Are you landlord dealing with a tenant who has committed a lease violation?
At Avalon Property Management, we provide a personal service Marietta, Cobb County, and the surrounding areas. Today, we’re talking about the eviction process in Georgia and how to evict a tenant in Georgia when they violate the lease.
At Avalon, an eviction is rare. Since 1991, we have only evicted three tenants in Georgia. It comes down to our process of good tenant screening. When we screen a tenant, we look at the tenant in many ways including their: income, credit, employment, criminal history, and rental history. In particular, if they had any problems paying rent. We make sure there are no previous evictions before we approve a tenant for your rental.
Filing a Dispossessory Action Online
Georgia landlord tenant law dictates that the formal eviction process, known as a dispossessory action, is pretty straightforward. In the areas we serve, we do not need to approach a court clerk, we can file the dispossessory action against the tenant online on behalf of the landlord.
When a tenant is unable to pay rent, we don’t waste time with a verbal notice. We file the action within a few days of them being officially late and have confirmed the unpaid rent. When a tenant does pay rent, the tenant pays the court filing fees and other court costs on top of any rent owed.
Serving the Eviction Notice
Under Georgia eviction laws, once the written notice is filed, the next step to evict the tenant is to have the sheriff give the tenant a written eviction notice. The sheriff puts a Georgia eviction notice on the front door to notify the tenants that the dispossessory action has been filed by the landlord and the tenant notice period to respond is seven days. If the tenant fails in their legal obligation and does not respond, we can get the Writ of Possession from the judge. The Writ of Possession goes beyond the Georgia eviction notice and enables us to take the real estate rental property back and dispense with any belongings we find inside.
Scheduling a Court Date
If the tenants do respond, a date in court is set. The tenant might respond and agree that they owe us the overdue rent, however, Georgia laws state that the response itself triggers the date in court is set. So, depending on the court calendar, a landlord could be waiting between three and six weeks before continuing eviction proceedings.
Once you’re in court, the eviction proceedings are straightforward. If they can’t pay rent that's owed, the court will issue you a Writ of Possession. If it makes sense, we can also agree to a payment plan, called a Consent Decree. If they miss a payment Georgia law dictates that we can get the Writ of Possession right away without having to go back to court. Working out a payment plan is your option as a landlord, not the tenant’s option. We can say yes and work something out or we can say no and get the rental property back.
Eviction Process Exceptions in Georgia
Under Georgia law, the only exception to the eviction lawsuit is when a tenant refuses to pay the rent because the landlord has not made necessary repairs. Perhaps the plumbing is not working and the Georgia landlord has avoided making repairs. The judge may find for the tenant until the repairs are made. At Avalon, we address repairs in a timely manner so we never find ourselves in this situation.
Another exception to the eviction lawsuit is if the tenant files for bankruptcy. In this case, bankruptcy is federal action. We need to wait for the bankruptcy trustee to authorize us to follow through with the eviction hearing.
Bottom Line: The Eviction Process
Eviction is extremely rare when you work with a good real estate property management company because they rarely violate the lease agreement. We file evictions from time to time, but the tenants almost always pay their rent before the court hearing is set. We almost never actually go to court. But when we do, we never have trouble removing the tenant in Georgia.
We do the best we can for landlords, so evictions are rare. As we said, it starts with good tenant screening.
For more information on the state of Georgia's rental eviction process or how to evict a tenant from your property in Georgia, or for any other real estate or lease questions, call us today!
Contact us at Avalon Property Management and find out why 90 percent of our clients are referrals from other landlords. Call 770-971-0025 today!
