Georgia Condominium Act: Assessments, Insurance, and Resale Rules

The Georgia Condominium Act, codified at O.C.G.A. 44-3-70 through 44-3-117, is the state statute that governs how condominiums are created, managed, insured, financed through assessments, and sold.¹ If you own a unit, sit on a board, or are about to buy, this is the law that sets your rights and the association’s authority. The sections below walk through what the Act actually requires in the situations owners run into most.

What You Own When You Buy a Georgia Condo

A condominium legally exists in Georgia only after the developer records the declaration, along with the required plats and plans, in the county records. Every owner and lessee of the property being submitted must sign the declaration first.²

Buying a unit gets you more than the space inside your walls. The declaration assigns each unit an undivided interest in the common elements, meaning hallways, lobbies, parking structures, recreational facilities, and other shared areas.³ That interest is welded to the unit. You cannot sell it, mortgage it, or transfer it apart from the unit, and any attempt to do so is void. The common elements can only be split up through the Act’s termination process.

The declaration can divide those interests equally, or use percentages, fractions, or formulas that reflect differences in size or value between units. If shares are equal, the declaration can just say so instead of listing every unit.³

How the Association Is Organized

Before the declaration is recorded, the developer has to incorporate the association as either a business corporation or a nonprofit membership corporation under Georgia law. The corporate name must include the phrase “unit owners’ association” or “condominium association.”⁴ Every unit owner is automatically a member for as long as they own the unit. There is no opting out.

The developer appoints the initial board and elects officers before the first unit sells. Articles and bylaws must be kept at the association’s principal office and at the developer’s sales office during the developer-control period, and any owner can request copies.⁴

Developer Control and Transition

In most new condos, the developer runs the association until control passes to the unit owners under O.C.G.A. 44-3-101. At handover, the developer and the board are jointly responsible for making sure the books, records, and accounts are in order, the association is in good standing, and its affairs have been handled prudently.⁵ If a developer underbudgeted, deferred repairs, or locked in long-term contracts, the new owner-controlled board inherits the mess. In newer buildings, look closely at the timing and terms of transition.

Meetings and Notice

The association must hold at least one member meeting per year, and at the annual meeting it must present comprehensive reports on finances, affairs, and budget projections. Any declaration recorded on or after July 1, 1990, must let at least 15 percent of unit owners call a special meeting by written request.⁶

Notice must go out at least 21 days before an annual or regularly scheduled meeting and at least 7 days before any other meeting. It must state the time, place, and purpose. Delivery can be in person, by mail, by overnight service, or electronically under Georgia’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.⁶

Voting Power and Expense Shares

The declaration allocates votes to each unit. Voting power can be equal or weighted by percentage, fraction, or formula. When a unit has multiple owners and more than one shows up, they have to agree unanimously on how to cast the vote, though silence counts as consent: if one co-owner votes and the other says nothing, agreement is presumed.⁷

The Act guards against vote concentration in residential condos. Where 50 percent or more of the votes belong to 25 percent or fewer of the units, any action needing a majority vote also requires approval from a majority of the individual units, not just a majority of the weighted votes.⁷

Each unit also carries a share of liability for common expenses, allocated by percentage, fraction, formula, or another method that reflects relative liability. That allocation controls how regular and special assessments get divided.⁸

Assessments, Liens, and Foreclosure

Any assessment the association lawfully levies becomes the unit owner’s personal obligation the moment it is due. It also becomes an automatic lien on the unit. The recording of the declaration itself gives public notice of the lien, so the association does not have to file a new document each time an owner falls behind.⁹

That lien is superior to almost every other claim on the unit. It ranks behind only four categories:

Ad valorem property taxes on the unit
A first-priority mortgage on the unit, or any mortgage recorded before the declaration
A lessor’s lien under O.C.G.A. 44-3-86 in leasehold condominiums
A secondary purchase-money mortgage, as long as neither the original seller of the unit nor a successor to that seller holds the mortgage

Everything else, including second mortgages, HELOCs, and judgment creditors, sits below the association’s claim.⁹

Foreclosure Requirements

Before foreclosing, the association must send at least 30 days’ written notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, to the owner at the unit address and any other address the owner has given. The notice must state the amount due, any late charges, and the interest rate. No foreclosure is allowed unless the lien amount is at least $2,000. If the association is the winning bidder at the sale, it can hold, lease, or resell the unit.⁹

The lien lapses four years after the assessment first became due. After that, the association can still chase the debt as a personal obligation of the owner, but the lien against the unit itself expires.⁹

Special Assessments and Reserves

Associations can levy special assessments when the operating budget cannot cover a cost. Common triggers are emergency repairs to roofs, plumbing, or foundations, capital projects on shared facilities, and disaster damage above insurance limits. Special assessments follow the same allocation formula as regular common expenses and carry the same lien rights if unpaid.⁸

Georgia does not require associations to fund reserves at any particular level. The Act requires that resale disclosures include budget line items for deferred maintenance reserves and depreciation reserves, but that is transparency, not a funding mandate. An underfunded association is not violating the statute, so buyers should read the reserve lines in the budget carefully. A thin reserve balance is often a leading indicator of a special assessment.

Insurance the Association Must Carry

The Act puts insurance duties on the association rather than on individual owners. The association must maintain property insurance covering all buildings and structures at full insurable replacement cost. That coverage includes common elements, foundations, roofs, exterior walls (including windows and doors), HVAC systems, interior walls and ceilings, flooring, plumbing and electrical fixtures, built-in cabinetry, and major appliances as originally installed or replaced in kind.¹⁰

The association must also carry commercial general liability coverage of at least $1 million per occurrence and $2 million in the aggregate. That policy has to cover the association, its board and officers, employees and agents, all unit owners, and anyone else entitled to occupy any part of the property, for incidents tied to use or maintenance of common areas.¹⁰

What the association’s property policy does not cover: post-purchase upgrades you made inside your unit, your personal belongings, and additional living expenses if the unit becomes uninhabitable. A condo owner’s (HO-6) policy fills those gaps, and most lenders require one.

Amending the Declaration and Bylaws

Changing the condominium instruments requires the agreement of owners holding at least two-thirds of the votes in the association.¹¹ The declaration can set a higher bar, but since 1990 no amendment can require more than 80 percent of the votes and 80 percent of the voting interest of mortgaged units.

While the developer still has the right to expand the condominium or still controls the association, any amendment needs both the developer’s agreement and two-thirds of the non-developer unit owner votes.¹¹ Purely commercial condominiums, where no unit is restricted to residential use, can set a lower threshold in the declaration.

Resale Disclosures and the Seven-Day Right to Void

When a condo unit is resold, the seller must give the buyer specific documents, and the buyer can void the contract until at least seven days after receiving all of them.¹² Required items include:

Floor plan of the unit
Declaration and all recorded amendments
Articles of incorporation and bylaws, with amendments
Any ground lease or underlying lease
Management and maintenance contracts with terms longer than one year (contracts renewable without association consent count as exceeding one year)
Operating budget for the current year, itemizing administration, management fees, maintenance, taxes, insurance, security, operating capital, reserves for deferred maintenance, reserves for depreciation, and other reserves
Per-unit expense schedule showing assessments, rent for leasehold units, and any fees payable directly to a lessor
Recreational facility leases, whether exclusive to owners or shared with others

The seven-day window is real leverage. If the seller skips even one required item, the clock never starts, and the buyer keeps the right to walk. Use the window to read the budget, check reserve levels, and look at any long-term contracts binding the association.¹²

Fair Housing Duties

Condo associations in Georgia must comply with the federal Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability.¹³ For boards, the recurring issues are disability accommodations and familial-status restrictions.

Associations must allow reasonable modifications to units and common areas at the disabled owner’s expense when needed for full enjoyment of the property, and must make reasonable accommodations in their rules. A no-pets rule, for example, has to yield to a properly documented request for an assistance animal, and charging pet fees or deposits for an assistance animal violates federal law.¹³

An owner who believes the association discriminated can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development online, by phone at 1-800-669-9777, or by mail. HUD lists homeowners associations as entities complaints can be filed against, and retaliation against anyone who participates in the process is illegal. Filing deadlines apply, so acting promptly matters.¹⁴

Handling Disputes With Your Association

Most owner-association fights are about assessments, maintenance responsibilities, rule enforcement, or architectural modifications. The Georgia Condominium Act does not require mediation or arbitration; those procedures, if any exist, come from the association’s own governing documents. Well-drafted bylaws often include internal grievance procedures, mediation requirements, or arbitration clauses that owners must follow before going to court.

Whether or not the bylaws set out a formal process, use internal channels first. Put complaints in writing, keep copies of every communication, and attend any hearing or committee meeting the board offers. Condo litigation is expensive relative to the sums usually in dispute, and Georgia courts generally expect parties to have tried to resolve things informally. If the underlying issue is discrimination, the HUD complaint process runs independently of any state court claim.

1
Justia. Georgia Code Title 44, Chapter 3, Article 3 – Condominiums
2
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-72 – Creation of Condominium
3
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-78 – Allocation – Interests in Common Elements
4
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-100 – Incorporation of Association; Name
5
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-101 – Control of Association by Declarant; Surrender of Control to Unit Owners; Liability for Books and Records; Cancellation of Leases and Contracts
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-102 – Meetings of the Association; Notice
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-79 – Allocation – Votes in Association; How Votes Cast; Majority Vote Requirements
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-80 – Allocation of and Liability for Common Expenses; How Assessments Made
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-109 – Lien for Assessments; Personal Obligation of Unit Owner; Notice and Foreclosure; Lapse; Right to Statement of Assessments; Effect of Failure to Furnish Statement
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-107 – Insurance Coverage
11
FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 44 Property 44-3-93 – Amendment of Condominium Instruments
12
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-111 – Sales of Residential Condominium Units
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing and Other Prohibited Practices
14
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Report Housing Discrimination