tenant has not paid for 4 months and this's what happening now.....

[Alba Cheung]

    I urgently need a landlord-friendly lawyer in Fulton County. I made the mistake of renting my single-family house in Alpharetta to a tenant with a credit score in the 500s in December 2023. I was hasty due to the higher mortgage rates, and it turned out to be a huge mistake. The tenant has not paid anything since April 2024, effectively staying in my property for free for four months. I hired Evictthemforme.com on April 5, and went to court with their referred attorney on June 17, 2024. The tenant was given a court order to move out within 7 days. However, on the 7th day, the tenant hired an attorney from the Atlanta Family Law and Immigration Center to appeal the court order. She claimed she wasn’t sure what she signed on the court day of June 17 and that she couldn’t find a place to move out within 7 days. Additionally, she stated she doesn’t want to pay either. Despite signing on the court day that she would move out in 7 days and waiving her right to appeal, she still appealed, preventing me from filing a writ of possession. She has stayed in my property for free for four months, and if she keeps appealing everytime when she's given a 7 days moving out order, she could potentially never pay rent or move out.

How can this happen? Can tenants actually appeal a 7-day move-out court order even after waiving their right to appeal? Has anyone had a similar experience? What’s going to happen next? Can anyone recommend an experienced landlord-tenant lawyer in the Atlanta area for me? Evicticthemforme.com helped a lot but their lawyer has many cases at the same time, I think I need my own attonry. I urgently need this tenant to move out ASAP, it's been 4 months already. Please help. Thanks.

[James Mc Ree]

Have you discussed this with your eviction attorney? That would be step 1 for me.

[Tim Baldwin]

This is a legal question that your attorney should be answering, and if you don't feel your attorney can help you, find another one who can. Best wishes. 

[Jay Hinrichs]

U have what we call in the wild a professional Tenant.. U will never get a dime of rent and you are going to have to probably do as you stated find your own attorney..

its better to leave property vacant than to rent to folks that have terrible credit. In almost all instances.

[Theresa Harris]

Talk to your attorney.  They can't keep claiming they don't have time to find a place to stay as they've had time.  No matter who you hire, they are going to have other cases.  You could offer cash for keys to get her out-NEVER hand over any money until they are out and you have the keys and signed paperwork that they are out of the property.  Of course the tenant doesn't want to pay, she's got a free ride.

[Alba Cheung]

i need some referrer for eviction lawyer in Fulton county. 

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Alba Cheung:

i need some referrer for eviction lawyer in Fulton county. 

I'm confused. You hired evictthemforme.com and they represented you correctly. Why can't you contact them and ask these questions? You hired them to evict the tenant, so they should continue representing you until the tenant is out.

[Matt Bishop]

@Alba Cheung,your property manager should have already handled this and you should not be involved.

[Bruce Woodruff]

What @Jay Hinrichs said - I always preach on here that it is far better to have your place sit empty than to have a bad, or even dubious tenant. It's not only the money you'll lose, it's the time you spend (I figure worth $100 hr) and the mental anguish and stress. Never worth it.

[Michael Smythe]

@Alba Cheung wow, you went the cheap route and hire cheap attorneys.

Now that they are useless, you want to ask us for free advice?

None of us can give you legal advice!

When will you learn - you get EXACTLY what you pay for?

[Alba Cheung]

Quote from @Michael Smythe:

@Alba Cheung wow, you went the cheap route and hire cheap attorneys.

Now that they are useless, you want to ask us for free advice?

None of us can give you legal advice!

When will you learn - you get EXACTLY what you pay for?

 wow?!  who is so brave to hire you? and can you give legal advice?  you are not lawyer just A property management advice, I did not ask you anything!!  so zip up!  btw, i did not pay that much for sure, but i got what i want... without a mean management company. lol

[Nathan Gesner]

@Alba Cheung It would be nice if you provided us with an update. This could be an opportunity to share what you've learned.

[Pratik Kochar]

@Alba Cheung I am going through same situation. My tenant is unresponsive and has not paid rent for this month. Rent was due by 5th but no communication on late payment and is not responding to my text/emails.

 How was your experience with EvictThemForMe?

I am thinking to hire them to start the paperwork to send the ondemand notice atleast. 

[Colleen F.]

@Alba Cheung if this attorney doesn't complete the eviction look at the dockets and see what attorneys commonly handle evictions in you area. Some places you can look up that info.

[Andrew Hogan]

Alba, have you had any progress with this? Or found a great attorney yet that you could recommend?

I’m unfortunately in the same situation. I self managed an eviction in Fulton County Magistrate. Won the case and she had 7 days to get out. She did not, so I filed the writ. Only for it to be denied because she had filed an appeal at the state court. 

She had a move out date of June 30th. We filed eviction July 5th. Didn’t get a court date until Aug 21st. She filed the appeal on Aug 27th and I have still not heard a thing from the state court. She has been in our house 118 days past the end of her rental agreement! 

I’ve tried a couple different things to move it along. Nothing. We’ve tried to work deals with her many times. Nothing. Well, apart from “if you give me $3000.”

Luckily this is a co-living model through PadSplit so I have some income coming in. But it’s time to find an attorney and finish this!!