Tenant-Landlord rights seminar set
Town of Farragut is offering a free educational seminar, Landlord and Tenant Basics, during which landlords and tenants can learn more about their rights and obligations.
The session will take place from 6 to 8:30 p.m., Monday, July 24, in Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive.
“It really covers the wide range of landlord-tenant laws,” said G. Keith Alley, Town Municipal judge who will be an instructor for the seminar with Christine Magrans-Tillery, a volunteer mediator for Knox County General Sessions Court and attorney with Legal Aid of East Tennessee.
The program covers landlords’ and tenants’ rights and obligations cited under the Tennessee Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, state of Tennessee Human Rights Act and the federal Fair Housing Act.
Topics include the lawful eviction timeline, unlawful evictions, abandonment, reasonable accommodations and modifications for tenants with disabilities.
Alley said he hopes people will get “a better understanding of the need to reduce landlord-tenant agreements to writing and the rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants in residential situations.”
Also a private attorney with a practice in Knox County who lives in Farragut, Alley said he saw a need to provide that education to landlords and tenants and initiated the idea to hold the session.
“My experience in living in the Town is that we have several landlords and tenants and that everyone benefits by having a better understanding of the law surrounding the relationship between landlords and tenants,” he said.
“So, a part of what I consider to be a part of community service is to provide free and educational legal advice about matters, such as landlord-tenant issues, with which I have experience,” Alley added. “[The program] is something I offered to do. I also serve on the board of Legal Aid for East Tennessee, which provides free legal services to low-income and other qualifying individuals, and the lawyers with Legal Aid are highly skilled at representing clients with landlord-tenant issues.
“From time to time I will suggest a topic that I believe there might be public interest in, presenting and then teaming with competent attorneys who are interested in presenting the information to the public without cost,” he said.
“In general, what I find is that these type of seminars, which we do in several different counties in East Tennessee, benefits both landlords and tenants because it really presents the law
without any regard for whether you are a landlord or tenant,”
Alley said. “So, if you’re a landlord or tenant, you should be able to get valuable information and insight from simply attending the seminar.”
Deadline to register for the session is Friday, July 21. To register, visit www.townoffarragut.org/register, register in person at Town Hall or call 865-218-3375.
