A bill requiring many out-of-state landlords to employ at least one in-state staffer to handle tenant complaints is bound for Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
House Bill 399’s passage last week marks a minor win for affordable housing advocates. They celebrated that the law will increase landlord accountability, but cautioned that it could also lead to retaliation against lower-income tenants who raise concerns about living conditions.
Authored by Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), the legislation says that “any landlord that is not a resident of this state that owns or operates single-family or duplex rental properties in this state” must employ at least in-state agent, “who shall be responsible for receiving, coordinating, managing, and responding to” renters’ maintenance concerns.
But if a tenant believes their residence violates a local government’s housing code, HB 399 places the burden on them to connect code enforcement officers to the property manager.
“Tenants in those situations are usually fearful of retaliation from their landlords,” advocacy group HouseATL said in a social media post.
The bipartisan measure materialized in response to a surge of big institutional investors buying up residential housing in Georgia. That has driven up rent prices, and investors’ habit of camouflaging themselves with shell companies has made it difficult for tenants to get maintenance concerns addressed.
Even so, HB 399 is the only legislation to regulate institutional investor activity that passed in Georgia’s 2025 legislative session, which concluded on April 4.
This will actually increase rents. It targets people who own only one property too and who live outside of Georgia. Corporations /LLC’s that own vast amounts of property and that manipulate the housing market will have another excuse to increase rents. And the small landlords, with one or two properties and who have less tenants to divide the cost of hiring a manager, will have to increase at a higher rate. The only reason for this bill is greed on the part of realtors.