Georgia HOA Board Elections

Section 1: Overview

Georgia does not run every HOA election under a single statute. The framework depends on what kind of community you have. Condominium boards hold their elections under the Georgia Condominium Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq.¹ Planned communities answer to the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (POAA), O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq. — but only where the recorded declaration affirmatively elects to be governed by the Act under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222.^2,3 A planned community that never opted in does not fall under the POAA, no matter how it operates. Its board elections run on the recorded covenants and bylaws, and the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq., supplies the corporate defaults for electing directors, setting terms, removing them, and filling vacancies.⁴ Georgia has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Both the Condominium Act and the POAA are Georgia's own statutes, so the board-governance and deemed-ratification features of UCIOA simply do not apply.¹ That places Georgia among the non-UCIOA states that pair a comprehensive condominium statute with an opt-in planned-community statute — distinct from the states that regulate every association alike, and distinct from the states that leave planned communities almost entirely to contract. The sections that follow walk through each framework and the operational mechanics that turn on which one governs.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Georgia Condominium Act and condominium board elections

A condominium exists in Georgia only after someone records a declaration submitting the property to the Condominium Act.¹ The Act requires the association to incorporate, and it requires the declarant to appoint the first board and see that officers are elected; the executive-board and association provisions sit at O.C.G.A. § 44-3-100 and following.⁵ The Act draws a hard line on how long the declarant can stay in control. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-101, the declarant's authority to appoint and remove directors ends at the earliest of three moments: the deadline written into the condominium instruments, the conveyance of units representing four-fifths of the undivided interests in the common elements, or three years after the declaration is recorded for a non-expandable condominium — seven years for an expandable one. When that moment arrives, control passes automatically to the unit owners.⁶ The same section lets owners ask a superior court to order an election and transfer control if the declarant defaults on its listed duties.⁶ The Act also sets the meeting and notice rules (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-102) and the quorum rules (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-103).^7,8 What the Act leaves alone is most of the election machinery. Board size, director terms, term limits, staggering, how candidates get nominated, and the vote needed to win all fall to the condominium instruments and bylaws. A director-eligibility requirement such as unit ownership applies only if the instruments impose it under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-104.⁹ Unlike UCIOA, the Act carries no deemed-ratification framework. And unlike California's prescriptive election statute, it does not require secret ballots, inspectors of election, or fixed nomination procedures.

2B. The opt-in Property Owners' Association Act

The POAA governs a planned community only where the declaration, or a recorded amendment, affirmatively elects to be governed by the Act under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222.³ Whether a community has opted in is a documentary question, and you answer it by reading the record. An editor or manager confirms that the recorded declaration expressly submits the development to the POAA — not merely that the community calls itself a "POA" or behaves like one. Once a community has opted in, the POAA supplies a structured set of election-adjacent rules: incorporation as a prerequisite and declarant appointment of the first board under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-227, annual meeting and notice rules under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-230, quorum rules under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-228, proxy voting under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-224, and an owner-takeover remedy when the declarant defaults under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232.1.^{10,11,12,13,14} That leads to the central Georgia distinction: a planned community that never recorded an opt-in is not a POAA community, and quoting POAA mechanics to its board is simply an error.

2C. Non-opt-in associations, corporate law, and the bylaws

For a non-opt-in association, the recorded covenants and bylaws are the primary source of board-election rules. The Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code fills the corporate gaps: O.C.G.A. § 14-3-803 governs the number of directors, § 14-3-804 their election, § 14-3-805 their terms (a one-year default when the articles or bylaws say nothing), § 14-3-808 removal, and § 14-3-811 vacancies, with an annual-meeting requirement at § 14-3-701.^{15,16,17,18,19} The Nonprofit Corporation Code is corporate scaffolding, not an HOA election statute. It supplies director defaults and nothing more; it imposes no HOA-specific election procedure. The order of precedence runs like this: the applicable property statute first (the Condominium Act, or the POAA where a community opted in), then the declaration and covenants, then the bylaws, then the Nonprofit Corporation Code gap-fillers, and finally the board's own rules. The practical lesson is that a manager has to figure out which framework governs before quoting any Georgia board-election rule. One related caution: the covenants of a non-opt-in association can lapse twenty years after recording under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60, unless the community sits inside a municipality, provides for automatic renewal, or submits to the POAA, whose covenants renew automatically. That is a covenant-enforcement issue, not a board-election rule.²⁰

Section 3: Election mechanics

A. Eligibility and nominations

For condominiums, a requirement that a director be a unit owner applies only if the condominium instruments impose it (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-104), and the parallel rule for opted-in planned communities sits at O.C.G.A. § 44-3-229.^9,22 Nomination methods are bylaw-set in all three categories. Neither the Condominium Act nor the POAA prescribes a nomination procedure, and for a non-opt-in association any eligibility or nomination rule is contractual rather than imposed by a comprehensive HOA statute.

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Condominiums and opted-in planned communities must hold a members' meeting at least annually, with at least 21 days' notice for an annual or regularly scheduled meeting and at least 7 days for other meetings (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-102, 44-3-230).^7,11 For an opted-in community, the members' quorum is more than one-third of votes unless the instrument or bylaws provide otherwise (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-228); for a condominium, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-103 and the instruments govern quorum.^8,12 A non-opt-in association draws its annual-meeting obligation from the Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-701), and the bylaws set its notice and quorum figures.¹⁹

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

The POAA expressly authorizes proxy voting for opted-in communities and limits proxy revocation (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-224).¹³ The Condominium Act and the POAA do not mandate absentee or electronic ballots for board elections, so any such method is bylaw-set; for a non-opt-in association, the covenants and bylaws set voting methods, supplemented by the Nonprofit Corporation Code. Neither statute imposes cumulative voting; it applies only if a community's documents adopt it.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

Because condominium associations and POAA associations must incorporate, and most non-opt-in associations are incorporated nonprofits, the Nonprofit Corporation Code supplies the director-term, removal, and vacancy defaults across all three categories.^5,10 The articles or bylaws set director terms, defaulting to one year where silent (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-805); members may remove a director with or without cause, subject to the Code's procedure, and a board-elected director may be removed by two-thirds of the directors then in office (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-808); vacancies are filled as the Code provides, with the replacement serving the unexpired term (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-811).^16,17,18 For condominiums and opted-in communities, the statutes add declarant-control termination and owner-takeover remedies (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-101, 44-3-232.1); for non-opt-in associations, these mechanics are contractual.^6,14

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two recent Georgia enactments bear on board elections and on an association's authority to act.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published Georgia appellate decision in the past 36 months squarely addresses a contested board election, a declarant-control transition, a director removal, or an election proxy dispute in a common-interest community. The controlling Georgia authority on election irregularities remains a pair of 2013 Court of Appeals of Georgia decisions, which predate the 36-month window but still stand.

C. Active legislative debates

After SB 406's 2026 enactment, attention has turned to its January 1, 2027 implementation rather than to new election-specific amendments to the Condominium Act or the POAA. No pending proposal would create a comprehensive planned-community statute to displace the POAA opt-in structure.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Georgia sits among the non-UCIOA states that combine a comprehensive condominium statute with an opt-in planned-community statute. That sets it apart from comprehensive-statute states such as California, Florida, and Texas, which apply detailed governance rules across community types, and from CC&R-primary states such as Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, which leave planned communities largely to their recorded covenants. Here is Georgia's defining feature for this topic: the POAA governs board elections only where a community has opted in, so the controlling rules turn on the recorded declaration rather than on the community's label or how it behaves. For a multi-state operator moving into Georgia, the first task is documentary. Confirm whether a given community is a condominium, an opted-in POAA community, or a non-opt-in association before you rely on any statutory election rule, because the wrong assumption imports rules that do not apply.

HOA Weekly updates its Georgia board-elections coverage every quarter as the legislature and the courts act. Several federal frameworks reach Georgia associations too, no matter which state framework governs — among them the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

1. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq., Georgia Condominium Act, official Code of Georgia (Georgia General Assembly public access) ↩
2. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq., Georgia Property Owners' Association Act ↩
3. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222, creation of property owners' development; affirmative election to be governed by article ↩
4. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq., Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code ↩
5. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-100, incorporation and annual registration; appointment of first board and election of officers ↩
6. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-101, control of association by declarant; surrender of control to unit owners ↩
7. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-102, meetings of the association; notice; reports (21 days' notice for annual or regularly scheduled meetings, 7 days for others) ↩
8. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-103, quorums at meetings of association or board ↩
9. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-104, directors and officers; eligibility ↩
10. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-227, incorporation as prerequisite to submission; declarant appointment of first board ↩
11. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-230, frequency of meetings; notice (21 days' notice for annual or regularly scheduled meetings, 7 days for others) ↩
12. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-228, presence of quorums at meetings (more than one-third of votes unless the instrument or bylaws provide otherwise) ↩
13. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-224, voting at association meetings; proxies ↩
14. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232.1, right of certain property owners to take control of association when declarant fails to meet obligations ↩
15. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-803, number of directors (minimum of three for non-member corporations created on or after July 1, 2023) ↩
16. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-805, terms of directors (one-year default where articles or bylaws are silent) ↩
17. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-808, removal of directors elected by members or directors (two-thirds of directors for a board-elected director) ↩
18. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-811, vacancies on the board ↩
19. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-701, annual and regular meetings ↩
20. O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60, covenants running with the land; twenty-year duration and exceptions ↩
21. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-806, staggered terms for directors ↩
22. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-229, persons deemed to be "lot owner" ↩
23. House Bill 220 (Act 388), 2023-2024 regular session, as passed (legis.ga.gov) ↩
24. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223, as amended by HB 220 (2024) ↩
25. Senate Bill 406 (Act 715), 2025-2026 regular session, Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act (legis.ga.gov) ↩
26. McGee v. Patterson, 323 Ga. App. 103, 746 S.E.2d 719 (2013), Court of Appeals of Georgia ↩
27. Hall v. Town Creek Neighborhood Ass'n, 320 Ga. App. 897, 740 S.E.2d 816 (2013), Court of Appeals of Georgia ↩