Selling a house with a tenant in it, in Georgia

A tenant does not stop a sale. It changes what is being sold. You are no longer selling a house; you are selling a house with a lease attached, and the buyer has to take both. We own and manage rentals ourselves, so this is the kind of sale we are used to.

The lease goes with the house

A sale does not end a lease. The buyer steps into your place as landlord and takes the house subject to the existing lease, including its rent, its end date and whatever it says about renewal. The tenant is entitled to stay on those terms until the lease ends or is lawfully terminated.

So start with the lease itself.

• A fixed term, say twelve months. It runs to its end date. It ends sooner only if the lease allows early termination or the tenant agrees in writing to leave.
• Month to month, or a lease that has expired and simply carried on. In Georgia, a landlord ends this kind of tenancy with 60 days’ written notice. A tenant who wants to leave owes you 30.
• No written lease at all. It is still a tenancy. Treat it as month to month and give the 60 days.

An agreement to leave early is often the cleanest route. You offer money or a waived final month, and the tenant agrees to move out by a set date. Put it in writing, and pay only when the house is actually empty.

Showings and access

Georgia has no general statute setting how much notice a landlord must give before entering, so the lease controls. Whatever it says, ask first, give at least a day’s notice, and keep showings few. A tenant who feels their home is being overrun can make a sale much harder, and has every right to be unhappy about it.

A buyer who buys occupied houses may only need one walk-through.

The security deposit

The deposit goes with the house. At closing it is credited to the buyer, who becomes responsible for handling it when the tenant eventually moves out. Tell the tenant in writing who holds the deposit now and where to send rent from the closing date on.

Bring the lease, the rent ledger, the deposit amount and copies of any notices you have sent to the closing. Missing records are what hold up an occupied sale.

A tenant who has stopped paying

Georgia does not allow self-help. You cannot change the locks, take the doors off, shut off utilities or move the tenant’s things out, even if they are months behind. The only lawful way to remove a tenant is a dispossessory action in the magistrate court of the county where the house is.

Roughly, it goes like this:

1. You make a written demand for the rent or for possession. Since 2024 Georgia has required this notice, giving the tenant at least three business days, before you file for unpaid rent.
2. You file the dispossessory, and the tenant is served.
3. The tenant has seven days to answer. If they do not, you can ask for a judgment. If they do, the court sets a hearing.
4. If you win, the court issues a writ of possession, and the marshal or sheriff carries it out.

Each county runs its own calendar, and a tenant can raise defenses that add time. A Georgia landlord-tenant attorney can tell you how long it is running in your county right now.

You can sell in the middle of all this. The buyer takes over the case along with the house, and the price reflects it. We buy houses with tenants who have stopped paying or stayed past the end of their lease, and we would generally rather you did not try to clear the house yourself first.

Telling the tenant

Tell them early, in writing, and plainly: the house is being sold, their lease stays in force, and here is who to contact from now on. Most of the difficulty in an occupied sale comes from a tenant who heard about it from a sign in the yard.