The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill seeks protections for Georgia’s tenants
It doesn’t seem like that high a bar, but legislation introduced this past week would require Georgia landlords to provide rental homes “fit for human habitation.”
Georgia is one of three states that do not specify what conditions make a home habitable. It’s also one of eight states where tenants are not allowed to withhold rent, no matter how bad the living conditions.
Supporters of the legislation, House Bill 404, include Speaker Jon Burns, who credited The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Dangerous Dwellings” series as an inspiration for the measure.
The 18-month investigation found that Georgia’s lack of tenant protections and basic standards allows dangerous apartment complexes to flourish in metro Atlanta.
Out-of-town investors have bought dilapidated apartments, boosted rents and then flipped them for millions of dollars in gains. Meanwhile, residents are living with mold, sewage backups, gunfire, chronic apartment fires and other hazards.
The investigation tied these complexes to at least 281 homicides and 20,000 serious crimes in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties over five years.
But Burns said the problems are not limited to the metro area. Unsafe housing, he said, is a statewide problem.
“There needs to be some commonsense regulations put in place that allow everyone in the state to be safe at home,” he said.
Too much regulation, however, would be detrimental, said the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton.
“You start layering in a bunch of regulation and then rent rates will not decrease,” Carpenter said.
The bill offers protections for both tenants and landlords.
Landlords would have to give tenants who are late on rent three days to make payment before an eviction is filed in court.
They would also be barred from turning off air conditioning to delinquent tenants before evictions are complete. (State law already prevents them from cutting off heat, light or water.)
Security deposits would be capped at three times the amount of monthly rent.
But landlords also would have the power to speed up the eviction process for tenants charged or convicted with certain serious crimes or who have committed a crime that threatens the health and safety of others on the property.
Efforts to strengthen tenant protections have not fared well in the past in the General Assembly.
HB 404, however, has strong support in addition to Burns, including House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, and House Public Health Chair Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta.
An AJC poll in January showed about 90% of respondents said the state should create laws that set minimum living standards for rental properties.