In Georgia, a landlord ending a month-to-month rental must give the tenant a written 60-day notice to vacate under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-7.1Justia. Georgia Code 44-7-7 – Tenancy at Will – Notice Required for Termination The 60 days start running from the date the tenant receives the notice, no reason has to be stated, and the tenancy stays fully in force until the countdown ends. Get the notice short, vague, or poorly delivered, and the whole process can reset.
When the 60-Day Rule Applies
The 60-day requirement governs a tenancy at will, which under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-6 is any rental arrangement with no specified end date.2Justia. Georgia Code 44-7-6 – Tenancy at Will That covers two common situations: a verbal month-to-month agreement, and a written lease that expired without renewal while the tenant kept paying and the landlord kept accepting.
A fixed-term lease is different. A lease with a definite end date expires on that date without any notice at all. The 60-day rule is for the open-ended arrangements where no end date exists.
How to Count the 60 Days
The statute does not require the notice period to line up with the rent due date. The 60 days begin the day the tenant actually receives the notice. A notice delivered on March 5 sets a vacate date no earlier than May 4.
No reason has to be given. Georgia allows a landlord to end a tenancy at will for any lawful reason or no stated reason at all. The limits sit at the edges: the notice cannot be based on protected-class discrimination, and it cannot be retaliation against a tenant who exercised a legal right such as requesting repairs or filing an agency complaint.
What the Written Notice Should Contain
Georgia law does not prescribe specific language, but vagueness is where these notices fail in court. A workable notice includes:
- Full names of every adult occupant listed on the agreement or known to live in the unit.
- The complete property address, including any apartment or unit number.
- The date of delivery, which starts the 60-day clock.
- A specific calendar vacate date at least 60 full days after delivery.
- A plain statement that the tenancy at will is terminated and the tenant must surrender possession by the stated date.
“You need to move out soon,” or an approximate date, may not survive a challenge. Pick a specific date, write it out, and leave no room for interpretation.
Delivering the Notice So You Can Prove It
Georgia does not mandate a single delivery method for the initial notice, but the method you choose decides whether you can prove delivery later. The safest options are personal hand-delivery with a witness, or certified mail with return receipt requested. Certified mail creates a paper trail: the postal service records the date, and the signed receipt shows who accepted the envelope.
If you hand-deliver, bring a witness and prepare a short written statement (sometimes called an affidavit of service) noting the date, time, and location. The witness signs it. Keep the originals of everything: the notice itself, the return receipt or affidavit, and any mailing confirmation. If the tenant later claims they never received the notice, those records are the only defense.
Taping a notice to the door with no follow-up mailing is risky for the initial termination notice. Georgia courts allow “tack and mail” service for the later dispossessory summons, but relying on that method for the notice to vacate leaves room for the tenant to argue they never saw it.
Do Not Accept Rent After You Give Notice
This is the most common way landlords undo their own notice. If you accept a rent payment after giving the 60-day notice but before filing a dispossessory action, a court may find you waived the notice and created a new tenancy at will, forcing you to start the 60 days over.
Georgia case law carves out a narrow exception: rent accepted after the dispossessory is already filed and before trial is not automatically treated as creating a new tenancy.3Justia. Georgia Code 44-7-7 – Tenancy at Will – Notice Required for Termination The safe practice is to refuse all rent payments once the notice goes out. If a check arrives, return it uncashed with a written explanation. The line between “before filing” and “after filing” is too thin to gamble on.
What the Tenant Owes During the Notice Period
A notice to vacate does not end the tenancy immediately. It starts a countdown, and until it expires the landlord-tenant relationship is fully intact. The tenant must keep paying rent on the normal schedule through the end of the 60 days. Skipping rent during that window can trigger a separate nonpayment action, which is an independent ground for a dispossessory and can accelerate the timeline against the tenant.
Maintenance and behavior obligations continue as well. The tenant is still bound by the original agreement’s terms about care of the unit, noise, and anything else. Violations during the notice period do not get a pass because the tenancy is winding down.
If the Tenant Stays Past the Vacate Date
When a tenant holds over, the landlord’s only lawful path is a dispossessory action, usually filed in magistrate court in the county where the property sits. The landlord files a sworn affidavit stating that the tenancy was properly terminated, that the landlord demanded possession, and that the tenant refused to leave.4Justia. Georgia Code 44-7-50 – Demand for Possession; Procedure Upon a Tenant’s Refusal; Notice to Vacate or Pay
The court then serves a summons on the tenant, which can be delivered personally, handed to another adult resident at the unit, or posted on the door and simultaneously mailed by first-class mail. The tenant has seven days from service to file a written answer. If no answer is filed, the landlord can request a default judgment.
If the court rules for the landlord, it issues a writ of possession that becomes effective seven days after the judgment date.5Justia. Georgia Code 44-7-55 – Judgment; Writ of Possession The landlord then has 30 days to apply for execution, at which point the sheriff or marshal can physically remove the tenant and their belongings. The total timeline from filing to removal typically runs three to five weeks when the tenant does not contest the case, longer when they do.
Filing fees vary by county but generally fall between $60 and $85, plus $25 per defendant for sheriff service. The losing party usually pays these costs.
Things You Cannot Do
Georgia prohibits self-help eviction. Changing the locks, removing the door, shutting off utilities, or hauling a tenant’s belongings to the curb are all illegal, no matter how far past the vacate date the tenant has gone. The only lawful route is the dispossessory process. A landlord who takes shortcuts can face liability for damages, and a court may view that conduct unfavorably in any pending case.
The Fair Housing Act still applies even though Georgia does not require a reason for the notice. A notice that follows closely on the heels of a tenant’s protected activity, such as a fair housing complaint or a disability accommodation request, can be challenged as retaliatory discrimination if no independent justification existed. Keeping written records of the reason for the decision, even when the statute does not require one, is the best protection against that kind of claim.
If the tenant is an active-duty service member, additional federal protections apply. Under 50 U.S.C. § 3951, a landlord cannot evict a service member from a primary residence without a court order when the monthly rent is below an annually adjusted threshold, and the court must stay proceedings for at least 90 days if military service materially affects the ability to pay rent.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress Knowingly evicting a protected service member without following these rules is a federal misdemeanor.