Facing eviction in Georgia? Here’s everything you need to know about tenant rights
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a federal eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic that ends on July 31. Despite the moratorium, over 3000 evictions have been filed in Columbus this year, and local advocates urge more access to education and resources around the eviction process.
“Tenants do have rights,” said Molly Sutter, a staff attorney for the Georgia Legal Services Program. “But the law in general favors the landlord.”
For 15 years, she’s been working with the nonprofit to provide free civil legal services to low-income Columbus residents.
The Ledger-Enquirer spoke with Sutter to find out what residents who may be facing eviction need to know about the legal processes. Answers may have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What is a dispossessory action, and how do you answer it?
A: A dispossessory action is basically the legal term for an eviction action. It’s different from getting a letter from your landlord saying “I want you to move out.” You’re only going to get a dispossessory action when it’s an actual legal action against you.
It is a civil action, so you’re not going to get thrown in jail for filing an answer or anything like that, but you’ve got seven days from the date you’re served.
Go to the Government Center and go to the eighth floor — the clerk’s office for both magistrate and municipal court are on the eighth floor — and say, “I’ve been served with a dispossessory, I need to file my answer.”
They’ve got forms, and there’s lots of different boxes to check off. One of them is, “I didn’t pay my landlord the rent because I didn’t have the money.” There’s also a lot of other reasons like “this person is not my landlord” or “they didn’t make repairs.”
Sometimes people just write a letter saying, “This is why I shouldn’t be evicted.” And that is also acceptable as an answer.
Q: How are tenants notified about the dispossessory action?
A: People think that it’s like anything else — like if they got served custody papers, divorce papers, or they owe a debt. They think that they have to be handed the paperwork, but a big difference with dispossessory is that law enforcement can and, often does, serve it by tacking mail. What that means is they stick a copy to your door and a copy in your mailbox, and they may never see you.
In other civil cases they’ve got to hand it to you or hand it to another member of your household, but that’s not the case in dispossessory.
So that’s one big, big thing. Sometimes people might be out of town or they’re in the hospital, and they can still get served with a dispossessory.
Q: Why might a tenant get evicted?
A: There’s three different reasons you can get evicted. Number one, and of course the most common, is non-payment of rent.
The second reason is if you violate your lease. Let’s just say for instance, you can’t have anyone living there who is not on the lease agreement, and (the landlord) finds out that somebody is living there who you haven’t cleared with management. In that case, they have to follow whatever’s in their lease to terminate the lease. Usually that involves sending a letter, and saying you’ve got 30 days or 60 days to get out.
The third reason is if you stay past your lease, and your landlord lets you know that they’re not going to renew it. Now a lot of folks don’t have a written lease agreement, they may just have an understanding with their landlord — “I live here. I pay you money every month.”
That’s called a tenancy at-will, and the landlord has to say in writing that you’ve got 60 days to move out. And the tenant has to get that notice and know when the deadline is going to be.
Q: What happens after answering the dispossessory action?
A: Magistrate court tends to schedule the hearings pretty quickly. It used to be within a week of you filing your answer. Now it’s a little more time.
Now in municipal court, your landlord can actually file a motion to ask that your rent be paid into court. That is not the trial. That’s before the trial, where the only thing that’s going to come up is how much rent do you owe and what’s your rent going forward. So, if you don’t have the money, that’s where your case is going to end.
So, it’s a little different depending on what court you’re in because the procedure is different.
Q: Are landlords required to notify tenants of eviction?
A: If it is a lease violation or your lease is just over, your landlord’s got to notify you before they go file a court action. But non-payment, they don’t have to send you a letter. That’s a pretty common misconception.
And a lot of people also think that they’ve got a clear road to pay if they pay the late fee on top. But after rent is late, your landlord can turn your rent down, refuse the late fee, and go ahead and file.
Q: What if I don’t have the money to get caught up on rent?
A: The judge doesn’t have the authority to tell the landlord and the tenant to try to work something out.
Now sometimes, by the time the hearing comes up, the tenant does have the money. (Our judge) likes to see things work out because it’s obviously bad for a tenant to get evicted, and it’s also bad for the landlord because then they have to go and do all the things landlords have to do to get it ready to rent again. I’ve seen landlords and tenants in the hallway trying to work out some kind of payment plan.
But if the tenant doesn’t have it — and they may have a very good reason — it’s not a legal defense.
So the judge is going to have to issue the writ of possession to the landlord at that point, which means that the landlord can schedule a set out with law enforcement.
Q: Should I withhold rent because of problems with the unit?
A: First of all, withholding the rent is never a good option.
I guess it makes sense in a way, right? It’s part of Georgia law that a landlord has to make necessary repairs. A tenant might think, “The landlord’s not doing his job or her job so I’m not going to do my job.”
(Withholding rent) is not a good idea because it puts the tenant in a position where they’re going to be defending a dispossessory for non-payment of rent. So, even if your landlord is not fixing things, you’ve got to keep paying your rent.
What they can do is make their repair requests in writing, calling the office and telling the landlord when they see them. You have got to have some proof that you requested repairs. They have to give the landlord what’s called a reasonable amount of time to make repairs. We don’t know what that means. It’s different for everything. It depends on the severity of the issue what a reasonable amount of time is in Georgia law.
You can call inspections and code, and have them come out and do an inspection, and then they’ll follow their procedure to possibly cite the landlord for different code violations.
You can contact somebody to come make the repair for you. If that’s what you’re gonna do, you need to let your landlord know that you’re planning on hiring someone to get it fixed and deducting that from your rent. And you want to make sure that you use somebody who’s licensed.
You can file a lawsuit against your landlord and say you want some of your rent money because this property isn’t worth what you’re paying for it.
Q: What should people who got their evictions held due to the CDC moratorium expect after July 31?
A: It depends on wherever you are in the process. If your landlord hasn’t filed, expect them to file. If a trial was put on hold, expect that trial to be scheduled. If they can schedule a set out and the CDC order was the only thing holding that up, then they can schedule a set out the day after the 31st.
