Evication Notice Duration for Georgia

[John McCarthy]

I have a tenant who hasn't paid rent for the past two months. I need to issue an eviction notice. I understand that the first step is to provide a written notice. How many days' notice should I give? Additionally, could you recommend a good real estate attorney for evictions in Cobb County, Georgia?

[Al D.]

I own in the area, but use a PM, and cannot recommended an attorney for this.

The first step is not (necessarily) to provide written notice…. Do you want an easy answer or a free one? (Sorry.)

This will get a bit confusing at first:

You should find some answers in this government guide, starting on page 15: https://www.dca.ga.gov/sites/default/files/2-15-21_handbook_final_draft.pdf

There is example language of what your written notice to the tenant should include. The key word being “should.” And note that the number of days in the suggested language is blank.

You will also see that the Guide appears to say that the tenant has 7 days, suggesting that that’s the number of days the landlord is expected to state in the Notice. However, if you take that writing on its face, as written (perhaps intentionally,) you *may* (I’ll explain below) be overdoing it, as that “7 days” part is actually directed to a tenant reading it - nowhere I am aware of, in GA, is it mandated that the Notice has to give the tenant 7 days.

(Understand that I didn’t include the Guide for no reason: Your tenant may read the same Guide and end up delaying you if you should only become aware of it when the tenant uses it to tell you that you did not follow some legal requirement. I want you to be aware that a government source that your tenant may refer to may be confusing. Read on.)

The actual law does not specify any length of time from the time you give Notice before you can take the matter to court. It doesn’t even say whether the Notice needs to be in writing: https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-44-property/ga-code-sect-44-7-50/

However, I do not know whether the local judges may have their own “local rules” (legally or figuratively speaking.) Perhaps they like to see a written 7-day notice (and perhaps with some type of evidence of “service” on the tenant) not work before you take the matter to court; tho, the following document also does not seem to care about the time or the manner of the initial demand (Notice): https://s3.amazonaws.com/cobbcounty.org.if-us-east-1/s3fs-public/2024-03/Proceeding-Against-Tenant-Holding-Over-Eviction-Form.pdf. (I am assuming this would be the court with the jurisdiction over this matter, so this would be the form you’d use at that stage.)

Sorry for the confusion, but I first needed to get that out of the way, before saying this:

From experience, I can say that each time my PM has given a written notice (I don’t actually know for how many days,) the tenant would pay.

If you’d like to use a template instead of making your own notice from the Guide’s suggestion, you can find one here: https://eforms.com/eviction/ga/

If I were doing this myself, I’d start with a 7-day written notice (even tho, as far as I, as a non-lawyer, can tell, I don’t have to give any number of days) and perhaps avoid court altogether. But you are already two months into this, so time may be of the essence for you more than it would be for me. Good luck.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @John McCarthy:

I have a tenant who hasn't paid rent for the past two months. I need to issue an eviction notice. I understand that the first step is to provide a written notice. How many days' notice should I give? Additionally, could you recommend a good real estate attorney for evictions in Cobb County, Georgia?

Instead of asking people that may give bad advice, go straight to the source. This link includes the eviction steps and phone numbers you can call for assistance: https://www.fultoncountyga.gov/inside-fulton-county/fulton-c...

[Bill Hampton]

@John McCarthy

The eviction laws in GA recently changed. Try evict them for me dot com and alpha evictions for assistance. 

Good luck. 

[Al D.]

Bill is correct, John: GA did change some habitability- and eviction-related laws, effective 20 days ago - of which I was not aware until just now. I posted a reference to the law that was current as of this March 28, but the governor signed HB 404 on April 22. Egg on my face, and I am now happy to admit that I am a (long ago) law school drop-out.

I still have not found a more up to date (free) source of the statute than my original source, and can’t tell whether this version of the Bill I just found is the final version signed into law: https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2024-signed-legislation/hb-404/download

If it is, then it appears that a 3 business day notice “… shall be posted in sealed envelope conspicuously on the door of the property and delivered via any additional method or methods agreed upon in the rental agreement.” But, again, I am not a lawyer, so could - again - be wrong. At least I am certain that the legal statute I initially referred to is no longer valid.

As Nathan noted above, “people… may give bad advice.” My sincere apologies for mine.