Alpharetta, GA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Article III of Chapter 8, standing on the single operative Section 8-47, adopts by reference 'the latest edition of the International Property Maintenance Code, as adopted and amended by the state department of community affairs, and as further amended by Ordinance Number 735.' That adoption makes the Property Maintenance Code, not a locally drafted housing ordinance, the standard against which the city measures habitability, sanitation and upkeep for rental and owner-occupied property alike inside Alpharetta. Because the code adopts the state department of community affairs' amended edition rather than freezing a fixed year, the applicable standard updates automatically as the state revises it, and Section 8-5 provides that if any adopted publication is less stringent than the current state minimum code, the state's edition controls.

Section 8-1 designates the 'code enforcement officer' as 'the qualified code enforcement official as designated by the city,' the position responsible for field inspections under this article, while the building official retains general authority over permits and compliance for the chapter. A copy of Ordinance Number 735 and the adopted Property Maintenance Code edition is kept on file for public review, and a tenant or inspector citing a maintenance defect points to this adoption clause as the legal basis for the standard being applied, since Chapter 8 does not restate the maintenance code's substantive requirements in its own text.