Georgia is poised to become one of the last states in the nation to enact a law requiring rental housing to be “fit for human habitation” — but House Bill 404 still leaves up for interpretation what makes a place livable.
The state Senate on March 22 finally passed the “Safe at Home Act,” after the House unanimously okayed it last year. The bipartisan legislation to establishes a baseline for housing habitability, gives tenants a three-day grace period to pay back rent before their landlords can file an eviction, and limits the amount landlords can charge for security deposits to two months’ rent.
Since the Senate passed a mildly amended version of the bill, the House still must sign off on the changes. That’s expected to happen this week, before the legislative session ends on March 28.
Housing advocates have hailed the Safe at Home Act as an important step toward strengthening Georgia’s inadequate tenant protections — but they’ve also criticized it as lacking the teeth needed to level the playing field between renters and landlords.
“Certainly we are excited that finally baby steps are being taken to protect renters,” said Housing Justice League executive director Alison Johnson. “However, if renters are going to be protected, the state must move to have meaningful measures with accountability.”
The legislation notably neglects to spell out what makes a dwelling “fit for human habitation,” which Johnson and other housing advocates say indicates a reticence among the landlord-friendly legislature to effectively regulate the rental market.
The bill’s Republican and Democratic backers, however, contend that its language better equips tenants to take their landlord to court over substandard housing conditions and get reimbursed for repairs if a landlord ignores maintenance requests. Currently, Georgia law does not allow tenants to withhold rent over needed repairs, but it does allow them to pay for repairs that a landlord fails to make and deduct the cost from their rent.
Despite tenant advocates’ criticism that HB 404 lacks clarity and accountability mechanisms, the Atlanta Apartment Association — which represents companies managing over 390,000 apartments — has said the legislation is fine as is.
“The association was happy to work with stakeholders on HB 404 last year, and we remain unopposed to the bill in its current form,” the organization’s spokesperson, Chelsea Juras, told Atlanta Civic Circle in February.
Natallie Keiser, the head of local advocacy coalition HouseATL, called the Safe at Home Act’s passage long overdue, even if the latest version of the legislation leaves much to be desired.
“We are thrilled that, after years of work by many organizations, we are finally seeing the opportunity for a modest, but critical, increase in tenant protections,” Keiser said in an email. “At a time when renters have few choices due to limited affordable housing supply relative to demand, renters are particularly vulnerable to bad actor landlords.”
Likewise, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF) executive director Michael Lucas said HB 404 “gets us that much closer to our goal of giving tenants and advocates more tools to insist on safe and stable housing,” but the new law alone won’t be enough to stop landlords from neglecting and exploiting lower-income renters.
“Tenants need better access to legal services in order to enforce these hard-fought rights, municipalities need to put more resources and political will behind holding bad actors to these standards, and community partners like AVLF need to continue representing tenants in our neighborhoods and supporting changes to these policies,” Lucas told Atlanta Civic Circle.
“We look forward to celebrating its passage, as it will indeed be a hard-fought victory, and we must stay focused on the work that is still ahead,” he added.
To effectively confront the housing crisis, the state must do more than just require safe housing, said Johnson, of the Housing Justice League. Georgia lawmakers also need to ensure units stay affordable to middle- and low-income renters.
Rent regulation measures, which limit the annual rate at which landlords can hike rents, would go a long way toward doing that, she said.
“We can’t continue to work three jobs and still not afford the rents,” Johnson said. “We are still paying rents to landlords that don’t take care of their property — and because [HB 404] lacks a definition of “habitability,” landlords will still be able to provide the bare minimum.”
However, state law currently prohibits local governments from enacting policies to regulate private landlords’ pricing practices, and bills to repeal the so-called “rent control ban” consistently fail in the legislature.
They need to do something beside let NRA continue to put money in their pocket. They rather vote on them keeping their guns than voting on affordable housing and bad landlords. IT not fair that they can hike up rent just because they want to.
Some of these so callled rental agencies are just as bad as the private Landlords. Taking advantage of all renters no just low income. I would like to see them being held accountable for the way they treat their tennants. STOP LETTING THESE PEOPLE DO WHAT EVER THEY WANT!
The indoor air quality is linked to every major chronic disease we have including cardio-vascular, neurological, diabetes, respiratory, and some cancers. It is time we have building codes that enable the HVAC systems to remove respirable particulate, control microbial growth with humidity control, and provide conditioned ventilation to dilute gaseous chemicals.
How can property managers change rent invoicing without explanation.
Once a lease is signed and the keys are received can the landlord demand the back and say the lease is canceled the following day?
The Safe at Home Act does not address parking lot safety. I live in a very large apartment complex. The speed bumps are worn down or missing; street signs are missing, and people “floor it” through the parking lot. It’s just a matter of time before someone is killed. Landlords need to be forced to maintain their parking lots.