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Your rights · Georgia
Georgia splits owner protections in two. Condo owners get the Georgia Condominium Act automatically the moment their building is submitted to it. Most subdivision HOAs only answer to the Property Owners' Association Act if their declaration affirmatively opted in. Outside that election, Georgia leaves fines, hearings, and board power almost entirely to whatever your own recorded declaration says, which makes reading that document your first move, not your last resort.
Guides in this state
Controlling law: Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-70 to 44-3-117) & Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-220 to 44-3-235)
Last reviewed July 5, 2026· Citations link to the statute text
If you own a condominium unit in Georgia, the Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-70 et seq.) applies to your association automatically, the moment the declaration is recorded. If you own a lot in a subdivision HOA, the picture is different: the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-220 et seq.) only governs your association if its declaration contains an affirmative election to be governed by it, under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222. Plenty of Georgia HOAs never made that election. If yours didn't, your association isn't running on this statute at all; it's running on its own recorded covenants and general Georgia contract and property law, full stop.
That matters because Georgia has no equivalent to the regulators some other states created, no board that registers associations or fields owner complaints, no codified 'statement of owner rights' handed to you at closing. What Georgia does give owners lives inside these two acts: real rules on assessment liens and judicial foreclosure, a compliance-and-fines framework tied to properly adopted rules, and, for condo owners specifically, a genuine statutory path to force a stalled developer out of control of the board. Knowing which act (if either) actually covers your association is the first fact you need before anything else on this page is useful to you.
On enforcement, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76 (condo) and § 44-3-223 (POA) let an association fine you and temporarily suspend voting rights or common-area use, but only "if and to the extent provided" in the condominium instruments or the instrument, and only for reasonable rules that were adopted under those documents and actually provided to owners. Georgia's statute does not itself impose a notice-and-hearing requirement or a dollar cap on fines the way some states do; whatever process and ceiling you're entitled to has to come from your own declaration and bylaws.
On money, both acts give the association a lien for unpaid assessments (and fines) that outranks most other claims on your home, under § 44-3-109 (condo) and § 44-3-232 (POA). But Georgia forecloses these liens only through a court judgment, not a private sale, and wraps that process in real floors: a 30-day certified-mail notice, a $2,000 minimum before foreclosure can even proceed, and a lien that automatically lapses four years after the assessment first came due. None of this is a favor from the board. It is your statutory baseline, thin as it is.
The local twist
The Property Owners' Association Act only covers a subdivision HOA whose declaration contains an affirmative election into it (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222). Condo owners get the Condominium Act automatically. If your HOA's declaration never opted in, none of the POA Act's assessment-lien limits, compliance rules, or owner protections apply to you; you're relying entirely on your declaration and general Georgia law.
Unlike states that write a dollar ceiling and a hearing requirement directly into the statute, Georgia's compliance sections (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-76, 44-3-223) only authorize fines "to the extent provided" in your declaration. Whatever cap or hearing right you have exists because your documents say so, not because the state guarantees it.
Georgia associations can't foreclose an assessment lien with a private sale; it takes a court judgment (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-109, 44-3-232), and the lien can't be foreclosed below $2,000. A separate rule with real teeth: if you request a written payoff statement and the association misses the 5-business-day deadline to respond, its lien is extinguished for that transaction.
Owner guides
Each guide explains your rights from the owner’s side, cites the controlling statute, walks the steps, and answers the questions boards hope you won’t ask.
Notice, hearing, and cure rights before a fine can stick.
When unpaid dues become a lien, and what limits foreclosure of your home.
The books and records you can inspect, how to ask, and the clock the board is on.
Quorum, ballots, proxies, recalls, and open-meeting rights that check board power.
ARC timelines, approvals, and the laws that protect solar, flags, and antennas.
Fined when a neighbor wasn't? How the docs and statute frame the defense.
Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-70 to 44-3-117) & Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-220 to 44-3-235), full text, section by section — the primary source behind every guide above.
The HOA and condo legislation we track in Georgia, with plain-English notes on what each bill means for homeowners.
The violation-letter analyzer reads your fine or notice and points you at the Georgia rights that apply.
Browse Georgia associations — homeowner reviews, ratings, and the public records behind each community.