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Apartment Lease Review – What You Need to Know BEFORE You Sign a Lease

Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Summit 2023 – What You Need to Know BEFORE You Sign a Lease

Esther Graff-Radford, an Atlanta-based Civil Litigation Attorney with Graff-Radford Law, LLC, informs attendants at the 2023 Renters’ Rights Summit what they should be looking for before signing a lease.

Sandy Springs Together hosted its first-ever Renters’ Rights Summit in November 2023. This event connected Sandy Springs apartment renters with experts who advocate for improved renters’ rights in the state of Georgia. 

These experts shared information regarding apartment leases, rental property policy and the current rights that renters have in Georgia, from getting repairs to lease termination (voluntary and eviction). 

This event also featured a discussion about the role of the state legislature in setting rules for landlords and municipalities in rental situations. 

We have compiled a list of tips and important information that will be helpful  to remember specifically when you are reviewing your lease agreement. This information was provided by Esther Graff-Radford, a private litigation attorney, and is meant to inform and not be taken as legal advice. 

LEASE REVIEW:

When looking at an apartment: 

  • Ask for a copy of the lease you would be signing PRIOR to actually signing it so that you can become familiar with the contents. Be wary of a “hard sell”.
  • Ask to see the actual unit you would be renting. Model apartments don’t always represent the actual unit you would be renting. They don’t show roach infestation, flooding damage or plumbing problems, to name a few.  
  • In Georgia, landlords cannot discriminate against you for color, race, national origin, disability or family status (too many children or same-sex or single parent).  

The content of the lease should: 

  • Indicate which, if any utilities are included as part of your rent.
  • Describe other services that are provided and the charges for those services, such as trash valet, security gate etc.     
  • Reveal whether the property has flooded in the past several years.
  • Identify where YOUR security deposit will be held.   

The lease should say:

  • Landlord is responsible for making repairs
  • Landlord is responsible for any harm to the tenant’s property caused by not making repairs.

Take Photos of your apartment before you move in: Inspect your new apartment carefully.  If there are areas where you see damage or excessive wear, these should be documented with photos and reported in writing to management immediately. Confirm that all appliances are in working condition. If not, immediately report these in writing as well. Make copies of anything you send to management about the “move-in” condition of your apartment; doing so could avoid you having to pay for these items when you move out.  Keep these photos and reports for reference.  

Change of apartment ownership or management company:

Georgia law requires apartment leases to remain in effect until the lease’s expiration date.  If a new owner or management company acquires your apartment community, the new landlord is obligated to honor the terms of your lease until it has expired, at which time you can elect to renew the lease with the new company.   

As a renter, having a clear understanding of your rights and responsibilities can make your rental experience more satisfactory.  Remember, you are not alone; there are slightly more renters in Sandy Springs than homeowners, and by working together, we can make a difference in how renters are respected and included in many city boards, committees and activities.  

Check out the helpful resources below to learn more, and stay tuned for more information from our first-ever Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Forum! 

Resources:

Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation – provides free legal services to lower-income residents. Their services include landlord/tenant disputes, domestic violence/intimate partner abuse, evictions etc.  

Esther Graff-Radford – private litigation attorney, tried the first landlord harassment case in Georgia.   

Georgia Appleseed – Georgia Appleseed advocates for reforms large and small, local and statewide, that increase access to stable, healthy housing for low-income children and their families, keeping them out of the criminal justice system. Georgia Appleseed Healthy Housing Advocacy Handbook. 
Atlanta Legal Aid Society – Helping those with low incomes meet basic needs by removing barriers to justice through civil legal assistance.

Sandy Springs Together Youth Month

Sandy Springs Youth Month is focused upon showcasing the skills and talents of our community’s younger members. To that end, we are highlighting the work of students from Sandy Springs Charter Middle School’s Journalism Club. 

The SSCMS Journalism Club strives to promote an interest in journalism and communication among its students and community. Students write monthly articles covering topics such as global news, sports, school and community happenings, entertainment and creative writing. The SSCMS Journalism Club offers a platform for students to evolve their writing skills and their understanding of media literacy. Additionally, it helps introduce and prepare students for potential future involvement in journalism or similar fields.

The monthly articles are a platform for students to share their ideas, experiences and opinions about the topics they love. Click on the links below to read some of the wonderful examples of these students’ work:

Orchestra Concert (written by Austin G.)Download
NBA Tip-Off (written by S. Chuma)Download
Daniel the Dinosaur Delivery DudeDownload
Sandy Springs Charter Middle School News (written by Nia A.)Download
The iPhone 15 ReviewDownload

Along with elevating the work of our community’s youth, we also want to bring awareness to the conversations that we at Sandy Springs Together are having with our future community leaders. At the end of 2023, Sandy Springs Together’s Community and Engagement Manager, Sequoia Hanneman, spoke with students in the Youth Leadership Sandy Springs program about the importance of affordable housing for our community. 

Hanneman also led a simulated activity during which the students had to find and secure quality affordable housing (either through renting or purchasing) using the resources given to them through unique, scenario-based lifestyles. After the simulation, Sequoia and the students discussed the challenges they faced securing and maintaining affordable housing during the activity, as well as the importance of civic engagement and advocacy for an inclusive city structure that allows people from all backgrounds to live comfortably here. 

The Youth Leadership Sandy Springs program curriculum provides students with an in-depth look at how our city government, local businesses and non-profit organizations work in tandem to support our city as a whole in various ways. Additionally, students learn important business skills such as crafting a resume, how to make a good impression during an interview and finance management, which includes learning how to find and secure an affordable place to live.

As Sandy Springs Together’s Youth Month continues, we invite you to join us in celebrating the talents of our youth and uplifting them to become the future leaders of our community!

Celebrating Black Excellence 2024 Panel Event

For the second year in a row, Sandy Springs Together had the honor of hosting the Celebrating Black Excellence program at Sandy Springs Middle School on Friday, February 23, 2024.

The program featured a panel of four Black professionals who shared information about their respective careers and real-life experiences with the students, staff and faculty of SSMS. This panel featured the President and Founder of TheraVisc Biotech, LLC,  Dr. Juana Mendenhall, who is also the Walter E. Massey Professor of Physical Sciences at Morehouse College, and included: 

Hank Stewart (Panelist) – Emmy Award-winning Poet, Poet Laureate, Best-selling Author

Julius Williams (Panelist) – NFL and CFL Veteran, Youth Mentor

Dr. Edward Jackson (Panelist) – Director of Sports Medicine for Grady Health System; Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery for the Emory Department of Orthopedics-Division of Sports Medicine

Our panelists shared wisdom and knowledge with the students, including the following major takeaways:

  • Surround yourself with people who encourage and uplift you.
  • Be mindful of what you say on social media – it can have a lasting impact.
  • It’s important to be of service to others and to your community.
  • Grit and resilience can take you far in life.

Our youth are the future of our city, and we are grateful to our panelists for taking time out of their busy schedules to speak and share their experiences with our young people.

“Sandy Springs is home to brilliant leaders from all backgrounds, races and ethnicities who serve as role models for our youth,” said Melanie Couchman, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Springs Together. “Our goal for this panel discussion was to connect Sandy Springs students with those leaders and to cultivate positive relationships. We hope students left the program feeling inspired to pursue their goals and eventually become community leaders like our panelists.”


We hope to continue collaborating with local organizations and individuals to hold more events like the Celebrating Black Excellence panel that connect our youth with leaders and role models in our community.

City of Sandy Springs Annual Retreat

On January 30, 2024, the Sandy Springs City Council held its annual retreat. 

The annual retreat allows city staff to update our mayor and city council members on the progress made toward achieving the goals and objectives that were identified during the previous year. This is also a time for local leaders to make decisions about the city’s priorities for the current and upcoming year.

During this meeting, representatives from our city’s departments reported to and worked with our city officials to discuss the top priorities for Sandy Springs in 2024 and beyond in the areas of:

  • Customer Service
  • Public Safety/Fire Preparedness
  • Transportation and Multi-Modal Accessibility
  • Community Appearance Standards
  • Economic Development
  • Recreation and Cultural Enrichment
  • Sustainable Growth and Environmental Stewardship
  • Water Reliability

To help ensure these priorities are addressed, city staff members presented the council with a list of recommended initiatives for 2024. 

As illustrated in the graphic below, these initiatives are heavily focused upon improving the city’s presence on social media, increasing the number of customer satisfaction surveys residents receive and finding ways to improve our services through the use of artificial intelligence. 

An important note to remember: the “Strengthen Neighborhood Engagement” initiative refers ONLY to Homeowners’ Associations; it does not refer to renters.

Along with determining Sandy Springs’ priorities for 2024, city staff and leadership recognized successful initiatives in 2023, including:

  • Launching a bilingual newsletter for residents
  • Hiring an interpreter to attend the Crossroads Small Area Plan public meetings
  • Holding a social event specifically for Hispanic Sandy Springs residents in the Crossroads area

This report is filled with information that can be useful to ALL Sandy Springs residents. From creating more charging stations for electric vehicles to discussing strategies that other cities are implementing to incentivize economic development, we encourage you to take some time to listen to the discussions about the plans our local leadership has for our city.

Do All Communities Need Affordable Housing?

Have you experienced long wait times at local restaurants, had your hairdresser or barber move out of town, or perhaps your child’s favorite teacher left their school?

Chances are, you’ve experienced at least one of these scenarios or something very similar. But have you ever considered that these situations might be related to the lack of affordable housing options for people in Sandy Springs?  

Our city has studied this issue for years and received advice from experts who warn that we aren’t doing enough to address the problem. While we have taken minor steps in the right direction with the recent Development Code Update and Crossroads Small Area Plan calling for creating a Housing Action Plan and Housing Commission (two actions we support), there is still more to be done. 

We should approach the conversation about access to affordable housing as we do with clean water, healthy food and paved roads. Making housing attainable to people of all income levels is not a luxury; it’s essential to the economic vitality and sustainability of Sandy Springs. 

Investing in more affordable housing will yield positive safety, physical and mental health benefits for residents. In return, those benefits will lead to positive short and long-term economic impact. 

In November 2020, our city undertook a process to identify the economic development goals and review the market findings, risks and opportunities. The resulting Strategic Economic Development Plan emphasizes the connection between affordable housing and future economic stability and growth, mentioning the word “housing” 105 times.

As the Sandy Springs City Council and Mayor plan the city’s priorities for 2024-2025 during their January retreat, it is time to develop and implement meaningful policies and a budget to finally address Sandy Springs’ housing crisis. Simply put, providing more affordable housing options, specifically for members of Sandy Springs’ workforce, seniors and recent college graduates, should be one of our community leaders’ top priorities. 

When homes are out of reach and our neighbors are forced to move elsewhere, our community suffers. Businesses lack the employees they need to maintain current operations or expand, community-based volunteer services disappear and a once-diverse and desirable community is no longer either.

We challenge you to reach out to your city council representative TODAY and let them know that you want them to make affordable housing a TOP PRIORITY.

The stakes are enormous, and the cost of inaction is too high to accept. Over the next several weeks, we will continue to explore in more detail the impact of accessible affordable housing on the economy, education and other vital aspects of our city. In the meantime, you can write or call your city council representatives and let them know that you would like for them to address this important topic during their annual retreat at the end of January. Follow this link to find out how to contact your representative.

What is Affordable Housing?

One of our goals at Sandy Springs Together is to help create more affordable housing options for current Sandy Springs residents and people considering moving here. Over the next several weeks we will be offering a series of blogs to help explain the many aspects of this important topic. 

But what exactly is affordable housing? 

Affordable housing is not a thing but a ratio – a family’s income relative to its housing costs. According to a federal housing metric used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), ideally, no more than 30% of a family’s income should be spent on housing costs, leaving the remaining 70% to take care of other necessities and to put into savings. 

According to HUD, these housing costs include the total income spent on rent, mortgage payments, utilities, taxes, insurance and other related housing expenses, like the cost of transportation from their home to their job.

The term “affordable,” simply means that, after paying for all housing-related expenses, a person or family has enough money left for other necessities like food, clothing, medicine, etc.

In most areas of Georgia, residents would have to earn approximately $24.75/hour to be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. A person earning the minimum wage would have to work 136 hours per week to afford that apartment.

The problem is that housing has become more expensive while fixed incomes and wages have remained the same. Working families, seniors and young college grads in entry-level jobs are being priced out of our city due to either rising rent costs for apartment residents or rising taxes for homeowners.  

To determine where to best support their affordable housing needs, most cities rely upon Area Median Income (AMI), which is a measure of residents’ median income in a broad geographic area and is calculated annually by HUD. 

Sandy Springs lies within the Atlanta-Roswell-Sandy Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA as defined by HUD) which includes 29 counties ranging from Dawson County to the north and Meriwether County to the south. To determine this region’s AMI, HUD calculated the annual income earned by families in the 29-county area. The median income of this set is deemed the AMI for the area, meaning that half of the families living in the area earn more than the AMI and half of the families earn less. 

The 2020 AMI for the Atlanta-Roswell-Sandy Springs MSA was set at $82,700 – the median amount one household of four earns in one year.

After calculating the AMI, HUD adjusts the incomes of the given Metropolitan Statistical Area based on the number of people in a family. 

Using the AMI calculation, HUD defines income limits as Low (≤80% of AMI), Very Low (≤50%), and Extremely Low (≤30%). 

The chart below depicts what percentage of households in the Atlanta-Roswell-Sandy Springs MSA fell in these categories based on the 2022 AMI.

Affordable rental housing generally serves families earning 80% of AMI or less, and affordable home ownership funding serves families earning 120% of AMI.

The creation and preservation of affordable housing includes both multifamily and single-family new construction, preservation and rehabilitation.

Below are some examples.

Example 1: 

Mike Wilson is a claims manager at a major insurance company, and his wife, Leslie, is a stay-at-home mother. Leslie volunteers at her children’s school reading to poor readers to stimulate a love of reading. Mike and Leslie have two school-aged children and a family income of $90,000/year. They’re looking to purchase a 3 bedroom 2 bath home. According to the 30% rule, the Wilsons should spend no more than $2250 per month on housing costs on a home priced at $300,900.

Example 2: 

Bob Smith is a firefighter, and his wife Ann is a teaching assistant. Bob trains the Fire Department’s volunteer Citizens FIre Academy. Their family income is about $65,000/year. Using the 30% rule, affordable housing for the Smiths would be about $19,500 per year ($1,625 per month). For a household of two, they make below the median income but are not considered to be in the Low category at 80% of AMI. If they had two children, they would be considered in the Low category at 80% of AMI.

Example 3: 

This is an example of what affordable housing looks like for a family of two earning minimum wage. Kelly Brown and her husband, Daniel, both work full-time jobs that pay $7.25 an hour, the State of Georgia’s minimum wage. Kelly volunteers at the local food pantry once a month. Together, they earn $30,160 annually. Affordable housing for the Browns would cost them $9,048 per year ($754 per month) to cover housing costs and utilities. As a household of two, they are close to the Very Low category of 50% of AMI. If they had two children,  bringing them to a household of four, they would be considered close to the Extremely Low category of 30% of AMI.

Example 4: 

If the couple in Example 2, Bob Smith,the firefighter and wife, Ann the teaching assistant  wanted to PURCHASE a home in Sandy Springs while earning $65,000 and spend no more than 30% of their income on housing, they would need to find a 1 BR house for $173,640. To purchase a 2 bedroom home, they would need to find a house priced no more than $208,320.  The current median cost of a home in Sandy Springs is over $500,000. This fact makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Smiths to purchase a home in Sandy Springs.

When we talk about supporting households at varying degrees of AMI (50%, 60%, 80%, 120% etc.), the examples above illustrate people and families that affordable housing advocates strive to assist.So, how much should you be paying for housing costs? The chart below is a useful reference tool to help you figure that out:

We hope that you now have a better understanding of what affordable housing is and how it is calculated. Our next blog post in this series will explain the importance of affordable housing in developing more equitable communities.