residential-lease sublease
subtenant hasn&#39;t signed the sublease, has the key and won&#39;t sign or move out
<p>The property in question is a bedroom in a shared 3-bedroom house.</p>

<p>I made the mistake of giving the keys to my not-legally-yet subtenant (n.l.y.s. from here on) and letting him move in, after my landlord acknowledged he had received this month's rent payment from him. After getting some strange answers from the n.l.y.s. when I tried discussing with him the paperwork that needs to be signed, I expressed my concern to my landlord, who sent us both an email explaining to the n.l.y.s. that he is to sublet the room from me, that he is returning payment to the n.l.y.s. (which already happened) and that I'm to present a sublease agreement for him to sign, so that it can all be done properly.</p>

<p>I wrote up a very reasonable sublease, waiving deposit and including some rent prorating, but the n.l.y.s. is ignoring it completely, and won't return any phone calls or text messages. So, on paper, what we have is that the n.l.y.s. has made no net payment, and that I'm still the tenant of the property. But it looks like the n.l.y.s is intending to stay on in the property.</p>

<p>EDIT: he has been in the property for two days (at the time of this edit, 05-07-2017).</p>

<p>EDIT 2: the property is in Atlanta, Georgia.</p>

<p>What can be done in this case?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>The local country sheriff's department - not the police - handle lease and tenant issues. You can call the police, and they would look into the paperwork, but more than likely they would defer to the county. In your case, it is probably Fulton County you should talk to; see <a href="http://www.fultoncountyga.gov/fcmd-divisions/fcmd-evictions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fultoncountyga.gov: Evictions</a> </p>

<p>One possibility is you can talk to the landlord about mentioning to the NLYS you are looking into starting the eviction process with Fulton Country. That whole eviction process can take time; tenants - even illegal ones - have some rights established by their payments, your verbal agreements, they were given a key, etc. But the mention of eviction might scare them into leaving. Or signing a real lease. But do this in conjunction with the landlord; you are still a tenant yourself.</p>

<p>Your landlord deals with the eviction process, not you. He doesn't need a lawyer to send a text/letter to the NLYS saying that they need to sign a lease or he may start eviction proceedings. Your landlord doesn't need a lawyer to start the eviction process, if it is needed in the end.</p>

<p>Your landlord may want to look at</p>

<p><a href="http://www.fultoncountyga.gov/images/stories/Marshal/marshal_documents/steps%20in%20the%20eviction%20process%20fact%20sheet.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fultoncountyga.gov - steps in the eviction process fact sheet.pdf</a></p>

<p>and possibly</p>

<p><a href="http://www.georgialegalaid.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GeorgiaLegalAid.org | A guide to free and low-cost legal aid, assistance and services in Georgia</a>  </p>
