Im not sure about the lease, like I said, he inherited it from an elderly sister that passed. 

Down in the SF Bay Area, I believe it was rent controlled, really low rent, but the house was a mess, hadn't been kept up, needed tons of work.

He just wanted to fix it up enough to sell it and move on, had to get an attorney involved and it probably ended up being quicker and cheaper to just pay her to leave than fight it in the courts.

Is there a situation that it wouldn't be a deductible expense?