Evicting An Unwanted Houseguest (Also See The GA Case Law on Who Is Just A House Guest)
So, you let a friend who was out of work stay in your apartment. Now after weeks or months she won't leave, though you've told her she must. Frantic, you ask a cop friend of yours what to do and he tells you to have her evicted. BUT Watchout!!!
Be carefull about evicting a guest. A GUEST WHO HAS BEEN TOLD TO LEAVE MAY HAVE NO LEGAL STATUS WHATSOEVER. ARGUABLY, THIS PERSON IS A TRESPASSER. Call the police and have the person and their things removed without ceremony.
Eviction is a legal process reserved only for those who pay rent, share household expenses or have some legal relationship to either you or the landlord. Serving a trespasser with eviction papers may actually do more harm than good. The reason is that such may actually convert that person into a tenant!!!! This means you may be responsible to follow the entire eviction process just as if the landlord were evicting you. It also means your "tenant" would have new legal rights such as the right to challenge the eviction in court and the right to remain in your residence for weeks until the the entire process was over. And during this time, you as "landlord" would be legally forbidden to change the locks, remove the tenants things, etc.
You can read more at consumer-sos.com
(The web address directly to this specific page is below. Im not sure if it will show up as a link.)
Landlord_Tenant (Georgia)
Other Cases That Determine if Someone is a Houseguest and Nothing more than a Houseguest.
The following cases involve houseguests who sued their hosts after they were hurt on the host's property. Although these are not landlord tenant cases, they lay out specifically whether someone is a guest or more than a guest. In both cases, the individuals stayed overnight or longer. However, they were found to be nothing more than social guests.
The GA Courts Deemed Them To Be Guests and Not Tenants Because They:
1. Never paid rent;
2. Never shared household expenses; and
3. Were being allowed to stay merely as a personal favor.
**I started a new thread because it seemed that no one was going to give me any type of straight answer. :
Landlord_Tenant (Georgia)