was just a coroners note saying that they were given the body. they appointed one of the sisters to be the temporary landlord, but my mom does not want to give them the rent until there is a paper confirming the new owners. we have been renting in this house for 20 years, but there is no physical contract, we were living month to month and only have confirmed texts between my mom and our landlord about receiving the rent. the family told us that they want to start a new year lease contract, and my mom is afraid that in doing that they will take away any renters benefits we may have (if any) for living there for long. obviously we are very uneducated and are not sure of the laws and what to expect going forward. does anyone have any advice or suggestions?
UPDATE: sorry everyone, i live in california. i did put the state i was in but for some reason it cut it off in the original post. thank you so much for all of your advice, it has been very helpful!