Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

Re: Can i use small claims. I am a resident in another state.

You do not need to be a resident or otherwise have a connection to Georgia to file a law suit in any court. The key issue is the location of the defendant or venue generally.

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Re: Can i use small claims. I am a resident in another state.

I am a California attorney, and not licensed in GA, so I cannot answer the question as to GA law. In California, it is fairly well established that you will have to sue the property manager in GA to recover from them. CA Courts are not going to take on a case where the contract was pressumably negotiated and signed in GA, the contract was to be performed in GA, the subject matter of the litigation is in GA, the case is governed by GA law, and the defendant resides in GA.

As to whether you can sue in a GA court, I would be surprised if their small claims courts did not allow foreign (out of state) plaintiffs to file. Check with their courts directly to be sure that you can file there. Irrespective, you will probably have to travel to GA for the trial, as (at least in CA) you cannot conduct a trial by declaration or telephone.

I chimed-in on this because I used to own a property management company, and I have a second suggestion. In most states, persons acting as property managers must be licensed real estate agents. In some states, they actually have to hold a special license to be a property manager. Check if your property manager is licensed in GA, and if so, file a complaint with the licensing agency. Often times the threat of loss of a license is much more intimidating than the threat of, or an actual lawsuit. It would provide a second source of pressure to get the agent to disgourge what they have collected to date. Finally, as to your question about what you can collect - I would argue what they did is fraudulent, and seek at least three times the amount they owe you, plus demand that any fees they may have been entitled to should not be collected by them for their fraudulent behavior. Good luck - it burns me to no end when I hear about crooked real estate agents.

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Re: Can i use small claims. I am a resident in another state.

You can/must file where the defendants are.