One of the main benefits of renting compared to buying a home is the maintenance burden, as the landlord is often responsible for repairs and fixing issues like recurring flooding.
However, one Atlanta man recently encountered the worst of both worlds, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Every time it rains in Atlanta, “several inches” of water accumulate in Ernesto Taylor’s apartment. Taylor repeatedly raised the issue with the property management company that manages her unit, much like a tenant would raise an issue with a landlord.
Eventually, the property management company responded — issuing a cease and desist notice.
Taylor told the station that his repeated requests for repairs went completely unanswered, and he eventually told his landlord that routine indoor flooding was untenable and urgent.
“That’s when I finally started to really say, ‘I can’t wait any longer; it’s been three or four months.’ That’s when I suddenly got the letter terminating the lease,” he said.
Taylor received a letter from Braden Fellman, the property management company that manages Montif by Morningside Apartments. It was dated February 10 and effectively terminated his lease on Tuesday, effectively amounting to a 30-day notice to vacate.
WSB contacted Braden Fellman about Taylor’s situation and received a statement in response to their inquiry, stating that expected repair times forced them to take action.
“In order to complete related repairs, the contractor requires that the unit be vacant for an extended period of time,” the company wrote.
Sasan Nematbakhsh, a landlord-tenant attorney in Atlanta, said the timing of the termination letter was uncertain at best, given Taylor’s repeated requests for maintenance that were ignored.
“Every time I feel a tenant raises a maintenance issue, eventually, at some point, the landlord [says]Nematbakhsh explained to WSB that “we have had enough, you need to vacate the ground”, which did raise suspicions.
Nematbakhsh noted that under Georgia law, landlords are not required to “provide alternative housing.”
But Taylor said he wasn’t given “any kind of accommodation, any consideration” beyond 30 days to find a new place to live, which was compounded by the fact that the flooding was his landlord’s responsibility to correct, not him.
“I need help moving everything out of here, I need some back pay, some relief,” he lamented to WSB.
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