Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

I am renting a home from a homeowner (as opposed to a rental company) and I am seeking legal advice on how to deal with a stray animal situation. An opossum entered our attic on Saturday and our our landlord refuses to take care of it. Our lease does not mention exterminations, but the ll is claiming that we will have to pay to get it out of our attic. He has been avoiding our phone calls and e-mails. This opposum has been in our house for the past 3 days and we would really like it out of there. Can I threaten legal action if he does not take care of this wild animal situation? Is this grounds to break our lease?

Any help you can provide would be great.


Asked on 8/24/10, 2:33 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

You want it out, yet apparently you are unable to call an exterminator to get it out? You can have an issue of who pays the bill, but you have no excuse for not taking care of the problem. In fact, you will have a much worse problem if the animal dies up there because you want to take a stand.

As far as legal action or terminating the lease, that would be a silly threat given that this is something that could be resolved with a $25 cage trap from Ace Hardware (which is likely what the exterminator would use). Get over trying to turn this into a big legal issue - the landlord will either laugh or call the bluff rather than cooperate.

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Answered on 8/29/10, 3:42 pm
Ralph Villani VILLANI LAW FIRM

I agree with Scott

If do self help and if remedy over $25.00, deduct it from your next month's rent

Good luck

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Answered on 8/29/10, 4:33 pm


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