Housing Services Office assists outside the fence line too

UNITED STATES

10.11.2019

Courtesy Story

Public Affairs Office

The Housing Services Office (HSO) works to ensure service members and Department of Defense employees are treated fairly in both on and off post housing. How do we do this? When we receive notification that a resident is being overcharged in rent, overcharged for move-out repairs, or a landlord’s refusal to refund the security deposit, we review the leasing information and contact the landlord.
Maintenance has become one of the main issues both on and off post. When a resident has put in multiple work order requests and the issues are not being resolved, we can assist. We educate the resident on the importance of documenting and keeping good records of maintenance issues and requests, multiple calls for the same issues and what to do if a landlord refuses to repair. Once the resident provides a copy of the lease and all documentation of issues, we contact the landlord and advocate on the resident’s behalf. We try to negotiate to either release the resident from the lease without penalty, or get a time scheduled that the repairs will be made. If the landlord refuses to budge, we encourage the resident to seek legal advice. The majority of the time we are successful in these negotiations.
For example, we had a service member reach out to our office recently after he had ETS’d (expiration – term of service). The landlord did not understand that Georgia Code allowed the service member to terminate the lease with orders and 30 days’ notice when getting out of the military. The HSO provided a copy of Georgia Code 44-7-22 and explained to the landlord that the service member had provided adequate notice and was entitled to a refund of the security deposit, minus any damages. The service member received a full refund.
Another incident – a landlord had increased a service member’s rent by $200 at lease renewal. A rental increase should be less than $100, with the average being approximately 3 to 10 percent. The HSO visited this particular management company and discussed this issue. The increase was reduced to approximately $90 per month. HSO is currently conducting a survey to determine if others have had their rent unfairly increased. If your rent has been increased more than $100 at lease renewal, please contact the Fort Gordon Housing Office at [e-mail].
The Housing Services Office mission is to give assistance, guidance and quality up-to-date information to our service members and civilians to help make relocating as stress free as possible.
Other services provided by the Housing Services Office include assistance in locating housing; lease review; purchase agreement review; move in/move out walk-throughs; assistance in resolving landlord tenant disputes; providing information on the local area and schools crime rate, and local housing market; Home Buyer Education classes; and Renters 101 classes.

• Date Taken: 10.11.2019
• Date Posted: 01.10.2020 06:58
• Story ID: 347989
• Location: US