Do You Have to Disclose a Death in a House in Georgia?

In Georgia, you do not have to disclose a death in a house you are selling. O.C.G.A. § 44-1-16 shields sellers, brokers, and agents from liability for failing to volunteer that a homicide, suicide, accident, or natural death occurred on the property.¹ One important exception: if a buyer asks you directly, you have to answer honestly.

What the Georgia Statute Protects

O.C.G.A. § 44-1-16 is Georgia’s stigmatized property law. It says no cause of action arises against an owner, a real estate broker, or an agent for failing to disclose that a property was the site of a death, regardless of the manner: homicide, other felony, suicide, accident, or natural causes.¹

The same statute extends the same protection to two related silences. A seller does not have to volunteer that a previous occupant was infected with a virus or disease that medical evidence shows is highly unlikely to spread through occupancy of a home, such as HIV or AIDS. A seller also does not have to disclose information maintained under the state sex offender registry provisions of O.C.G.A. § 42-9-44.1.¹

In every one of these situations, the statute’s rule is the same: silence alone is not actionable. Liability only attaches if a court finds actual fraud.

When a Buyer Asks Directly

The protection disappears the moment a buyer asks. O.C.G.A. § 44-1-16(a)(1) requires owners, brokers, and their agents to “answer truthfully to the best of that person’s individual knowledge” when a buyer asks about a death or disease history on the property.¹

Two things are worth understanding about that standard. First, the test is “individual knowledge,” not omniscience. If you genuinely do not know whether someone died in the home before you owned it, you can say so without legal risk. Second, evasive answers carry the same exposure as outright lies. A seller who watched paramedics carry a body out of the living room and then tells a buyer “no one has ever died here” has made the kind of false statement the statute is designed to catch. “Not that I’m aware of,” said while knowing better, is functionally the same thing.

The Fair Housing Carve-Out

There is one scenario where you are allowed to decline to answer even a direct question. Under paragraph (2) of the statute, a seller, broker, or agent does not have to respond if doing so would violate federal or state law. The statute names the federal Fair Housing Act and Georgia’s fair housing law at O.C.G.A. §§ 8-3-200 through 8-3-223.¹

This carve-out matters most for the disease prong. The Fair Housing Act at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) prohibits housing discrimination based on disability, and federal law treats HIV and AIDS as qualifying disabilities.² Answering a question about a prior occupant’s HIV status could expose the seller or agent to a fair housing complaint, so the stigmatized property statute lets them decline.

“As-Is” Does Not Change This

Selling a home “as-is” does not relieve you of the truthful-answer requirement. An “as-is” clause shifts the risk of undiscovered physical defects to the buyer. It has no effect on O.C.G.A. § 44-1-16. If a buyer asks about a death and you lie, the “as-is” language will not shield you from a fraud claim, because Georgia courts have consistently held that fraud cannot be contracted away.

What Happens If a Seller Lies

A seller who lies in response to a direct question about a death faces real exposure. The statute’s own text makes the point clear by negative implication: no liability arises “absent a finding of fraud.”¹ Where a court finds fraud, the statutory protections drop away.

Under O.C.G.A. § 51-6-2, a willful misrepresentation of a material fact made to induce another to act, where that person does act to their injury, gives rise to a right of action. The same statute treats a reckless representation of facts as equivalent to actual knowledge of their falsehood when made with intent to deceive.³ A seller who knows a homicide occurred in the home and tells the buyer otherwise has likely crossed both of those lines.

A defrauded buyer has two main routes. The first is rescission. Under O.C.G.A. § 13-4-60, a party who discovers fraud can cancel the contract, provided they act promptly and offer to return what they received under the agreement.⁴ The second is monetary damages, where the buyer keeps the property and sues for the difference between what they paid and what the home was actually worth given its history, along with any other measurable harm.

Georgia Does Not Require a Disclosure Form

Unlike many states, Georgia has no law requiring sellers to complete a specific property disclosure statement. The Georgia Association of Realtors publishes a voluntary Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement that many agents use in practice, but it is not mandated by statute, and the standard form does not include a question about whether a death occurred on the property. The form focuses on physical condition: roof, plumbing, HVAC, water intrusion, and similar issues.

The practical consequence for a seller is that no routine paperwork will put the question in front of you. If a buyer wants to know, the buyer has to ask. If no one asks, you have no obligation to raise it. If someone does ask, your answer has to be truthful to the extent of what you actually know.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 44-1-16 – Failure to Disclose in Real Estate Transaction That Property Was Occupied by Diseased Person or Was Site of Death
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing
3
Justia. Georgia Code 51-6-2 – When Misrepresentation of Material Fact Constitutes Fraud
4
Justia. Georgia Code 13-4-60 – Rescission for Fraud