Georgia HOA Budget Approval

Section 1: Overview — How HOA budgets are approved in Georgia

Georgia splits its budget rules by community type. Condominiums fall under the Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq.). Planned communities fall under the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq.) — but only if they opt in. A planned community that never opts in answers instead to its recorded declaration and the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code.¹ That opt-in structure defines how Georgia works. The POAA governs a planned community only when the declaration expressly elects to be governed by it under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222, so a manager cannot assume the statute runs a given subdivision.² Both statutes follow the same budget model: the board adopts the budget under the declaration and bylaws. Neither statute adds a negative-option ratification step, so owners do not ratify the budget — they live under it unless the documents give them a way to reject it.³ Neither statute mandates a reserve study or a minimum level of reserve funding, though the Condominium Act does carry a condominium-specific limit on certain assessment increases that many practitioners miss.⁴ In national terms, Georgia is a comprehensive-condominium, opt-in-planned-community, non-UCIOA state, set apart from the negative-option model that UCIOA jurisdictions use.⁵ The table and the per-track sequence below lay out who adopts the budget, what notice and reporting the law requires, and where the declaration takes over.

Section 2: The budget approval mechanism

2A. Quick-Reference Budget Mechanics Table

This table reflects the Georgia Condominium Act for condominiums and the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act for planned communities that have opted in under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222. Planned communities that have not opted in are governed by their recorded declarations and the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, not by the POAA.

2B. The budget process under each statute

For condominiums, the Condominium Act says nothing about the precise budget-adoption procedure, so the recorded declaration and bylaws decide who prepares and adopts the annual budget. The Act assumes a board-adopted, declaration-driven budget, not a negative-option ratification. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-102, the association holds an annual meeting on at least 21 days' notice, and at that meeting it presents comprehensive reports of the association's affairs, finances, and budget projections to unit owners.¹² That is a reporting step, not a ratification vote. The Act also separates adopting the budget from levying the assessment. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-80(c), the association assesses common expenses that are not specially assessed against the units according to the allocation in the declaration, and it makes those assessments annually or more often if the instruments allow.²⁰ The Condominium Act constrains the board directly in just one place, § 44-3-80(g): for instruments recorded on or after July 1, 2015, a special assessment that exceeds one-sixth of the annual common expense assessment per unit needs the approval of a majority of unit owners, and owners holding a majority of the association vote may disapprove a monthly maintenance fee increase above the Consumer Price Index rate.⁴ During declarant control, § 44-3-101 requires the declarant to prepare an annual operating budget, set the annual assessment, and distribute the budget and notice of assessment under the instruments no later than 30 days after the fiscal year begins; a failure to do so is one of the triggers that lets owners seek control of the association.¹⁰

For opt-in planned communities, the POAA is just as silent on the budget-adoption mechanics, leaving them to the recorded declaration and bylaws, and it adds no negative-option ratification step. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-230 mirrors the condominium meeting structure: an annual meeting on at least 21 days' notice, where the association presents comprehensive reports of its affairs, finances, and budget projections to lot owners.¹³ O.C.G.A. § 44-3-225 governs how the association assesses and allocates expenses and confirms that no lot owner can escape assessment liability, but it sets no statutory approval threshold for the budget or for special assessments, so the declaration controls.¹⁴ As with condominiums, § 44-3-232.1 puts a declarant-control obligation on the declarant to prepare and distribute the annual operating budget and notice of assessment, and owners can enforce it through a takeover action.¹¹ Neither statute requires owner ratification of the budget. The board adopts it under the governing documents and then levies the assessment.

2C. The opt-in mechanism, non-opt-in communities, and the corporate-law overlay

A planned community comes under the POAA only by an affirmative election. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222, a development enters the Act when the declaration — or an amendment to an existing declaration — expressly submits the property to the Act and conforms the instrument to it.² When a community elects coverage, the biggest change is the automatic statutory lien for assessments under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232, which attaches without a separately recorded claim of lien and brings with it the Act's collection, late-charge, interest, and amendment machinery.²¹ The budget-adoption mechanics, though, do not move: the POAA adds no statutory ratification step, so adoption stays declaration-driven before and after the opt-in. Planned communities that never opt in answer to their recorded covenants and the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq.), with no HOA-specific statutory budget mechanism at all.¹ The Nonprofit Corporation Code is a corporate-formality code, not an HOA statute. It supplies the scaffolding for directors, officers, member meetings, notice, and recordkeeping, but it sets no budget-approval threshold and grants no assessment authority.²² For a non-opt-in community, the budget process lives entirely in the declaration and bylaws, backed by general corporate-governance duties.

Section 3: Budget-adjacent obligations

Reserves in the budget

Neither the Condominium Act nor the POAA imposes a statutory reserve-study requirement or a minimum level of reserve funding.¹⁷ The Condominium Act mentions reserves in its declarant-control restrictions (§ 44-3-80(d)) and requires the first residential resale disclosure to itemize reserves (§ 44-3-111), but it does not require funding any particular amount.¹⁸ The declaration and the board's own judgment govern how deep the reserves run and how often the association studies them.

Special assessments

For condominiums, § 44-3-80(g) sets a statutory threshold for instruments recorded on or after July 1, 2015: a special assessment that exceeds one-sixth of the annual common expense assessment per unit needs majority owner approval.⁴ For opt-in planned communities, the POAA sets no statutory special-assessment threshold; § 44-3-225 allocates such assessments but leaves approval to the declaration.¹⁴ For non-opt-in communities, the declaration alone controls.

Assessment increase limits

Outside the condominium monthly-maintenance-fee provision in § 44-3-80(g)(2), which lets owners holding a majority of the vote disapprove an increase above the CPI rate, Georgia sets no statutory percentage cap on assessment increases under either statute.⁴ For planned communities, and for general operating-budget increases, the declaration sets the cap, if there is one.

Financial review, audit, and disclosure tied to the budget cycle

Neither statute requires an independent audit. The Condominium Act requires comprehensive reports of the association's affairs, finances, and budget projections at the annual meeting (§ 44-3-102).¹² The POAA requires the same annual reporting (§ 44-3-230) and separately requires the association to keep detailed and accurate financial records, including itemized records of all receipts and expenditures (§ 44-3-231(d)).¹⁹ Non-opt-in communities are bound only by their declaration and the recordkeeping defaults of the Nonprofit Corporation Code.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two recent measures bear on how Georgia associations fund and administer their budgets — one signed in 2026 that reworks collection mechanics, and one from 2024 that reshaped enforcement.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia in the past 36 months squarely interprets the budget-adoption or assessment-approval provisions of the Condominium Act or the POAA. The recent condominium appeals in that window have turned on tort, expert-testimony, and rule-enforcement questions rather than budget or assessment mechanics.²⁶ One older case still shapes the landscape: in Deerlake Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Brown, 361 Ga. App. 860, 864 S.E.2d 202 (Ga. Ct. App. Oct. 26, 2021) (No. A21A1090), the court found it unreasonable for the association to fine an owner $80,225 over an unrepaired mailbox instead of using self-help. That decision prompted HB 220, but it falls outside the 36-month window and concerned enforcement remedies, not the budget.²⁷

C. Active legislative debates

The main active development is the staged rollout of SB 406, whose registration, payment-application, and foreclosure-threshold provisions take effect January 1, 2027. No pending proposal would adopt a negative-option budget ratification model or a statutory reserve mandate.²³

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Georgia is a comprehensive-condominium, opt-in-planned-community, non-UCIOA state. Its condominium statute is prescriptive on assessments, meetings, and declarant turnover, yet neither it nor the POAA imports the negative-option budget ratification of the UCIOA family, under which a board-proposed budget takes effect unless a supermajority of owners rejects it.⁵ Georgia also parts ways with California's Davis-Stirling Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b)), under which a board "may not impose a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year or impose special assessments which in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses" without majority-quorum member approval, and with Hawaii, which under HRS § 514B-148 requires condominium budgets to include estimated replacement reserves based on a reserve study that an independent preparer reviews or updates at least every three years.²⁸ For a multi-state operator entering Georgia, the opt-in structure comes first. Before you map any budget or assessment workflow to a planned community, determine whether the declaration has expressly submitted the community to the POAA, because that single fact decides whether the statutory lien and collection machinery apply or whether the community runs on its covenants and the Nonprofit Corporation Code alone.

Federal frameworks — including 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 — apply to Georgia associations no matter what the state budget framework says.

1. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-235 (Applicability of Article); O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 (Condominium Act short title); O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq. (Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code) ↩
2. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222 (Creation of Property Owners' Development; Affirmative Election to Be Governed by Article) ↩
3. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-102 (Meetings of the association; notice; reports) and O.C.G.A. § 44-3-230 (Frequency of meetings; notice), reflecting reporting (not ratification) of the budget; neither statute provides a negative-option ratification step ↩
4. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-80(g) (special assessment per unit above one-sixth of the annual common expense assessment requires majority owner approval, and monthly maintenance fee increase above CPI is subject to majority disapproval, for instruments recorded on or after July 1, 2015) ↩
5. Community Associations Institute, Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) — list of adopting states does not include Georgia ↩
6. O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 3, Article 3 (Condominiums), §§ 44-3-70 through 44-3-117 ↩
7. O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 3, Article 6 (Property Owners' Associations), §§ 44-3-220 through 44-3-235 ↩
8. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-80(c) (assessments made by the association according to the declaration's allocation); the Condominium Act prescribes no budget-adoption procedure, leaving it to the declaration and bylaws ↩
9. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-225 (Assessment of Expenses); the POAA prescribes no budget-adoption procedure or ratification step, leaving it to the declaration and bylaws ↩
10. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-101 (declarant must prepare an annual operating budget, establish the annual assessment, and distribute the budget and notice of assessment no later than 30 days after the start of the fiscal year) ↩
11. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232.1 (Right of and procedure for certain property owners to take control of association when declarant fails to meet certain obligations, including preparing and distributing the annual operating budget) ↩
12. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-102 (annual meeting on at least 21 days' notice; comprehensive reports of affairs, finances, and budget projections made to unit owners) ↩
13. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-230 (annual meeting on at least 21 days' notice; comprehensive reports of affairs, finances, and budget projections made to lot owners) ↩
14. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-225 (allocates assessments and special assessments but sets no statutory approval threshold or increase cap; the declaration controls) ↩
15. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-103 (Quorums at meetings of association or board) — quorum is more than one-third of votes unless the instruments provide otherwise ↩
16. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-228 (Presence of quorums at meetings) ↩
17. Georgia Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq.) and POAA (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq.) contain no reserve-study mandate or minimum-funding requirement; reserve depth is governed by the declaration ↩
18. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-111(b)(6)(A) (first residential resale disclosure must furnish the estimated or actual operating budget itemizing reserve for deferred maintenance (x), reserve for depreciation (xi), and other reserves (xii)); the provision is a disclosure requirement and imposes no funding obligation) ↩
19. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-231(d) (association must keep detailed minutes and detailed and accurate financial records, including itemized records of all receipts and expenditures) ↩
20. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-80(c) (common expenses not specially assessed are assessed against units according to the declaration's allocation; assessments made annually or more often if the instruments so provide) ↩
21. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232 (Assessments as constituting lien in favor of association; recording of the declaration constitutes record notice; foreclosure permitted where the lien is at least $2,000) ↩
22. O.C.G.A. Title 14, Chapter 3 (Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code) — corporate-formality provisions on directors, officers, meetings, notice, and records; contains no HOA budget-approval threshold or assessment authority ↩
23. Georgia General Assembly, Senate Bill 406 (2025-2026), "Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act"; signed May 12, 2026; effective July 1, 2026 (attorney-fee provisions) and January 1, 2027 (remaining provisions) ↩
24. Atlanta News First, "New Georgia HOA law raises foreclosure threshold, adds new protections" (May 13, 2026) — payment-application order, $4,000 foreclosure threshold ("It is now $4,000"), partial-payment rule, and Secretary of State registration; ManageCasa SB 406 analysis confirms the 10-year financial-records retention requirement ↩
25. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223 (as amended by HB 220, 2024): injunctive relief after at least 10 days' written notice; fines shall not impact voting rights; voting rights suspended only for failure to pay regular and special assessments. See also Nowack Howard, "Georgia HB 220 (Act 388) Signed into Law" (HB 220 amended § 44-3-76, § 44-3-106(a), and § 44-3-223) ↩
26. Ovation Condominium Association, Inc. v. Cox, Court of Appeals of Georgia (2023) — illustrative recent condominium appeal turning on tort and expert-testimony issues rather than budget or assessment mechanics ↩
27. Deerlake Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Brown, 361 Ga. App. 860, 864 S.E.2d 202 (Ga. Ct. App. 2021) (No. A21A1090) ↩
28. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b) (Davis-Stirling Act 20%/5% assessment-increase limits) and Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-148 (reserve study reviewed or updated at least every three years), contrasted with Georgia, which has none of these mandates ↩