3 rules for unincorporated Columbia County, Georgia.
Verified from official government sources
Rent control is illegal in Columbia County. Georgia's O.C.G.A. §44-7-19 bars every county and city from regulating the rent charged on private residential property, so landlords across Evans, Martinez, Grovetown, and Harlem set and raise rents at market.
O.C.G.A. §44-7-19
No county or municipal corporation may enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single-family or multiple-unit residential rental property.
Georgia has no just-cause eviction law, and Columbia County cannot add one. A landlord demands possession under O.C.G.A. §44-7-50, then files a dispossessory action in magistrate court. A tenant leaves only on a court order.
O.C.G.A. §44-7-50(a)
In all cases when a tenant holds possession of lands or tenements over and beyond the term for which they were rented or leased to such tenant or fails to pay the rent when it becomes due...
Columbia County runs no registration program for long-term rentals — a landlord needs no county rental permit to lease a house in Evans or Martinez. Short-term rentals are the exception, falling under the county's short-term rental ordinance and monthly lodging tax.
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