Georgia HOA Collections & Liens

Section 1: Overview — How assessment collection and liens work in Georgia

Georgia runs two distinct statutory assessment-lien regimes and a covenant-based fallback — and grants no super-priority ahead of a prior-recorded first mortgage. The Georgia Condominium Act creates an automatic assessment lien for condominiums at O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109. The Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (POAA) creates a parallel lien for planned communities at O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232 — but only where the recorded declaration expressly opts into the Act under O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-221 and 44-3-222. Planned communities that have not opted in collect through their recorded covenants, the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. Title 14, ch. 3), and common law, and they carry no automatic lien. Those communities must record a lien to perfect a claim.

For both statutory regimes, the lien arises automatically when an assessment becomes due and payable — recording the declaration constitutes record notice, and no separate claim of lien needs to be recorded. Georgia recognizes no super-priority portion; the association lien sits subordinate to a first-priority mortgage and to any mortgage recorded before the declaration. Foreclosing the statutory lien requires a judicial action, judgment, and court order, executed in the same manner as other liens for the improvement of real property. No statutory lien may proceed to foreclosure unless the lien amount reaches at least $2,000, and the statute sets no minimum number of months of delinquency. Within the national landscape, Georgia is a non-super-priority, judicial-foreclosure, threshold-restricted state — sitting between the lender-protective covenant-only states and the owner-protective super-priority states. The sections below detail the lien, its priority, the collection and foreclosure sequence, and recent statutory and judicial change.

Georgia HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Section 2: The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

The condominium assessment lien comes from O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109, and the planned-community lien from O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232 — available to associations that have expressly elected to be governed by the POAA.¹ Under both statutes, all sums lawfully assessed against an owner, unit, or lot — whether for the owner's share of common expenses, for fines, or otherwise — become the owner's personal obligation and constitute a lien in favor of the association from the time the sums become due and payable.¹⁰ The lien is automatic; recording of the declaration constitutes record notice of the lien's existence, and the statutes expressly state that no further recordation of any claim of lien for assessments is required.¹ This is the central structural difference between statutory associations and non-opt-in planned communities: a community governed only by covenants and the Nonprofit Corporation Code carries no automatic statutory lien and must record a lien in the county land records to evidence its claim.³

To the extent the condominium instruments or the POAA instrument so provide, the lien and the owner's personal obligation also secure a late or delinquency charge not exceeding the greater of $10 or 10 percent of each overdue assessment; interest not exceeding 10 percent per year; the costs of collection, including court costs, the expenses of sale, expenses for the protection and preservation of the unit or lot, and reasonable attorney's fees actually incurred; and the fair rental value of the unit or lot from the institution of an action until sale or satisfaction.¹⁰ These charges are recoverable only if the recorded instrument authorizes them.¹⁰ The lien attaches to the specific unit or lot assessed; it does not reach the owner's other property, though the owner's personal liability for the debt can be reduced to a money judgment enforceable like any other judgment.¹⁰

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

Both statutes make the association lien prior and superior to all other liens — but each then carves out the senior interests that defeat it: liens for ad valorem taxes on the unit or lot; the lien of any first-priority mortgage covering the unit or lot and the lien of any mortgage recorded before the declaration; certain secondary purchase-money mortgages where neither the grantee nor a successor grantee is the seller; and, in the condominium statute only, the lessor's lien provided for in O.C.G.A. § 44-3-86.⁴ The practical effect is that a first mortgage recorded before the association lien arose sits ahead of the association, and the mortgage survives an association foreclosure.¹³

Georgia recognizes no super-priority portion of the assessment lien. Unlike the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act states, Georgia does not carve out a set number of months of assessments that leapfrogs the first mortgage; the entire association lien remains subordinate to a prior-recorded first mortgage.⁴ Because there is no super-priority, the "rolling lien" question — decided for Nevada in Property Plus Investments, LLC v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (Nev. 2017), where the Nevada Supreme Court held that NRS 116.3116 "does not limit an HOA to one lien enforcement action or one super-priority lien forever" — simply does not arise in Georgia. The rule is unmistakable: a Georgia association assessment lien is junior to a first-priority mortgage or any mortgage recorded before the declaration, and an association that forecloses takes title subject to that surviving senior mortgage.¹³

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

The recorded declaration supplements the statutory lien by defining which charges the lien secures; both statutes condition late charges, interest, attorney's fees, and fines on authorization "to the extent that the instrument provides."¹⁰ Covenants cannot expand the lien's statutory priority or override the senior-lien carve-outs in § 44-3-109(a) and § 44-3-232(a), nor can they push late charges above the greater of $10 or 10 percent or interest above 10 percent per year for statutory associations.¹⁰ For a non-opt-in planned community, the Nonprofit Corporation Code governs the association's corporate structure and procedure but is not a collections statute; collection authority for those communities comes from the recorded covenants and common law, with O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 governing covenant duration and amendment.³

The underlying assessment debt is subject to Georgia's six-year statute of limitations for actions on simple written contracts under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24, running from the date each installment became due.¹⁴ That deadline is distinct from the four-year lapse of the lien itself under § 44-3-109 and § 44-3-232.¹⁵ Three federal frameworks apply on top of the Georgia regime regardless of state law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act reaches associations' attorneys and third-party collection agents; the Eleventh Circuit held in Harris v. Liberty Community Management that a management company collecting assessments is not a "debt collector" so long as collection is incidental to a bona fide fiduciary obligation, but law firms and agencies whose principal business is collection generally are covered.¹⁶ The automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts any collection or foreclosure the moment an owner files bankruptcy, though a Chapter 7 discharge of personal liability does not extinguish the in rem lien.¹⁷ The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protects active-duty owners.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

For condominiums and opted-in planned communities, no statutory notice is required before the lien arises — the lien is automatic and the recorded declaration supplies record notice.¹ Pre-lien demand letters, late notices, and payment-plan offers are therefore matters of the association's own policy and its recorded covenants, not statutory mandates; this step is contractual, not statutory. The one statutory owner protection that operates before any sale is the right to a payoff statement: any owner, mortgagee, purchaser, or lender may request in writing a statement of past-due assessments, late charges, and interest, and if the association fails to furnish it within five business days the lien is extinguished as to the requesting party's acquired interest.¹⁸ The association may charge up to $10 for the statement if the instrument provides.¹⁸ For non-opt-in planned communities, there is no automatic lien, so the association must record a lien to perfect its claim, and any pre-recording notice is governed by the covenants, not statute.³

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

For statutory associations no separate claim of lien is recorded; the declaration already provides record notice, so the pre-foreclosure sequence centers on the statutory notice of intent to foreclose.¹ Both § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) require that, not less than 30 days before foreclosure, notice be sent by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, to the owner at the unit or lot address and at any other address the owner has designated in writing; the notice must specify the amount of assessments then due and payable together with authorized late charges and the rate of interest accruing.⁸ This 30-day notice is required only for a foreclosure action; an association may pursue a personal money judgment without it.¹⁹ The statutes do not require a recorded board vote, a mandatory payment plan, or mediation as a prerequisite to suit; those steps, where they exist, are contractual.⁶ Effective January 1, 2027, SB 406 extends the pre-foreclosure notice for POAA associations from 30 to 60 days and requires the notice to state that paying the assessment balance within the window eliminates the right to foreclose; the bill does not make the same change to the condominium statute.⁵

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Georgia association assessment-lien foreclosure is judicial. Both statutes allow the lien to be foreclosed through an action, judgment, and court order in the same manner as other liens for the improvement of real property, subject to superior liens.⁶ Georgia is a power-of-sale state for security deeds generally, but an association may foreclose non-judicially only if its recorded declaration confers a power of sale; absent that, the association must sue, obtain a judgment, and obtain a court order, after which the sale proceeds through a sheriff's sale.²⁰ Because the owner is personally liable, associations frequently elect a personal money judgment instead of, or in addition to, foreclosure.¹⁹ No foreclosure action is permitted unless the lien amount is at least $2,000; this is the exact statutory threshold, and it applies to both regimes under current law.⁵ The $2,000 may consist of assessments, interest, late charges, attorney's fees actually incurred, and properly levied fines — so under current law fines and fees can count toward and support a foreclosure.¹¹ Effective January 1, 2027, SB 406 raises the POAA threshold to the lesser of $4,000 or 12 months of regular assessments, subject to a $2,000 minimum, and excludes fines and other charges from the calculation; these foreclosure amendments are limited to the POAA and do not modify the condominium code sections.⁵

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

Georgia provides no statutory post-sale right of redemption for association assessment-lien foreclosures; once title transfers, no statutory savings provision allows the former owner to reverse the sale by paying the arrears.⁹ Because the owner is personally liable for assessments under both statutes, the association may pursue the balance as a money judgment, and the personal obligation continues for assessments coming due during ownership.¹⁰ Surplus sale proceeds are applied by priority: senior liens such as a first mortgage and tax liens are satisfied first, then the association lien, with any remaining surplus going to the former owner.¹³ An owner can avoid the sale by paying all amounts due plus court costs before the sale occurs, but this is a function of paying the debt rather than a statutory reinstatement right.⁹ The association may bid on and acquire the unit or lot at the sale unless the instrument prohibits it.²¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published Georgia appellate opinion decided in the past 36 months squarely interprets the assessment-lien priority or judicial-foreclosure mechanics of § 44-3-109 or § 44-3-232. Recent association appeals have turned on premises liability, covenant interpretation, and procedure rather than lien mechanics. The controlling published authorities on these mechanics therefore remain slightly older.

C. Active legislative debates

With SB 406 newly enacted, attention has shifted to implementation rulemaking by the Secretary of State and to whether the foreclosure protections enacted for POAA communities will be extended to condominiums, which SB 406 left on the existing $2,000 threshold. Advocacy groups have also continued to press, without success to date, for proposals that would bar assessment foreclosures entirely.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Georgia sits in the middle of the national collections spectrum. It is not a super-priority state: it grants no priority portion ahead of a first mortgage, unlike Nevada — whose nine-month super-priority lien under NRS 116.3116 was held to extinguish a first deed of trust in SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc), granting HOAs "true lien priority," not merely payment priority — and unlike Connecticut and other Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act states that grant a limited priority portion. It resembles threshold-restricted states such as California, which bars foreclosure unless delinquent assessments "equal[] or exceed[] one thousand eight hundred dollars ($1,800)" or are more than 12 months delinquent (Cal. Civ. Code § 5720), and Colorado, which permits foreclosure only where the balance "equals six months or more of common expense assessments" (Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316(11)); Georgia's current floor is $2,000, rising for planned communities in 2027. It is firmly a judicial-foreclosure state for association liens absent a declaration power of sale, and for non-opt-in planned communities it behaves like a covenant-primary jurisdiction with no automatic statutory lien. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is that collection sequence and foreclosure economics differ enough between states that a notice or process valid in one state can be defective or time-barred in another, so notice templates and day-counts must be state-specific. Georgia's current direction of travel is toward tightening owner protections and raising thresholds, as SB 406 demonstrates.

Footnotes

1. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(a), Georgia Condominium Act (lien automatic; recording of declaration is record notice; no further recordation required) ↩
2. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232, Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (assessment lien for opted-in planned communities) ↩
3. O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-221, 44-3-222, 44-3-235 (opt-in election); O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 (covenants); O.C.G.A. Title 14, ch. 3 (Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code) ↩
4. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(a) and § 44-3-232(a) (priority exceptions; no super-priority) ↩
5. Ga. SB 406 (2025–2026), Act 715, "Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act" (signed May 12, 2026) ↩
6. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (judicial foreclosure by action, judgment, and court order) ↩
7. Ga. HB 220 (2023–2024), Act 388 (amending O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-76, 44-3-223, 44-5-60; effective July 1, 2024) ↩
8. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (not less than 30 days' notice by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested) ↩
9. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109 and § 44-3-232 (no statutory post-sale redemption provision for association liens) ↩
10. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(a), (b) and § 44-3-232(a), (b) (personal obligation; late charge, interest, costs, attorney's fees, fair rental value to the extent the instrument provides) ↩
11. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(a) and § 44-3-232(a) (fines included in the lien); Ga. SB 406 (excluding fines from POAA foreclosure threshold effective Jan. 1, 2027) ↩
12. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-235 (POAA applies only to property submitted to it); O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq. (Condominium Act) ↩
13. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (foreclosure subject to superior liens; senior mortgage survives) ↩
14. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 (six-year limitation on simple written contracts) ↩
15. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (lien lapses four years after the assessment first became due and payable) ↩
16. Harris v. Liberty Community Management, Inc., 702 F.3d 1298 (11th Cir. 2012); 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (FDCPA) ↩
17. 11 U.S.C. § 362 (automatic stay); discharge does not affect the in rem lien ↩
18. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(d) and § 44-3-232(d) (statement of amounts due; five-business-day deadline; lien extinguished on failure; up to $10 fee) ↩
19. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(e) and § 44-3-232(e) (action to recover sums not prohibited; personal money judgment available without foreclosure notice) ↩
20. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (foreclosure "in the same manner as other liens for the improvement of real property") ↩
21. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(c) and § 44-3-232(c) (association may bid on and acquire the unit or lot unless prohibited by the instrument) ↩
22. Deerlake Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Brown, 359 Ga. App. 666 (2021) ↩
23. The Springs Condo. Assn. v. Harris, 297 Ga. App. 507, 677 S.E.2d 715 (2009) (attorney's fees mandatory under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109(b)(3)) ↩