Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Georgia

Re: Tenant's rights facing eviction

Sorry to hear that your partner is in jail. As long as your partner is in jail, I would appear at the eviction hearing and ask the magistrate to postpone the hearing or maybe you can come to an agreement with your landlord. You could at least agree to a certain date before it get dumped on sidewalk. If you think there is a legal reason to file an answer then you must file it within 7 days from service with the eviction summons. The Magistrate Court Clerk typically has a form that you can fill out. After that you will be given a Hearing date. The magistrate will decide if you should be evicted or not. Non payment of rent is THE reason landlords evict tenants. So if you dont have enough money at the hearing to satisfy your landlord an eviction order will be taken against you. Within 10 days of this judgement you can file a notice of appeal and this typically stops eviction until the appeal can be heard and the eviction order sustained. You should be careful, however, not to file an appeal merely for the sake of gaining some time. The court could grant Attorney's Fees against you. If you decide to file an answer it may become an issue whether you are even the proper person to file an answer because your patrner is the leaseholder and not you. Best of luck. PAS