Georgia HOA Assessment Liens and Foreclosure Limits

Start with the question most Georgia owners get wrong: the Property Owners' Association Act does not apply automatically. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-235(a)(1) says only that "This article shall apply to all property which is submitted to this article," and the Code's own heading for § 44-3-222 describes the creation of a property owners' development and the "affirmative election to be governed by article." A great many Georgia subdivisions recorded covenants and formed an association but never made that election. In those neighborhoods the recorded declaration, not the $2,000.00 statutory floor, sets the collection rules. Before arguing about the statute, read the declaration and any recorded amendment to see whether it states an election to be governed by Article 6.

Where the article does apply, unpaid assessments become a lien on the lot and O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232(c) controls how that lien turns into a foreclosure. The association must first send notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, to two places: the address of the lot itself, and any other address the owner has given the association in writing. That notice has to state the amount of assessments then due, the authorized late charges, and the rate of interest running on them. Thirty days after the notice goes out, the association may sue, and the lien is foreclosed "by an action, judgment, and court order for foreclosure in the same manner as other liens for the improvement of real property." There is no power of sale. A Georgia association cannot advertise a nonjudicial foreclosure the way a mortgage holder can; it has to file suit and win a judgment.

Two limits inside that same subsection do most of the protective work. First, no foreclosure action is permitted at all unless the lien is at least $2,000.00, so a few months of ordinary dues will not reach the courthouse. Second, the lien for assessments lapses and is of no further effect four years after the assessment or installment first became due and payable, which stops an association from reviving decade old charges. The statute also preserves senior interests in terms: a court order for judicial foreclosure "shall not affect the rights of holders of superior liens or encumbrances to exercise any rights or powers afforded to them under their security instruments." In practice the association foreclosure delivers the lot subject to the first mortgage, and the association, which may bid at the sale and then acquire, hold, lease, encumber and convey the lot, takes it with that mortgage still attached.

One protection is already newer than the rest. Section 7 of the Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act took effect on July 1, 2026 and applies to all actions filed on or after that date. It adds subsections (f) and (g) to O.C.G.A. § 44-3-235: before an association may collect or be awarded attorney's fees it must send an initial written notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery identifying the outstanding fines or delinquent fees, give the owner 30 days from receipt of that notice to pay, and produce an itemized list of the fees claimed. A judge conducting a bench trial on assessments must review the fee claim for reasonableness and enter an order saying the fees were reasonable before any award. The only carve out is for emergency conditions involving public safety or preservation of association property.

The rest of that Act arrives on January 1, 2027 and changes the numbers above. The notice period in § 44-3-232(c) goes from 30 days to 60. The flat $2,000.00 foreclosure floor is replaced by the lesser of $4,000.00 or an amount equal to 12 months of regular assessments in arrears, but never less than $2,000.00, and no specific assessment, fine or fee may be counted toward that threshold. The lien's four year life becomes six years. Separately, new O.C.G.A. Chapter 43-17A requires every owners' association to register with the Georgia Secretary of State, filing its governing documents, a registration statement naming its officers, and a financial statement dated no more than one year before filing, paying $100.00 on registration and on each annual renewal, and keeping records of assessments, fines, fees, liens and foreclosures for at least ten years. From that date § 43-17A-2(a)(2)(A) provides that no owners' association or its agent may collect fines or fees against any owner, or file or record liens or initiate foreclosure proceedings against any lot, unless the association is registered. An association may instead give the Secretary of State written notice electing not to register, but a nonregistered association may not assess or collect fines, fees or accelerated assessments at all. Chapter 43-17A also fixes the order in which an owner's money must be applied, regular assessments first, then special assessments, then specific assessments, then other fees and fines, which stops an association from putting a payment toward fines while the assessment balance climbs toward the foreclosure threshold.

Condominiums run on a different article of the same chapter. The condominium assessment lien arises under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109, and House Bill 220 of 2024 rewrote § 44-3-76 so that a condominium association may terminate water, gas, electricity, heat or air conditioning that it supplies to a unit for unpaid assessments only after final judgments totaling more than $750.00, with the cost of terminating and restoring the service itself becoming an assessment and a lien against the unit.

Collection starts with the association's own notice, not with a court. § 44-3-232(c), the association may sue and ask for a judgment and an order of foreclosure. There is no nonjudicial power of sale in the Property Owners' Association Act, so a Georgia owner always gets a lawsuit and a chance to answer. 00, or if more than four years have passed since the assessment first became due and payable, the foreclosure claim fails on the face of the statute and the association is left to pursue the money as an ordinary debt.

Attorney's fees are now a separate fight: for any action filed on or after July 1, 2026 the association must show it sent the written pre-suit notice, allowed 30 days from receipt for payment, and served an itemized list of fees, and the judge must enter an order finding the fees reasonable before awarding them. From January 1, 2027 an owner served with a lien can also check the Secretary of State's register, because an unregistered owners' association may not file or record a lien or start a foreclosure, and can file a written complaint with the Secretary of State within 180 days of the association's action or inaction.

A hearing officer is appointed to investigate, the filing operates as an automatic stay on the association's collection efforts, and the parties have 15 days after the officer's findings to satisfy them before anyone may sue to enforce the claim.