Georgia · Law guide

Georgia HOA law guide.

Every Georgia statute that governs condominium and homeowners’ associations, hosted in full on HOPB with the official text — plus the provisions scattered elsewhere in the Code, collected on the related-laws page. Which one applies to you is decided by what your recorded documents say, not by what your community is called. This index is how the pieces fit together.

5 statutes Full text on-site Cited to the 2026 O.C.G.A.
Community associations

Which statute governs your community — and why the answer is rarely obvious.

Georgia keeps its two community-association statutes in separate articles of the same chapter, and which one applies is decided by what the recorded documents say, not by what the community calls itself. A condominium is property lawfully submitted to Article 3 by the recordation of condominium instruments — and no property is a condominium under the article unless undivided interests in the common elements are vested in the unit owners (§ 44-3-71(7)). The Property Owners’ Association Act is different in kind: it is opt-in. Any declaration or amendment intending to take its benefits “shall state an affirmative election to be so governed” (§ 44-3-222), and its benefits “may only be claimed by developments submitted to this article” (§ 44-3-235(c)). A community that never elected in is governed instead by their own recorded covenants and by § 44-5-60 — a materially different regime, described on the related-laws page. The two Acts do not overlap: Article 6 does not apply to associations created under the Condominium Act, except where a property owners’ development created under Article 6 includes a condominium alongside other real property, in which case each condominium unit may be deemed a separate lot to the extent the instrument provides (§§ 44-3-235(b), 44-3-221(9)). And there is a fourth answer for older buildings: the Condominium Act reaches a condominium created before October 1, 1975 only if its instruments were amended to submit it (§ 44-3-113), so a building that never amended in is still governed by the 1963 “Apartment Ownership Act”, which § 1-1-10(c)(55) expressly saved from repeal.

44 Art. 3 Georgia Condominium ActO.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-70 to 44-3-117, all 48 sections — creation by recorded declaration, the association and its board, assessments and the lien, architectural approval, and the declarant’s handover of control. The declaration must state any and all restrictions on general use, or state that there are none (§ 44-3-77(a)(12)). “Common elements” means all portions of the condominium other than the units (§ 44-3-71(4)), and no unit owner may do anything that would change the exterior appearance of the unit or any other portion of the condominium except as the instruments specify (§ 44-3-90(a)). The association may grant or withhold approval of such changes, or appoint an architectural control committee (§ 44-3-106(a)(3)). Its lien arises when sums fall due and recording the declaration is itself record notice — no further claim of lien need be recorded (§ 44-3-109). 44 Art. 6 Georgia Property Owners’ Association ActO.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-220 to 44-3-235, all 17 sections — but check first whether it applies to you at all (§§ 44-3-222, 44-3-235(c)). Where it does: the instrument is amended by two-thirds of the votes unless it specifies a larger majority — capped at 80 percent by § 44-3-226(b), and requiring the declarant’s agreement too during any option or control period (§ 44-3-226(a)(1)); assessments, fines and reasonable charges are the lot owner’s personal obligation and a lien from the time they fall due, with no separate claim of lien required (§ 44-3-232(a)); no foreclosure unless the lien is at least $2,000.00, after not less than 30 days’ notice, and the lien lapses four years after an assessment first became due (§ 44-3-232(c)). Fines “shall not impact voting rights” and no suspension may deny access to the lot or the right to vote in board elections for unpaid fines (§ 44-3-223) — the condominium article has no such sentence. Except where emergency conditions involving public safety or the preservation of property require otherwise, before an association can collect or be awarded attorney’s fees it must give written notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, 30 days to pay, and an itemised list (§ 44-3-235(d)).
Corporate form

The association is a corporation — but not always the same kind.

Both Acts require incorporation before the community operates, and both give a choice: the association must be incorporated “either as a business corporation under Chapter 2 of Title 14 or as a nonprofit membership corporation under Chapter 3 of Title 14” (§§ 44-3-100(a), 44-3-227(a)). Sections 44-3-106(f) and 44-3-231(f) then make the board’s powers subject to “Chapter 2 or 3 of Title 14” as well as to the instrument. Georgia has no equivalent of the Florida provision that makes the nonprofit code yield to the community-association chapters, so neither Title 14 chapter is switched off — the corporate layer sits alongside the property layer rather than under it. Which chapter governs is settled by the articles of incorporation, and copies must be kept at the association’s principal and registered offices and furnished to any owner on request for a reasonable charge (§§ 44-3-100(c), 44-3-227(c)). It is worth knowing which: the two chapters do not always agree. A business-corporation proxy can be made irrevocable if coupled with an interest (§ 14-2-722(d)); a nonprofit proxy is simply “revocable by the member” (§ 14-3-724(d)).

14 Ch. 3 Georgia Nonprofit Corporation CodeO.C.G.A. §§ 14-3-101 to 14-3-1703, the whole chapter — 205 sections across 18 articles. Start with whether you are a “member” at all: the term means a person entitled to vote for the election of directors under a provision of the articles, and a person is not one “regardless of whether the corporation designates or refers to the person as a member” (§§ 14-3-140(30), 14-3-601(c)). Members have no voting rights other than to elect directors except as the articles or bylaws specifically provide (§ 14-3-610). For a corporation in existence before July 1, 2023 the default quorum is 10 percent, not a majority (§ 14-3-722(d)). Holders of 5 percent of the voting power — or such other figure as the documents specify, capped at 25 percent — can demand a special meeting (§ 14-3-702(a)); 10 percent can ask a court to remove a director (§ 14-3-810). Records come in two tiers — eight categories on five business days’ notice, and then excerpts from board minutes, accounting records and the membership list on the same notice but only on a proper purpose (§ 14-3-1602). And § 14-3-1001(c) names property owners’ associations outright: vested real property rights under a recorded declaration survive an amendment of the articles.
Protections

Fair housing, and the duties that come with a disability request.

The Georgia Fair Housing Act is Article 4 of Chapter 3 of Title 8, and it is the statute an association is applying whenever it decides a request tied to a disability, a family with children, or any other protected class. Section 8-3-202(a)(7) carries three distinct duties, not one: reasonable modifications at the disabled person’s expense, reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices and services, and accessible design for covered multifamily dwellings first occupied after March 13, 1991. Collapsing them into “reasonable accommodation” is the commonest error in this area. Two more provisions decide most disputes. Section 8-3-202(d) preserves a direct-threat limit, and § 8-3-223 provides that compliance with the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 is deemed compliance with § 8-3-202(a)(7)(B) and that the federal Act prevails on any conflict about the treatment of persons with disabilities — so a Georgia-only answer to an assistance-animal request is an incomplete one. Georgia’s separate disability chapter, §§ 30-4-1 to 30-4-5, is a different statute with a narrower definition; it is covered on the related-laws page.

8 Art. 4 Georgia Fair Housing ActO.C.G.A. §§ 8-3-200 to 8-3-223, all 24 sections — protected classes and prohibited practices, the disability duties, exemptions, enforcement and remedies. The deadlines differ by forum and are easy to swap: one year to complain to the administrator (§ 8-3-208(a)), two years for a civil action, running from the practice or the breach of a conciliation agreement, whichever occurs last, and not counting time while an administrative proceeding was pending (§ 8-3-217(a)(1),(2)) — available whether or not a complaint was filed, but barred by a consented conciliation agreement, except to enforce its terms, or once an ALJ has commenced a hearing on the record. Remedies include injunctive relief, attorney’s fees, costs and actual damages, with punitive damages only on wilful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression or entire want of care (§ 8-3-217(b)(1)). Where the claims go to a civil action instead of an administrative hearing, the court may impose fines of up to $10,000, up to $25,000 where there is one prior violation within the preceding five years, and up to $50,000 where there are two or more within the preceding seven (§ 8-3-213(c)(1)). The 55+ exemption in § 8-3-205 turns on three factors: significant facilities and services designed for older persons — or, where providing them is not practicable, that the housing is necessary to provide important housing opportunities for older persons — 80 percent of units occupied by at least one person 55 or over, and published policies demonstrating that intent.
Property rights

What you can do on your own lot, and what you have to bargain for.

Georgia deals with solar access as property law between neighbours, not as association law. The Solar Easement Act of 1978 is four sections and is entirely enabling: solar easements “may be established to allow the owner of a solar energy device to negotiate for assurance of continued access to sunlight” (§ 44-9-21). It confers no right to sunlight, takes nothing from a neighbour who does not agree, and says nothing at all about covenants, architectural review or associations. Whether panels go up is decided by the recorded documents and by the regime you are in — § 44-3-90(a) and § 44-3-106(a)(3) in a condominium, § 44-3-231(a)(3) under the POA Act, and § 44-5-60(d)(6) in a subdivision that elected into neither.

44 Art. 2 Georgia Solar Easement Act of 1978O.C.G.A. §§ 44-9-20 to 44-9-23, all four sections — the legislative findings on future shading of solar devices by buildings or vegetation, the requirement that a solar easement be created in writing and conveyed and recorded like any other easement (§ 44-9-22), and the two things every such instrument must contain: a definite and certain description of the airspace affected, and the terms or conditions under which it is granted or will be terminated (§ 44-9-23). That list is expressly a floor, not a ceiling. Recording is what makes it survive the neighbour’s sale — under § 44-2-2(c) an instrument required to be recorded takes effect against a good-faith purchaser only from the time it is filed for record.
Everything else

The provisions scattered elsewhere in the Code — and the questions owners actually ask.

Most of what decides a Georgia covenant dispute is not in either community-association Act. Section 44-5-60 holds the 20 year clock, the automatic renewal for planned subdivisions of 15 or more plots, the written-consent protection against a newly imposed greater restriction, the enforcement powers of a non-statutory association, and the route for owners to take control of one that has gone dormant. Two short sections — §§ 44-3-116 and 44-3-234 — then switch several of those protections off for condominiums and for POA Act communities, which is why the same question has different answers in different Georgia neighbourhoods. Those provisions, together with recording, service dogs, volunteer director immunity and the pre-1975 Apartment Ownership Act, are collected on the related-laws page.

Related Related & miscellaneous Georgia statutesTwelve topics from outside the two Acts, each stated with the limit that goes with it — covenant duration and automatic renewal under § 44-5-60(b) and (d)(1); when a newly adopted restriction binds you, and the two sections that remove that protection in the statutory regimes; the enforcement code in § 44-5-60(d)(6); the six failures that let owners take control of a dormant association, with mandatory attorney’s fees if they prevail (§ 44-5-60(d)(5)); recording under § 44-2-2; the 1963 Apartment Ownership Act that still governs some pre-1975 condominiums; service dogs under chapter 30-4 and why that chapter does not answer the fair-housing question; volunteer director immunity under § 51-1-20; and what a Georgia deed actually warranted. Q&A Georgia homeowner questions and answersThe questions Georgia owners ask most, answered from the statute rather than from general HOA folklore — whether the POA Act applies to your community, what the board can and cannot fine you for, what records you are entitled to see and on what notice, how covenants are amended and when an amendment binds you, and what happens when the association stops holding meetings.

General information, not legal advice. Statutory references are to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, current through the 2026 Special Session of the General Assembly, and may not reflect the most recent amendments.

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