Georgia Property Owners Association Act: Assessments, Liens, and Voting

The Georgia Property Owners’ Association Act, codified at O.C.G.A. 44-3-220 through 44-3-235, is the state statute that governs planned communities other than condominiums. It sets the ground rules for how an association collects assessments, records liens, forecloses on delinquent lots, fines rule-breakers, holds meetings, and amends its declaration. Just as important, it draws limits on what an association cannot do to owners, and those limits are where most disputes turn.

Which Communities the Act Applies To

The Act only governs a development if its declaration was formally submitted to the Act and expressly says so, signed by all owners of the submitted property at the time of recording.¹ Communities that predate the Act’s July 1, 1994 effective date can opt in by amending their declaration to conform.² Not every HOA in Georgia is covered. If your declaration does not opt in, your community is governed by its own recorded documents and general Georgia contract and property law, not this statute.

Condominiums are excluded. They fall under the separate Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. 44-3-70 et seq.), and the Property Owners’ Association Act does not reach them unless a condominium sits inside a larger mixed development with non-condominium lots.²

Assessments You Are Obligated to Pay

Every lot owner in a covered community is personally liable for the assessments the association levies. You cannot get out from under that obligation by abandoning the lot, refusing to use the common areas, or simply opting out.³

Assessments are not always spread evenly. If a common expense benefits only certain lots, the board can specially assess those lots. If damage to common areas is caused by a particular owner or that owner’s guests, the association can bill the responsible lot directly.³

Associations must keep detailed and accurate financial records, including itemized receipts and expenditures.⁴ The statute itself does not require the board to prepare or distribute an annual budget. If your community does that, it’s because the declaration or bylaws say so, not the Act.

Liens and Foreclosure on Unpaid Assessments

Unpaid assessments automatically become a lien on the lot. That lien beats most other claims, with three exceptions: county and municipal ad valorem tax liens, first-priority mortgages (plus any mortgage recorded before the declaration), and secondary purchase money mortgages so long as the mortgage holder is not the seller or a successor of the seller. Everything else, including ordinary second mortgages, falls behind the association’s lien.⁵

Foreclosure is available, but it is judicial only. A court order is required, and several conditions have to be met first. The unpaid balance must reach at least $2,000 before the association can file suit. At least 30 days before filing, the association must send notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, to the lot address and any other address the owner has provided in writing. The notice must state the total amount due, including authorized late charges and accruing interest.⁵

If the declaration authorizes it, the association can add late charges capped at the greater of $10 or 10 percent of the overdue amount, and interest capped at 10 percent per year. Reasonable attorney’s fees actually incurred and court costs are also recoverable.⁵

There is a limitation that favors owners. The lien expires on any amounts that first became due more than three years before the association sent the required foreclosure notice, or more than three years before it filed suit if suit was not filed within 90 days of the notice. Associations that let delinquent accounts sit lose the ability to foreclose on the older balances.

Fines, Suspensions, and What the Association Cannot Do

Every lot owner, and anyone entitled to occupy a lot, must comply with the declaration, bylaws, and any reasonable rules the association adopts and provides to owners. When someone doesn’t, the association can sue for damages, seek an injunction, or pursue any other legal remedy. Individual owners can bring enforcement actions too, including as a class.⁶

Fines are allowed only when the governing instrument authorizes them, and even then the Act sets hard limits:

Fines cannot affect an owner’s voting rights.
The association can suspend voting rights and access to common areas and services for owners who fall behind on regular or special assessments, but it cannot deny the owner or occupants physical access to their lot.
No owner can be stripped of the right to vote in board elections based solely on unpaid fines.

Before seeking injunctive relief, the association generally has to give notice in the manner the declaration prescribes, or at least ten days’ written notice if the declaration is silent. That notice requirement drops away only when the violation creates a clear and immediate danger to life, person, or property, or when waiting would defeat the point of the injunction.⁶

Meetings, Voting, and Records

The association must hold at least one meeting per year. Annual or regularly scheduled meetings require at least 21 days’ advance notice; special meetings require at least seven days’ notice. Every notice has to state the time, place, and, for special meetings, the purpose. Notice can go by mail, statutory overnight delivery, or electronically under Georgia’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.⁷

If the board skips the annual meeting past the end of the fiscal year, owners holding as little as 5 percent of the voting power can call the meeting themselves. The declaration can raise that threshold, but not above 25 percent.⁷ Proxy voting is allowed, and when a lot has multiple owners, any one of them can cast the vote as long as no co-owner objects at the meeting.⁸

Records the association must keep include detailed minutes of all member and board meetings, itemized financial records of receipts and expenditures, and any other books required by law or needed to accurately reflect the association’s activities.⁴ The specific process for owners to inspect or copy those records is typically set in the bylaws, not the statute.

Amending the Declaration

Amending the declaration takes the agreement of owners holding at least two-thirds of the voting power. The declaration can set the bar higher, but the Act caps the ceiling at 80 percent of the lot owner vote and 80 percent of the voting interest of mortgaged lots. No declaration can demand more than that.⁹

Two protections limit what an amendment can do even when the vote clears:

If the original developer still owns at least one lot primarily for sale, no amendment can put greater restrictions on how the developer uses or develops its remaining lots without the developer’s written consent.
An amendment cannot retroactively ban or restrict leasing on a lot that was already non-owner-occupied and rented for initial terms of six months or longer under the old rules. Once that lot is sold for $100 or more, the new owner has to comply with the amended restrictions.

The rental-restriction protections were refined by a 2020 amendment to the Act (2020 Ga. Laws 573), effective January 1, 2021.⁹

Buying a Lot With Unpaid Assessments

Buy a lot in a covered community, and you inherit the seller’s delinquent assessment debt. The statute makes buyer and seller jointly and severally liable for all assessments owed up to closing, so the association can pursue either of you for the full balance. You can chase the seller for reimbursement afterward, but that’s a separate fight.³

The safeguard: either party can request a statement of amounts due from the association under O.C.G.A. 44-3-232. If you get that statement before closing, your liability for pre-closing unpaid assessments is limited to what the statement discloses. Always request it before you close.

Federal Laws That Can Override the Association

The Act does not stand alone. Several federal statutes can override or constrain what an association does in specific situations.

When a lot owner files bankruptcy, the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 takes effect immediately. The association cannot file or continue a foreclosure, record a new lien for pre-petition assessments, or take any other collection action on debts that arose before the filing.¹⁰ Assessments that accrue after the petition is filed are generally outside the stay, but the safer course is to consult bankruptcy counsel before recording anything.

An association collecting its own assessments generally isn’t a “debt collector” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Once the account goes to an outside attorney or collection agency, that third party is a debt collector and must follow FDCPA rules, including a written validation notice within five days of first contact that specifies the debt amount and the creditor’s identity.¹¹

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3953) protects active-duty military members from foreclosure on property-secured obligations that originated before their service period. A sale, foreclosure, or seizure for breach of such an obligation is invalid during active duty and for one year afterward unless a court orders otherwise.¹² A knowing violation is a federal misdemeanor, so an association considering foreclosure against a servicemember should verify military status and get legal advice before proceeding.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-222 – Creation of Property Owners Development
2
FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 44 Property 44-3-235 – Application of Article
3
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-225 – Assessment of Expenses; Exemption From Liability; Liability for Unpaid Assessments
4
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-231 – Powers and Duties of Association
5
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-232 – Assessments Against Lot Owners as Constituting Lien in Favor of Association
6
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-223 – Compliance With Provisions of Instrument and With Rules and Regulations; Penalties for Noncompliance
7
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-230 – Frequency of Meetings; Notice
8
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-224 – Voting at Association Meetings
9
Justia. Georgia Code 44-3-226 – Amendment of Instrument
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
11
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1006.34 – Notice for Validation of Debts
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3953 – Mortgages and Trust Deeds