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What Happens at The End of Your Lease?

Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Summit 2023 – What Happens at the End of Your Lease?

Crystal Redd, co-director of the Safe & Stable Homes project through the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, discusses what renters should do to prepare for their lease agreement to be terminated, extended, or renewed. This video was filmed at the 2023 Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Summit, hosted by Sandy Springs Together.

Crystal Redd, co-director of the Safe & Stable Homes project through the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, discusses what renters should do to prepare for their lease agreement to be terminated, extended, or renewed. This video was filmed at the 2023 Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Summit, hosted by Sandy Springs Together.

This is the third blog in our series on Renters’ Rights. Click here or below to read our first two blogs in this series; you don’t want to miss any of the CRUCIAL information that’s being shared.

Renters make up over half of the residents in Sandy Springs. As a renter, one of the most important things you can do is to arm yourself with knowledge about your rights. That is why Sandy Springs Together hosted a Renters’ Rights Summit in November 2023. One topic that was discussed is the termination of your lease. 

The content that follows is intended to inform the reader and is not meant to be legal advice. 

The landlord and tenant may only end a written lease according to its terms. A lease can be terminated, extended or renewed at the end of its term depending on what the lease says. 

  • Termination: If the lease expires or otherwise ends, the landlord can require that you immediately sign a new lease with new terms or leave. If a new lease is not signed, and the landlord continues to accept monthly rent, the terms of the original lease still apply, except the landlord is required to give 60 days’ notice before terminating the lease or changing the terms, and you are required to give 30 days’ notice before leaving. 
  • Extension: A lease may allow you to stay longer under the same lease provisions through automatic extension at the end of the current lease unless you give notice that you want to leave. If your lease allows that, and you do not notify the landlord that you plan to leave, you could end up responsible for another lease term.
  • Renewal: A lease may allow the tenant to renew by signing a new lease. If your lease allows that, you must give the landlord written notice of your intention to renew the lease. If you do not timely renew the lease, the landlord may treat the lease as expired at the end of the term and take back the rental property.

One of the biggest areas of dispute for renters is the return of the security deposit. When you are moving out of your rental property you should clearly document the condition of the property by taking photos and video of every part of your rental unit, including appliances. This will document the condition of the property you are leaving. Hopefully, you have also retained pictures and an inspection report from when you initially took possession of the property at move-in. Here are a few additional things to keep in mind:

  • The landlord must inspect the unit and prepare a list of all damage beyond normal wear and tear. The landlord must sign the list and provide it to you listing every item and the associated charge.  
  • You must sign the move-out inspection list or specify in writing the items you disagree with and why.
  • Landlords must return the security deposit within 30 days after termination of the lease or the date that you leave the premises, whichever occurs last. 

A landlord must have a legal reason to terminate your lease early. In Georgia, those legal reasons are failing to pay rent or violating the terms of the lease or rental agreement.

Eviction is a legal process a landlord must follow in order to remove a tenant from the rental property and terminate the lease. It is illegal to evict outside of the court process by removing belongings, terminating utilities or intimidation.

To perform a legal eviction, the following actions must take place:

  • The landlord serves an eviction notice called a demand for possession of property either verbally or in writing. 
  • The landlord files an eviction lawsuit with the court.
  • The court serves a summons to the tenant from the State of Georgia and the county of residence stating the reason for the eviction.
  • The tenant has 7 days to respond to the notice. DO NOT IGNORE the notice. You must file an answer with defenses (for example, failure to repair, retaliation, etc) You can also file a counterclaim.
  • The landlord and tenant attend a court hearing and receive judgment. Keep documentation as evidence and bring it to court. This includes photos, emails, text messages, receipts or anything that helps tell your side of the story.
  • If the judgment is in favor of the landlord, the tenant has seven days to move out and/or appeal the judgment. 

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 for low-income children and their families to stable, healthy housing and out of the criminal justice system

Georgia Appleseed Healthy Housing Advocacy Handbook 

Atlanta Legal Aid Society- Helping low income people meet basic needs, removing barriers to justice through civil legal assistance.   https://atlantalegalaid.org/  

Georgia Department of Community Affairs: The Georgia Landlord – Tenant Handbook

iProperty Management – Georgia Landlord Tenant Rights

Apartment Maintenance

Sandy Springs Speaks: Renters’ Rights Summit 2023 – Apartment Maintenance

Esther Graff-Radford, Atlanta-based civil litigation attorney, walks the attendants of the 2023 Renters’ Rights Summit through the process of making a maintenance request for your apartment.

Disclaimer: The following content is intended to inform the reader and is not intended to be legal advice.

In November of 2023, we brought together apartment residents to hear from experts in several disciplines, from specialized attorneys and policy makers, to advocates to discuss some of the most prevalent issues facing renters in Georgia. There are approximately 4.5 million renters in Georgia and slightly more than half of the residents right here in Sandy Springs are renters. 

Whether you are an apartment renter or you know someone who is, it’s important to know the steps to take and the contacts to make in any given situation. Whether you have questions about your lease or, in the case of this blog, you’re dealing with maintenance issues in your apartment, we have the info you need to work through almost any problem you may encounter as an apartment resident.

When dealing with apartment maintenance issues it is important to know that your landlord is responsible for keeping your unit in good repair. This is determined by state minimums and includes: making sure your toilets work properly; ensuring that your faucets provide clean water; making sure that the locks on your doors work; having working heat and air conditioning systems; ensuring that the smoke detectors work and that your windows open properly, in case of an emergency; overseeing the community trash bin disposal; and keeping up with regular rodent and insect control measures.

If you are having issues with your landlord not responding to your requests for repairs, the first step you should take is to submit a request IN WRITING and TAKE PICTURES of the problem. If you communicate this issue to your landlord via a text, email or using the tenant portal, be sure to take a screenshot of the request with the date the request was submitted CLEARLY VISIBLE in the screenshot. 

Without documentation it is easy for your request to be forgotten, ignored or disputed.

As a renter, it’s important to give your landlord a reasonable amount of time to fix the problem. A reasonable amount of time is discretionary, and some problems like a stopped up toilet should be addressed immediately, while others, like a stuck window, may take a bit more time.  

However, if a reasonable amount of time has passed and you’ve made several requests (and documented all of the requests) to repair the same problem, it may be time to call the City of Sandy Springs Code Enforcement at 770-730-5600 or by using the Sandy Springs Works mobile app.  Sandy Springs Works is available at no cost for iPhone in the Apple App Store and for Android in the Google Play store. The city has basic standards that need to be met by apartment owners and they can help in many cases to get your problem addressed. Click here to learn more about Sandy Springs Code Enforcement.

If management doesn’t respond in a reasonable time and your maintenance problem is something you can repair yourself or hire someone to do for you, Georgia’s “Repair and Deduct” provision allows you to get the repair done, then send the receipt for the repair and deduct that amount from the rent for that month.  AGAIN, it is a good idea to take pictures and make sure you have documented several requests for the repair to be made by management before you decide to make arrangements to get it done yourself.   

If your landlord refuses to accept less rent as a result of you having to get the repairs done yourself, or if your landlord tries to terminate your lease as a result of you requesting less rent under this provision, you may need to contact a lawyer. There are several legal aid resources listed at the end of this blog.  

It is important to know the difference between Repair and Deduct and the act of withholding your rent. In Georgia, a renter cannot withhold rent because a landlord isn’t fixing something. You also cannot pay rent into an escrow account until the problem is fixed. Both of these actions are illegal. You must continue to pay your rent; if you stop paying rent due to an unaddressed repair, you will run the risk of forfeiting many of your rights as an apartment renter.

If your unaddressed maintenance concern is causing an unsafe or unhealthy living environment for you, such as leaking sewage, no locks on your does, or more, then you have the right to consider terminating your lease as the landlord has not addressed the problems that you’ve documented. If you reach this step, we highly recommend obtaining advice from an attorney. We have listed several attorneys and legal aid services that specifically handle disputes between renters and landlords at the end of this blog.  

Resources:

Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation – provides free legal services to lower income residents, including handling landlord/tenant disputes, domestic violence/intimate partner abuse, evictions and more.

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 for low-income children and their families to stable, healthy housing. Their Healthy Housing Advocacy Handbook provides useful information on how to access and advocate for more affordable housing in your community.
Atlanta Legal Aid Society – the Atlanta Legal Aid Society assists low income people with meeting basic needs and removes barriers to justice through civil legal assistance.

How Does a Lack of Affordable Housing Impact Our Local Economy?

Welcome to the third installment of Sandy Springs Together’s blog series about the importance of affordable housing. If you have not read the first two blogs in this series, we encourage you to click on the links below to read those pieces as well. 

In this blog, we will discuss the economic benefits of having more affordable housing options in Sandy Springs. 

In November of 2020, Sandy Springs business leaders, stakeholders, elected officials and more engaged in a ten-month process to identify the city’s emerging economic development goals, review the market findings, risks, and opportunities. 

The resulting Strategic Economic Development plan is a 152 page report that mentions the word housing 105 times and specifically states that our city’s “economic development policy must not ignore the connection between housing development (affordable and workforce) and future economic sustainability and growth.”

Listed below are points from the Strategic Economic Development plan that stood out to us the most:

  • The need for policy and plans that allow for residents to age-in-place through new residential development types while also creating housing choice for the next generation of workers. 
  • The opposition to higher density housing underestimates the positive impact that housing diversity has on preserving and attracting workers for entry and mid-level jobs that provide services and amenities that make Sandy Springs a great place to live.
  • The emphasis on protecting legacy neighborhoods will continue to tip the balance towards smaller households and more renters.
  • The lack of “Missing Middle” housing in Sandy Springs has been noted as a challenge by local businesses in attracting and retaining service-based and entry level workers. 
  • Companies have shown preference in metro Atlanta for locations that can support a range of incomes while providing high levels of support amenities (i.e. dining and retail).
  • As both transportation costs and the amount of traffic on our roads increase over time, it will further choke the workforce available for the service sector and other low and moderate-paying occupations, negatively impacting the quality of life for all residents.

Our city is touting a new study showing that millennials are moving to Sandy Springs but the economic growth report points to a danger that this next generation of early professionals cannot integrate into our city due to housing cost barriers. This will eventually have an adverse impact on our city’s growth.

In fact, a recent study of census data shows that Sandy Springs is the fastest shrinking city in Georgia.  The study cites a 2023 population of 105,223. That indicates that the city’s population is currently declining at a rate of -0.92% annually and has decreased by -2.73% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 108,172 in 2020.  The article sites housing affordability as one of the causes for the decline.

A lack of affordable housing directly impacts our local jobs and employers’ ability to retain workers. You may recall from our first blog the case of Bob Smith the firefighter, and his wife Ann, a teaching assistant who live in Sandy Springs. With a family income of about $65,000 per year they were forced to move to another city in order to purchase a single family home that was accessible and affordable with a housing cost of $1,625 per month. Faced with a long commute and additional transportation costs, Bob left his job with the Sandy Springs Fire Department, Ann resigned her position as a teaching assistant and they withdrew their children from the local public school.

The positive economic impact of housing that is affordable across income levels can start a chain reaction for the entire community.  Housing that is affordable helps families and the local government. When we get families into homes that they can afford over the long term, they can contribute to the local economy, they have more expendable funds to spend on food and other consumer goods. They help local businesses because they can afford to eat in restaurants and shop in stores. These transactions fuel community-wide economic growth by bolstering local businesses and the local workforce. This drives community improvements and resources that can benefit everyone.

If we want to reverse the trend Sandy Springs is on and create an environment where people can afford to live, work and stay here in Sandy Springs, then our city leaders must explore using strategies such as the one in the city of Marietta, to provide more affordable housing options for our residents, especially for people who work locally.What do you think? What are some potential solutions that you would want our locally elected officials to consider using to address our city’s housing crisis? Share your ideas, questions and concerns with us by visiting the Sandy Springs Together Facebook page and commenting on our posts. Your voice is needed!