No home for the holidays

ALBANY — The holidays are traditionally a time for visiting the homes of friends and family. However, Dougherty County law librarians say they see cases where renters face eviction after bringing repair needs to their landlord’s attention, leaving them with no home for the holidays.

“When it gets colder around the holidays (and) Christmas time, (people) will come in, and they’ll say they’ve just been evicted,” Legal Navigator Nancy Long said. “A lot of it is the elderly and the disabled. The elderly and the disabled are at a greater disadvantage because, many times, they can’t just up and go, and they don’t have the transportation to go.”

Long said that, around this season, there are “a good 75-100 cases that do actually come into the Law Library.” If someone is looking for legal information — not legal advice — the law librarians have a landlord-tenant handbook both at the law library and online on their website at dougherty.ga.us/lawlibrary.

Dougherty County Law Library repair process

The law librarians provided a process to help tenants resolve repair issues in their apartment or home:

— The repair is needed in a rental property.

— The tenant can write a letter to their landlord describing the problem. The Georgia Department of Law’s Consumer Protection Division has a sample letter of complaint to a business that can apply to tenants. The law library also has examples of letters.

— The tenant can take the letter to a post office and get it certified with signature confirmation. “That way (the landlord) has to sign whenever they get it, and that shows that they received the letter,” said Legal Navigator Michelle Lawson.

According to the USPS website, signature confirmation costs $3 at a post office and $2.55 if paid online.

— After the letter’s been sent, the tenant must give the property owner a reasonable amount of time to respond.

“Depending on the problem, what’s a reasonable amount of time to wait for the landlord to respond?” Long said. “Some landlords will respond with an eviction notice. Other landlords will say, ‘I’m not fixing it.’ Some landlords will say, ‘Okay, you’ve got water leaking into your electric socket. I’ll be there within a couple hours.’ Be reasonable. Some landlords have outside jobs, and they have to work.”

— Long said that if the landlord doesn’t want to fix the problem, the tenant can hire a licensed repairman to fix it. The tenant then has to present a receipt for the services to the landlord and have that amount deducted from the next rent payment. A tenant’s intention to repair and deduct can be stated in the initial letter to the property owner.

However, Long mentioned that “a lot of contractors will not touch a property if it’s not your property,” which presents a hurdle to the repair-and-deduct strategy.

— “After (a repair-and-deduct), it depends on what the landlord says and what the landlord does,” Long said. “If they get an eviction notice, the first thing they’ve got to do is come up to the law library within seven days — not on the seventh day at 4:30 (p.m.) and expect us to help them. They have seven days to answer that, and that includes Saturday and Sunday.”

Dougherty County Law Library Director Laureen Kelly said filing an answer is what gives renters a right to a hearing in Magistrate Court.

One misconception the law librarians say some people believe is that tenants can stop paying rent if repairs aren’t made. “You can’t withhold rent,” Long said. “People think that you can withhold the rent if the landlord doesn’t repair. You can’t do that. You can repair-and-deduct, but you can’t withhold the rent.”

As a way to possibly avoid issues with repairs in the first place, the law librarians recommend that people not sign a lease if there’s property damage.

“One of the things we always tell people is that when you (rent) an apartment or a house, or you’re buying a house, go through that apartment or rental with a fine-toothed comb,” Long said. “Before you sign the lease, if you decide that that’s the apartment you want, go through it again before you sign the lease in front of the landlord. Make a list as you’re going of everything that’s wrong and hand the landlord a certified copy of what’s going on with it. That’s what you need to do.”

If there are still issues with the property, Long said tenants can keep sending certified letters to the landlord every few months detailing what remains to be fixed.

“You have a lot of good landlords, but the landlord can’t do anything unless you tell them,” Long said. “And you have to tell them in writing.”

Landlord retaliation

Long mentioned that if a property owner responds to the need for repairs by raising the rent, the landlord has to give the tenant 60 days’ notice before doing so.

Additionally, Long said that some property owners try to evict tenants after renters call the local Code Enforcement Department. “The big thing is, when they call Code Enforcement, it really ticks the landlords off,” Long said. “Code Enforcement goes out there and notifies the landlord; then the landlord gives them an eviction notice. That’s been going on a long time. It’s intensified since the storm, and it’s gotten colder.”

Code Enforcement

Planning and Code Program Specialist Angel Gray said the Albany Code Enforcement Department only ensures structures are habitable and checks someone’s living standards against local codes of ordinances.

“We only deal with — like the Law Library explained — the municipal codes based on property maintenance issues where a tenant contacts Code Enforcement with repairs that have needed to be done, such as something along the lines of a plumbing issue, electrical issue, maybe even some structural issues,” Gray said. “Code Enforcement goes in, does an inspection and then notifies the landlord that repairs should be made.

“We do not get involved with eviction cases unless we are subpoenaed to court to testify on our inspections, what areas we find as far as issues with structure … and health and sanitary issues for habitable space,” Gray continued. “We don’t get involved with an eviction per se. If (tenants) face an eviction and they call because of an eviction, we don’t get into that part. We get into the part of inspecting the property for code violations.”

Gray said inspections occur after the department receives a complaint from a tenant who’s being affected by a code violation, someone who visited the property and noted sub-par living conditions, or anonymous complainants. After the complaint is processed, Gray said the department will make an appointment with the tenant to inspect the property based on the complaint.

As far as if the holiday season affects complaint cases, Gray said she saw no connection between the two. Gray noted, however, that it’s the kind of complaints coming in that change.

“I would say that, in the winter months or the colder spells, the complaint would be on heating,” the program specialist said. “Some of it is landlords needing to repair the source of heat, and then some is the tenant has done something or has shut off the heat or had their heat cut off not realizing that you’re needing the heat. I wouldn’t say that it was the holidays bringing about more complaints.”

How code enforcement handles landlord/tenant issues

1. A complaint is filed with the department. Within 24 hours, an inspector is assigned the case.

2. An inspection is normally scheduled within two days of the complaint and at the tenant/occupant’s convenience.

3. During the call to schedule an inspection, tenants/occupants are asked if they have communicated all complaints with the landlord.

4. An inspection is performed. Inspections are done based on property maintenance codes and standard housing codes. Inspectors assess if the structure is safe and sanitary. Where the inspector finds code violations, they proceed to enforce the codes by notifying the owners and other interested parties.

5. A notice to the owner or property managers outlining the conditions/code violations found and a timeframe for compliance is outlined in the notice.

6. Tenants are educated on any portions of the property maintenance issues that would be their responsibilities: extermination (unless a contract is written that the landlord provides extermination), maintaining utilities, cutting the grass, removing any inoperable or junked vehicles and trash disposal/container requirements, among other responsibilities.

7. Notices are sent by certified mail and regular post. In the event there is a management company locally responsible, the inspector may place a call to discuss the issues and then follow up with a notice of violations and what is discussed for remedy.

“Part of an encouragement to all (Code Enforcement) officers and inspectors is to send both a certified letter and a regular post,” Gray said. “That way, if the certified (letter) is returned unclaimed but the regular post is not, that’s good evidence that they’ve received the notice. … If (the tenant) would like to, they can always put in what day they’re going to forward (the letter) over to code enforcement if (repairs are) not done. Always make sure that you can show that you served a notice and the notice was received in a timely manner.”

8. It is through follow-up inspections and consultations with tenants and/or landlords that time frames vary for full compliance.

“Tenants are encouraged to document, photograph and make sure that whenever they are submitting their complaints, that we’re getting a very good idea of what’s going on, and that they have done all that they can do to work with the landlords so that the case progresses faster for them to get repairs done,” Gray said.

Both Albany and Dougherty County’s codes of ordinances can be found in the Library section of the Library.Municode.com website. The Dougherty County Law Library is located at 225 Pine Ave.