Common sense and common ground: H.B. 408 makes sense for both tenants and landlords

By Cole Thaler, Co-Director of Safe & Stable Homes Project, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation

Alima set the dinner plates on the table with a heavy sigh. Her seven-year-old son dug in, chewing macaroni with his mouth open while telling her about his latest video game obsession. Alima listened and tried to eat, but she was too nervous to be hungry. She picked at her food, remembering yesterday’s phone conversation with her landlord.

Alima had told Mr. Tom that she lost her waitressing job when the restaurant shut down due to COVID-19. Since then, she’d picked up a few side gigs here and there – cleaning houses, babysitting. Unemployment checks helped cover the rent, but the checks had stopped coming. And she was now three weeks behind on February’s rent.

She explained to Mr. Tom that her tax refund was on its way, and so was her stimulus check – so she was good for the rent money, plus the late fee.  But Mr. Tom didn’t want to hear it. He called her a freeloader and hung up on her. She was afraid of what would happen next.

Suddenly, Alima’s worried thoughts were interrupted by a hard knock at her front door. Before she could say anything, her son jumped out of his chair and ran to the door, throwing it open.

Mr. Tom stood there, glowering. “Alima, I’ve had enough,” he said. “I’m terminating your lease. You have to be out in 48 hours, or I’m evicting you.”

Alima couldn’t breathe. She had nowhere to go, no money to move. And only 48 hours to get out – or she would have an eviction filing on her record! She knew that would make it even harder to find a new rental. The next morning, she called Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and asked our intake worker one question: This can’t be legal…right?

Unfortunately, Alima’s landlord was acting within his rights as a Georgia landlord. Before filing an eviction in court, Georgia landlords must satisfy only one prerequisite: they must make a demand for possession. But the demand for possession can be oral – it does not need to be in writing — leaving room for disputes over whether the demand was proper or effective. And landlords are free to insist that their tenants move out in five days, three days, or even sooner after the demand is made.

After an eviction for non-payment of rent is filed in court, existing Georgia law allows tenants seven days to pay the landlord the past-due rent and court costs. If the tenant is able to catch up in this manner, the court will dismiss the eviction case. But by that point, the damage is done: with a fresh eviction filing on her record, the tenant will have a hard time persuading potential future landlords to ignore the background check and rent to her anyway. Landlords are free to deny housing to tenants with eviction histories – even if the tenant prevailed in court.

Georgia’s existing demand for possession law is problematic for landlords, too. Without any guidance or requirements about what constitutes a proper demand for possession, landlords like Mr. Tom who demand possession in person or over the phone may have a difficult time proving that they complied with that legal requirement. AVLF attorneys have won many eviction hearings by proving that landlords did not provide legally sufficient demands for possession. Clear, specific, and simple rules – like the ones that apply to eviction cases themselves – would eliminate the ample room for ambiguity that currently exists.

House Bill 408, currently pending in the Georgia legislature, would tie up these loopholes and solve the numerous problems that Georgia’s current demand for possession law creates for both landlords and tenants. First, the bill would require demands for possession to be in writing, and specifies the content of the notice, allowing landlords to be confident that they are in compliance. Next, the bill would require landlords to give tenants a minimum of seven days before they could file an eviction in court.  This would prevent tenants like Alima from facing an impossible task – move out in mere hours – but would also keep the eviction process moving rapidly forward, without unreasonable delays. Finally, the bill would give tenants the right – prior to the eviction filing – to cure their lease violation by catching up on rent or otherwise addressing the problem. This provision spares landlords from paying court filing and service fees, and gives tenants the opportunity to preserve their housing without being saddled with an eviction filing and the serious consequences it brings.

These simple and common-sense fixes are not cutting-edge innovations in housing law. To the contrary, 40 other states already have similar provisions, providing clear instructions and time frames to landlords and tenants alike. It is time for Georgia to join them by passing House Bill 408.