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State lawmakers consider renters' rights

Right Facing Red For Rent Real Estate Sign in Front of Beautiful House.
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Right Facing Red For Rent Real Estate Sign in Front of Beautiful House.

A bill to bolster renters rights has been introduced in the Georgia House.

HB 404, titled the Safe at Home Act, would require landlords to provide rental homes that are fit for human habitation and increase protections for tenants who are facing eviction because they failed to pay their rent on time.

Current state law does not specify what conditions make a home habitable, and tenants must continue to pay rent even if their rental is unsafe to live in.

According to the bills sponsor, the bill seeks to strike a balance between the rights of renters and landlords. Elizabeth Apple, an advocate for safe, affordable housing, said the bill is a chance to see real improvement for families living in unsafe conditions.

Jeff has delivered morning news at WUGA Radio for more than a decade. He was among a team at CNN that won a George Foster Peabody Award in 1991 for an educational product based on the fall of the Soviet Union. He also won an Edward R. Murrow Award from Radio Television Digital News Association in 2007 for producing a series for WSB Radio on financial scams. Jeff is a graduate of the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University (MBA) and holds a BS in Business Administration from Campbell University, both in North Carolina.