Saturday April 10

1 pm – 4 pm

presented by Chia-Chun Hsu

and special Guest Speaker,

Robert Dukes, Attorney

 

Attention Real Estate Investors and Landlords!

Join us for this Leases Workshop where Mr. Hsu will provide you with the rental lease he uses and explain all the details of the lease! He will also provide you with his move-in checklist, as well as a blank lease. Attorney, Robert Dukes, will discuss what he is seeing with leases in court.

Topics to be discussed:

Why is a Lease Important?

• A lease specifies what the landlord and most importantly, the tenant is responsible for.  We will also discuss what should NOT be included in the lease, which would lead to fair housing or GA Tenant Landlord handbook violations.

• A lease agreement details the financial arrangement, physical maintenance, and legal obligations of each party.  A good lease adds values to a property by discouraging harmful activities, and promotes good behaviors by keeping the property in good condition.

• A lease could also save a landlord from potential disagreement with a tenant on move-out charges, partial payment, utilities transfer, loss of personal items to theft/natural disasters, pets, rent increase, late payment, renter insurance, and many more.

• This class includes important addendum that protect the landlord and their properties.

• A copy of move-in and move-out inspections will also be included.

  • Move-in and Move-out inspections – how many keys, garage remotes, pool key, or other means of access are delivered to the tenants?  Comparison of before/after conditions of the house for assessment of repairs, and deduction of security deposits.

  • Consent to take pictures/video: during routine inspection or prior to lease termination, landlord/management could take pictures/video as records for condition of the property, or use them for marketing to reduce vacancy.

  • Grace period or no grace period, and how long?

  • Re-key/new locks

• Important addendums

  • Example: Lead Based Paint exhibit (Federal law agency EPO fines $17,834 per case, an LBP exhibit that misses 2 initials are fined $17,834×2, multiply that by how many properties that a landlord has, Home Depot is ordered to pay Dec 2020 over $20 million due to LBP violation)

  • Renter’s Insurance addendum – how to use renter’s insurance to protect landlord’s possessions, such as appliances in a house.  Also, tenants are protected in case of loss of personal properties.

  • Pet exhibits: dangerous pets can cause significant damage to a property and potentially harm the neighbors, which would result in lawsuits.  Service animals are not pets, and cannot be charged for pet fees or deposits.  Proper documents and pictures of pets

  • Appliances addendum: specify the conditions and what appliances/amenities are included in the lease to avoid conflicts during move-out inspection.

  • Local ordinances (cry wolf alarm fines)

  • HOA bylaws and Covenants, conditions, and restrictions (also called “CC&Rs”)

• Special stipulations

  • Prorated rent

  • Battery replacement of fire/alarms/security device

  • Light bulbs

  • HVAC filter change

  • Gutter cleaning

  • Utilities transfer/fines (it is illegal to shut off utilities as a mean to force evict tenant)

  • Instructions on deposit return (if deposit is not returned within GA law specified period, landlord is fined 3 times the amount of the deposit)

  • Damage and repair, service calls etc

  • Late fee: how it’s calculated

  • Pet fees

  • How much is due and when.

  • Fines

• Tenant responsibilities

• Homestead law – to prevent adverse possession

• Partial rent clause – to prevent acceptance of partial rent to become court enforceable rent amount

• Escalation clause – increase of rent

• COVID-19 Waiver/notice

• What items should NOT be in a lease, or if they are in the lease, they are not enforceable.

About the Instructors

Chia-Chun Hsu

• Received his CMA training directly from Seth Weissman, prominent real estate attorney, who is on the GAR committee and responsible for writing and revising the GAR forms.

• Governing councilor of IREM

• CAM licensed property manager

• Commercial property management experience: Bank of America, Verizon wireless/T-Mobile, UGA, Intuit

• Residential management tenants include: Section 8, regular tenant, and professional athlete

• Investor/Landlord for over 10 years

• CEO of Alexandrite Asset Management, LLC

Robert Dukes, Attorney at Law, Dukes Williams LLC, www.dukeslawfirm.com

J.D. Georgia State University, M.S. Northwestern University, B.S. Stanford University; licensed to practice in the State of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia Federal Court, Georgia Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Practice areas include Real Estate, Business, Probate, and Creditor Representation in Bankruptcy Cases.

Real estate practice is one of the key practice areas for the firm. The firm has provided legal services for a variety of clients in the real estate industry. The firm can also provide legal representation to your company for a variety of legal issues relating to business operations and civil litigation with regards to real estate.

Practice Areas:

• Landlord representation for tenant dispute issues including evictions and collection on outstanding accounts

• Drafting leases and contracts

• Federal, State, and local ordinance compliance

• Quiet Title litigation

• Real Estate contract review

• Residential development

• Mixed Use and commercial development

 

Registration Info

GaREIA Members $129

Non-members $159

Date/Time: Saturday April 10, 1pm – 4pm

Venue: via Zoom online meeting

 

Register at the link below and you will be emailed the link to Zoom online call after you register.  GaREIA members should log-in to the members only section of the website to register at the member price. 

Log-in beginning at 12:55 pm, program begins at 1 pm