Anne Lackey

Often owners ask me "how often do you inspect the interior of the home?" To which I reply - never. At first this disturbs the owner until I explain about the law of quiet enjoyment. Most often this question comes from someone who has lived in the home as a personal resident and not an investor who purchased it as a rental.

So, let me explain the tenant's right to quiet enjoyment. When you receive compensation for someone living in a property, Georgia Law clearly states:

OCG 44-7-1.
(a) The relationship of landlord and tenant is created when the owner of real estate grants to another person, who accepts such grant, the right simply to possess and enjoy the use of such real estate either for a fixed time or at the will of the grantor. In such a case, no estate passes out of the landlord and the tenant has only a usufruct which may not be conveyed except by the landlord's consent and which is not subject to levy and sale.
(b) All renting or leasing of real estate for a period of time less than five years shall be held to convey only the right to possess and enjoy such real estate, to pass no estate out of the landlord, and to give only the usufruct unless the contrary is agreed upon by the parties to the contract and is so stated in the contract.

So what is quiet enjoyment? It is the right of the tenant to possess and enjoy as the tenant deems fit. They have the right to be undisturbed. The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) clearly states in their Georgia Landlord Handbook when discussing right of entry into a property that the law has been interpreted as "If the lease does not state that the landlord can enter the apartment, a tenant could legally refuse the landlord access except in case of an emergency." Now at Solid Source Property Management as well as most leases does state a provision for entry for reasonable timeframes Monday through Saturday with 24 hour written notice.

But here is the bigger issue. What happens if we get inside and find that they aren't maintaining the inside? Maybe they have not cleaned, or maybe they have broken something. What can we legally do? The answer is nothing. They have the right to live in any manner that they seem appropriate.

What I feel is appropriate and what you feel is appropriate is subjective. As long as at the end of the lease term, they return the home in the same condition that it was when they were given possession - less normal wear and tear, they will receive their security deposit back. If they don't leave in a clean rent ready condition, then we by law can deduct the amount to repair from their deposit as compensation to the owner for the damage. If damages exceed the security deposit, then we can pursue them in collections. But really until they move out, we can't do anything.

We have had instances where a tenant lived in a manner that I wouldn't live in, but when they moved out, the property was returned in immaculate condition and received their full security deposit back. This is why it is so important to establish the proper condition of the property at move in with detailed notes and pictures. Then it is really easy to compare the move in and out check sheets and determine the deductions.

So in reality, unless we have cause to believe that there is an unlawful activity or a known lease violation (unauthorized pet for example) in the property, we allow the tenant to have full use of the property without intrusion.

We do perform a quarterly drive by of the property and will notate anything that is not being handled properly which is the lawn maintenance or any infraction of the HOA rules & regulations. Remember however, that owners are responsible for the exterior structure of the house which includes - gutter cleaning, yearly shrubbery maintenance, pine straw/mulch refreshing, pressure washing, etc. These items are not the tenant's responsibility. Tenants only have to maintain the mowing of the lawn and keep the beds free from weeds. Weeds in the lawn are also the owner's responsibility so some owner's elect to pay a weed treatment company to assist in the weed control.

Since the tenant is paying rent, they have rights to the property and these rights must be respected. At Solid Source Property Management, we take great care to act in the best interest of our owners while abiding by the law set forth. We do believe strongly that proper screening typically saves us from a lot of problems in the future.

Atlanta is still growing, in spite of the lagging economy and rising unemployment figures throughout the country. By 2020, Atlanta is expected to be the sixth-largest metro area in the country.

There are many opportunities for businesses and attractions throughout the Metro Atlanta Area. Forbes magazine ranked Atlanta as top among the "Most Wired Cities," and "Best Cities for Singles." Kiplinger magazine placed the city in the No. 1 spot for "Best Cities for Married with Kids."

The cost of living in Atlanta continues to be a draw. Lower costs for major expenses such as housing, food, clothing and gasoline help keep the region's cost of living below the U.S. average. Housing remains more affordable here than in other metro areas, and property tax rates range from 1 percent to 2 percent of home value.

High-tech employment in metro Atlanta is credited for 5.2 percent of total employment, which is more than 130,000 workers. Top technology employers include heavies like IBM Corp., Cox Enterprises Inc., AT&T Inc., and General Electric Co. There is also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that employs more than 6,500 scientists and staff.

It is no surprise that waiting for an eviction has always seemed like a very long time. The tenant is not paying, sheriff service to issue the pay or quit paperwork takes weeks, then to wait for the tenant to respond is another week, to set a court appearance and finally get on the schedule for the sheriff to show up to keep the peace while the tenant's belongings are removed takes another 2-4 weeks. This process used to take 30-45 days and now over the past year, we have seen that time expand to an average of 60 days.

Last week, we received some very disturbing information that translates into even longer time frames for evictions. With all the budget constraints, the county has shared that they are no longer allowing eviction companies to reserve a sheriff for a day per week to handle their clients' eviction. This was significantly decreasing the already lengthy process as we were able to take advantage of the eviction company planning the most effective route for their clients to get the job done.

With this new development, we will be in line with everyone else meaning that there will be less efficient routes and a first come first serve basis which will result in longer eviction timeframes. We are supporting the eviction company's stance that this is not a good thing and will only hurt more than help.

In the past year and a half, evictions have increased dramatically. The foreclosure evictions are lumped in with our non-paying tenant evictions. With foreclosures rising to astronomical numbers, this is only crowding an already stretched sheriff service. With Gwinnett County running out of budget, we have been told that there will be no overtime that can be spent. So what does that mean for us as landlords? We are stuck waiting for the process.

At Solid Source Property Management, we are considering a wide variety of options to shorten this process. We are guiding our clients through the eviction process with the best information possible available at the time. While we statistically have very few evictions due to proactive screening, there is little we can do to foresee the loss of a job, a medical issue, or death. We work very hard to maintain a professional working relationship with the tenant throughout the whole process.

To read some good news - read Mark's remarks about New Construction sited in Forsyth County.

A lot of owners are concerned about having pets in their property. So I wanted to discuss the pros and cons of accepting pets in an effort to help owners make educated choices. The biggest concern with pets is of course pet damage.

This month, we are transitioning to new property management software. This transition has allowed us to examine our base of business and to help us better serve our clients and tenants. What I found as part of our analysis was that 30% of our tenant base has at least one pet. Some actually have multiple pets.

So what does that mean to you? First, if you are an owner of investment property and don't want to accept pets, you are significantly reducing the number of tenants that will want to rent your place which will result in longer vacancies.

So what is a landlord to do? We encourage all of our owners to accept pets with conditions. It has been our experience that if you do not allow pets, the responsible pet owners will go elsewhere and you will still end up with unauthorized pets for those tenants who are dishonest. Unauthorized pets create more damage and are a bigger liability.

There are certain pets that due to insurance requirements, we cannot accept. Those are the vicious breeds - Alaskan Malamutes, Akitas, Chow Chows, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherds, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or Siberian Huskies. The interesting thing is that people who have these breeds are appalled that we don't accept them. While we are sure that there are many dogs in those breeds that are fine, there are a greater number that have caused problems and our insurance would not cover us should a problem arise.

Responsible pet owners are happy to pay a pet deposit. We recommend charging a non-refundable portion for the privilege of having a pet and returning the rest provided that the lease was honored and there were no damages.

We have all our residents sign a pet policy even if they don't have a pet, so that everyone knows exactly what our pet terms are. It also shares with them the consequences of having an unauthorized pet. We find this comes in handy from time to time.

We charge based on the weight of the animal the heavier the breed, the more the deposit. Also, we take into consideration the type of dog as some dogs are notorious chewers while others are just helping keep their owner's lap warm.

We love our pets and understand that others do too. I hope that this has helped take the fear out of accepting pets in your rental property.

As a professional property manager, we work with a wide variety of properties and owners. Some of our owners are local, but most are out of state or out of country. It seems to me the biggest complaints that we receive in our industry revolves around repairs. Owners don't understand why they have to be responsible for maintaining their own property when someone else is living in the property.

So I wanted to share with you why owners need to perform the repairs and some things to be aware of. The number one reason that an owner needs to repair the property is because it is the law here in Georgia and I would assume in other states as well. Section 44-7-13 of the State of Georgia Landlord Tenant Law Official Code clearly states "The landlord must keep the premises in repair. He shall be liable for all substantial improvements placed upon the premises by his consent."

In Georgia, the only issues I have ever seen a tenant win in a legal case were when the owner did not make repairs in a timely or professional manner. The law provides a provision for the tenant to withhold their rent in lieu of repairs if the repairs are not done. Other than repairs, there is not another reason a tenant has for not paying their rent. So why would an owner want to open themselves up to litigation and not perform the repair?

I suppose it comes down to cost. I find it funny when I speak with owners and ask them if they would want to pay to live in a property where the sink constantly drips, or the stove doesn't work, or the HVAC isn't cooling properly and they reply of course not, but some expect their tenants to. The owners don't realize that they are getting the advantage of the repair? The get the tax benefits from the property, they get the appreciation of the property, they may get the principal pay down and they may be making cash flow depending on their loan. So they reap all of these benefits. But they don't want to maintain the property.

Most property management companies like ours buy in bulk, that means that we get better service and better pricing that a typical individual would get. We do charge a fee to perform the repair or coordinate the request if not done by the in house maintenance staff. Yet, even then we are significantly cheaper on most items and yet the owners still complain.

What they don't understand is that we hire professionals who have their own insurance, liability coverage, workman's compensation, and are screened. We do this to protect our owners as well as our company. So yes, we may be more expensive that their brother Bob, but overall, we save them time and money.

In addition, when a tenant doesn't have all the services of the home working properly, they could sue for a portion of the rent as credit since they didn't have full enjoyment of the home. In today's market, losing a good tenant due to non performance of repairs could cost an owner several thousands of dollars in vacancies and turn key. Why not treat them fairly and encourage them to stay- the owner will make a lot more money in the long run by taking care of a tenant.