A bill empowering hotel managers to more easily evict long-term guests sputtered out in the Georgia House before Crossover Day — but the substance of House Bill 183 has risen from the grave, its appendages transplanted into an unrelated proposal (House Bill 61) that still has a shot at crossing the General Assembly’s finish line.
The original version of HB 61, which passed the House by 165-0 on Feb. 11, authorizes the state to issue a $20 license tag fee and special plates for hearses and ambulances. But a proposed substitute version — a so-called “Frankenstein bill” introduced during a Senate Public Safety Committee meeting on Wednesday — would replace the vehicle-license language with provisions from the stalled HB 183.
The prospective substitute of HB 61 says that anyone committing the misdemeanor of “unlawful squatting” — staying in a house, apartment, hotel, or vehicle without express permission — “shall be subject to removal” by law enforcement officers within 10 days of being notified via legal affidavit by the property owner, legal occupant, or landlord.
For extended-stay hotel occupants, that removal process could be triggered if a person falls behind on payments for a stay or overstays their contractual welcome, assuming they’ve signed an innkeeper-guest agreement specifying a specific time period for their occupancy.
HB 61’s proposed new language also says that innkeepers and police aren’t liable for any damage or loss to an alleged squatter’s belongings — and that the lawful proprietor of a residence or hotel may personally detain the alleged squatter.
“A private person may detain an individual if such private person […] has reasonable grounds to believe that the individual sought to be detained has committed or attempted to commit the offense of criminal trespass […] or unlawful squatting,” it reads.
The proposed anti-squatting amendment’s Republican sponsors argue the overhauled legislation is needed to combat what they say is a scourge of squatting across Georgia. It would grant hotel and motel proprietors broad authority to remove guests and withhold their belongings unless they pay for their accommodations.
However, affordable housing advocates warn that the proposed substitute bill is a thinly veiled effort to strip long-term hotel residents — who often have nowhere else to go — of their rights as tenants. More than 25,000 metro Atlantans have made extended-stay hotels their permanent residences, due to financial barriers or an eviction on their credit record that prevents them from securing traditional leases, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In June 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a long-term hotel stay could, in some circumstances, constitute a landlord-tenant relationship between a hotel proprietor and a paying guest. In certain cases — such as when a guest receives mail or has their children picked up by a school bus at the hotel — innkeepers could be obligated to follow the state’s standard eviction process before locking guests out of rooms.
The new language proposed for substitution into HB 61 would effectively nullify that ruling, said Lindsey Siegel, a former eviction-defense lawyer for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. It would also do away with protections for hotel occupants established by last year’s House Bill 1017, which afforded some accused squatters a court hearing to argue for their right to reside at a property.
“A lot of these extended-stays are voluntarily allowing families to live there for years, and it would create a humanitarian crisis to essentially say that those families get absolutely no notice before they’re put on the curb,” she said during the committee hearing. “Innkeepers will abuse this measure.”
Innkeepers already have disproportionate influence over hotel and motel guests, since the state Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling doesn’t explicitly recognize long-term residents as tenants. Instead, it leaves that distinction to a judge’s discretion. That means a person whose tenancy is in dispute needs access to a lawyer to argue that they’re renters, and not mere guests, to avoid being ejected from their de facto home.
But sponsors and supporters of the proposed substitute to HB 61 insisted at the March 19 senate hearing that innkeepers should be able to circumvent the traditional eviction process, which they say can take over a year: “A hotel or a motel is not an apartment or a house,” Sen. Devan Seabaugh (R-Marietta) said at the hearing.
“In just one quick [statewide] survey, we found 3,500 instances where individuals refused to pay and refused to leave [hotels], simply because they’re claiming tenant rights,” added Chris Hardman, a lobbyist for the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association. “Law enforcement has let us know that the law is not currently clear, so they’re having to go through the eviction process, which sometimes takes 15 months.”
However, most evictions in Georgia, one of the nation’s most landlord-friendly states, are carried out within a few weeks from when landlords notify tenants that they’re behind on payments and at risk of displacement — and file an eviction notice.
Eviction cases only take longer than that if a renter has access to an eviction-defense attorney, according to Atlanta Legal Aid. And while almost all landlords are represented by a lawyer in landlord-tenant disputes, roughly 90% of tenants are not.
The Senate’s Public Safety Committee could vote as soon as Monday on whether to amend HB 61 via substitute and move the legislation toward a full-Senate vote. If the substitute version passes the Senate, it must return to the House for further possible amendments and a final floor vote.
The common work around for motel owners is to have the occupant move different rooms every 25 days so as to not establish residency. I understand its difficult times but motels are not apartments or houses. People need to start living inter generational again. Grand pa and ma stay home to watch kid until pre k and they are looked after by the younger adults. Most not native people who immigrate do-it sets them up for less financial burden.
They are not apartments or houses, but when the lack of housing options is a significant issue in Atlanta and the rest of the state, it is confounding that the General Assembly would seek to exacerbate that issue by making an existing form of housing less stable. Extended stay motels are a vital resource for people who struggle to secure the types of housing that you might approve of. Intergenerational living is a great option for many people, but it is not a solution to the broader housing crisis.
Giving any Establishment at Whim Indiscretion over any Standard Commerce Interaction whether contractional or other is an abhorrent course of conduct leaving room for unchecked Biases, inept interpretations, dysfunctional Financial Holds, Falsehoods, Diminishing Factors attributed leisure and enjoyment or quiet and enjoyment, burdens surrounding Ousting etc and the list goes on. I’m aware few people seem to have the capacity to conceptualize the overall viewpoint from the common sense understanding surrounding Good Governance/Business let alone considering In Good faith understandings or the overall Lack Of Customer Advocacy for those who have honored their side of the contractual agreement(s) Via simple commerce Law I.e payment for goods in services exchanged and the accompanying respect factor and consideration that should exist there Yet it appears based on ur inept viewpoint to include the Lack of the aforementioned municipal structure actually existing (Customer Advocacy Department state sanctioned) These issues remain unresolved especially the Burdensome disregard of Quality customer service and care.
This isn’t even covering the Safety issues that current stances written or unwritten incentivize or the Basic legally backed Theft that can occur under the guise of a business ethos leading to poorly trained staff, employees or unfit Management galvanizing behind Weaponized Trespass or any other lack of present structure checks and balances all geared towards slighting customers or endangering them by way of circumstantial mishandling the fact idiots are expressly honing in offhand abduction methods, ousting and the illegal detainment of someone’s personal property by way of a Business speaks volumes of the trash speaking on these matters to include those behind policy and Law.
Not Only should the terms of residency be established at the set point of paying for said days leading into residency the other issues I spoke on need to be addressed in enforceable legislation. (HuD, FTC,USDCH,CPD, environmental, nor Department of Justice handle address immediate action needed regarding enforcing said good faith nor Corporate inaction or interpersonal Management conflict scenarios) all which erode trust and accountability to include Basic understandings surrounding Commerce and exchange.
It all about tax revenue. This law is designed to allow landlords to unlawfully evict long term extended stay residents who complain about the unlawful collection of tax revenue. In Decatu Ga, Metro Extended Stay Hotel knowingly executes contracts with have no termination date, in order to subject local residents to a fraudulent tax collection scheme, designed to perpetually collect taxes in violation of O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51(h)(4), O.C.G.A. § 48-13-50.3(a) (1), (b) (3), and Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 560-13-2-.01 State Hotel-Motel Fee (2)(a),(8)(a)(b)(c)(d) ) Under these codes no hotel taxes are to levied against extended stay residents, and yet this is exactly what is happening at this complex in violation of Chapter 24 Taxation, Article V. HOTEL OCCUPANCY TAX, Section 24-83 Exemptions. Residents are being given open ended contracts as bait, to lure them into an unlawful tax collection racket which is designed to steal rental payments as bona fide tax revenue. Every 179 tenants are unknowingly being recycled through their software platform to make it appear that they have vacated and returned to the complex, when they in fact have maintained continuous occupancy for a number of years. Whenever a tenant complains, they are then targeted for eviction. It appears and it is believed that this unlawful tax collection scheme is being conducted with the full knowledge of both Code Enforcement and DeKalb County Law Enforcement, as well as Local Legal Aid Services. They are all in this together and no local reporter will say anything about it. Pathetic!!!
As Dr. King stated: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
It is appalling to think that this is happening in the birthplace of Dr.King.
Correction: My post should read every 179 days