Who it actually binds — and who it does not

This is the limit almost every summary omits, and it decides whether the rule applies to your community at all.

Sections 3 through 7 of the Act all amend sections inside Article 6 of Chapter 3 of Title 44 — the Property Owners' Association Act. Section 5's opening words are “Said article is further amended,” and Section 7 follows in the same chain.

And O.C.G.A. § 44-3-235(b) provides that the POA Act “shall not apply to associations created pursuant to Article 3 of this chapter, the ‘Georgia Condominium Act,’” except where a property owners' development created under Article 6 includes a condominium together with other real property.

So the attorney-fee gate reaches:

• Yes — a Georgia association that is under the Property Owners' Association Act, whether by original declaration, by amendment, or (from January) by the new 80% submission route in § 44-3-235(a)(3).
• No — a Georgia condominium association governed by the Condominium Act. Its assessment-lien and collection provisions sit in Article 3 and were not amended by this Act or by any other act signed in 2025 or 2026.
• No — a common-law covenant association that has never submitted to the POA Act.

The asymmetry is stark once stated. A Georgia condominium association is covered by the Act's new Chapter 43-17A — registration, the $100 fee, ten-year records retention, the complaint desk, the payment waterfall and the twelve owner rights all reach it, because § 43-17A-1(6) expressly names “condominium development” and “associations formed pursuant to Articles 3 and 6.” But the collection protections in Sections 3 to 7 stop at the Article 6 boundary.

Condominium owners get the registry. They do not get the fee gate.

Why the courts got there first

Section 7 did not arrive in a vacuum. Thirteen months earlier the Georgia Court of Appeals had already refused an association's entire fee claim on reasoning that reads like a preview of the statute.

In Ellington Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Ibrahim, No. A25A0707 (Ga. Ct. App. 19 May 2025), an association sued for four years of unpaid assessments, the owner never answered, and the trial court entered default judgment — but struck the $2,226.27 fee claim by hand, writing that the billing statement “does not always reflect the time spent on each task and, in certain places, the hourly rate is at odds with the attorney's affidavit (e.g., $250 vs. $225).”²

The Court of Appeals agreed the association had a right to fees under § 44-3-232(b)(3) — but held that entitlement is not proof: “to obtain such an award, the Association must submit evidence establishing the reasonableness of the fees it is seeking. And… it is a ‘well settled principle that actual attorney fees must be proved.’” Of the amount sought, $2,050 rested on rates that did not match the firm's own affidavit or on unexplained flat fees. The court declined to comb the invoices for the $176.27 that did match.

An association reading Section 7 as a new burden has the sequence backwards. Georgia courts were already there; the statute now makes the review mandatory rather than discretionary, and adds a notice precondition that operates long before anyone reaches a courtroom.

What the rule changes for a board and its manager

If these were not done on 1 July, every account opened since is exposed.

• The first demand letter. It must go by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, must come from the association or its agent, and must identify the outstanding fines or delinquent fees. A first-class letter does not satisfy the statute.
• The 30-day hold. No fee may be added to the balance until 30 days after receipt. Collection calendars that escalate at 15 or 21 days now escalate too early.
• The itemised list. “$450 — collection services” is not an itemised list of reasonable attorney's fees claimed. Task-level entries with time and rate are what the Ellington record shows a Georgia court expects.
• Rate consistency. The single fact that sank Ellington was an invoice rate that did not match the supporting affidavit. Whatever rate the affidavit swears to is the rate the invoices must show.
• The emergency carve-out is narrow. It covers “emergency conditions involving public safety or the preservation of property.” A delinquent account is neither.

What it changes for an owner

For a Georgia homeowner facing a collection file, Section 7 supplies something that did not exist before: a documented cure period that runs from a date the association has to be able to prove, and a right to see what the fees are for before they attach.

It does not cap fees, does not make them unrecoverable, and does not apply to actions filed before 1 July 2026. It is a procedural gate, and gates are only as good as the record either side keeps.

What to watch next

Two things. First, the first Georgia trial-court orders applying subsection (g) — because a mandatory reasonableness finding entered in a default-judgment posture is an unusual instrument, and how magistrate and state courts implement it will decide whether it is a real check or a rubber stamp. Second, whether the drafting reference in Section 7 draws a technical-corrections bill in the 2027 session.