Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

Our apartment lease is up at the end of August. We live on a nice property but our apartment is completely infested with bugs since the day we moved in. My husband is extremely sick with a severe medical condition, to which I have documentation and we both lost our jobs. We are trying to get the leasing office to work with us (to no avail), considering the bug problem. Is there anything we can do?

Thanks


Asked on 5/28/10, 4:05 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

Your options are likely in your lease. Generally, the lease does not make the landlord financially responsible for health and job issues of the tenants (via letting them out of the lease). As far as the bug problem, keep in mind that apartment managers are used to getting these complaints from people who want to move out and are looking for reasons to get out of the lease. It rarely works. That is not saying you do not have bugs, but the solution is usually to ask them to exterminate, or if they do not after written notice, you do it and deduct the cost from the rent. If it was uninhabitable or a real health concern it is a different issue, but you've lived there 9 months and say it is a nice place. The bottom line is that unless you can get something in writing making some other deal, you are probably better off waiting it out. Apartments are well known for going after money due, and future apartments will know about it. Making a bad decision could cost a lot more in the future.

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Answered on 5/29/10, 2:49 am


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