Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

Withholding rent due to lack of repairs-more specific!

I have been renting from my agency for 9 months now and have never been late on rent and have never been a nuisance. The house is quite old and I have requested repairs throughout the year in writing (which I still have records of). The property manager did send out maintenance crews to fix the small problems but they never fixed the more important ones. I said the downstairs room was flooding and creating mildew that was affecting my allergies. The moisture downstairs started to deteriorate the door to the outside and it was falling apart. I mentioned how we could no longer use the door and that it needed to be replaced because it was a security issue. In my last request for repairs I mentioned that I would withhold my rent check until the repairs were made. Once the repairs were made I sent in the check. They told me that they put a $95 late fee on my bill and that they filed a dispossesory afidavit with the court. I now have to pay a fee to have that removed but it will supposedly still be on my record even though I am not at fault. They say that I was legally not allowed to withhold my rent in lieu of repairs. Was I allowed to or not?


Asked on 9/18/03, 12:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Harold Holcombe Harold D. Holcombe, P.C.

Re: Withholding rent due to lack of repairs-more specific!

Georgia Law favors the Landlord generally, and is no exception in this case. Most of the time it's due to the fact that the landlord prepares the lease and the tenant simply signs it without legal advice. In certain, very specific situations, you can withhold rent and have the repairs made with the money. It appears here that you did not make the repairs but simply withheld rent. There's also the issue of whether the landlord "did" something or if the premises were in substantially the same condition when you rented the property. In any event, the first requirement is that you give notice (and you must be able to prove it) and that the premises were "untenantable" not just uncomfortable. It is clear that you have been denied some enjoyment of the property and the issue with the door and the mildew seems to be a factual issue that a judge or jury might have to decide. If you can get an expert to agree that the mildew is posing a health problem and a security expert to agree that the door is a security issue then you might be able to withhold rent, then present your case to the judge during the dispossessory hearing. It might have been to your advantage to attend court and present photographs and other evidence to the judge in hopes that he would force the landlord to correct situation. You're rolling the dice though and might be put on the street. Moisture problems are very difficult to fix. If you can find a friend in the construction business who can give you some estimates on the repairs then you could confront the landlord with a certified letter demanding that they be fixed and enclose a copy of the estimate. If he refuses or ignores you then you could have them fixed yourself, then when your lease terminates move out and file an action against the Landlord to recover your costs based on the experts that will back your story up. Be sure to read your lease carefully and see if there's anything else you might be able to do. And lastly, you could file an action in small claims court to try to force the landlord to repair the premises, but again you must have good collaboration from other impartial witnesses. If you anticipate an action, be sure to keep a daily log of problems, phone calls, resolutions, and also take a lot of pictures. It's not enough just to prove someone did something wrong, you also have to prove damages.

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Answered on 9/18/03, 3:39 pm


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