Thinking about breaking a lease in Georgia?
Make sure you're on firm ground before you take that stand. According to Roshonda Davis-Baugh, managing attorney for Gwinnett Legal Aid, there is always an element of risk if you choose to terminate your rental lease early because there are no hard-and-fast rules.
"You can terminate based on your determination that they are not living up to their end of the bargain, that they have breached your agreement," she said. "A lease is just another contract, that way."
If the landlord accepts the early termination, you're home free. "But if he sues in court, you run the risk that the judge won't view the breach the same way you do," she said.
Should the ruling go in favor of the landlord, you'll pay, and you might also jeopardize your ability to rent on favorable terms in the future.
To minimize your odds of losing a lawsuit, David-Baugh recommends building a paper trail. "You need to have proof that you contacted the landlord to request repairs and gave him every opportunity to address your issues before you take the step of breaking the lease," she said. "It's also important to give the landlord adequate time to fix the problems."
What David-Baugh calls a "small breach" may not be sufficient grounds for a one-sided early termination of the lease. If your landlord has started mowing and doing other household chores on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays, for example, you may have a technical breach of the original contract. However, it's one that will likely not convince a judge you had good reason to do so.
Even with the paper trail and sufficient cause, Davis-Baugh recommends contacting an attorney before taking that final step.
"There is nothing in the Georgia statute that specifically says, 'a, b and c constitute a breach of a lease,' so an attorney's opinion can be very valuable," she said.
Georgia Legal Aid also published an article covering answers to common questions tenants have on early termination of a lease in Georgia. It is authored by Georgia Legal Services Programs, a non-profit law firm serving rural and small-town parts of this state.
The article clarifies that Georgia does not have a 72-hour period during which a landlord or tenant can decide not to honor a lease that's already been signed.
"There is not a 'cooling off' period in Georgia which would enable you to change your mind after signing a lease," according to GLSP. "If you decide not to move into the unit after signing the lease, the landlord may impose early termination penalties against you."
The article also covers instances when a tenant can move before the end of the lease term, noting "The answer to this question will be found in the lease. A tenant's ability to get out of the lease depends on the language of the lease and the willingness of the landlord to allow the termination."
A lease with a provision allowing a tenant to end it prior to its expiration will also spell out penalties for the action, if any, and GLSP advises tenants to follow them to the letter.
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