The HOA industry asked Kemp to veto SB 406 and lost badly
The HOA industry asked Kemp to veto SB 406 and lost badly
2026-09-10 · Georgia · Legislation
What happened. The national trade body for community associations ran the largest lobbying campaign in its Georgia chapter's history against SB 406, escalated to a public veto request, and lost at every stage. Governor Kemp signed the bill on 12 May 2026, his deadline day.
The scale of the effort
The Community Associations Institute's own 2026 Georgia End of Session Report is unusually candid about both the investment and the outcome. It records that CAI's Georgia Legislative Action Committee tracked 100 bills during the session, testified against SB 406 at multiple committee hearings, and met repeatedly with its primary sponsor.1
The grassroots numbers: 1,178 advocates sent 16,560 emails to legislators. CAI held its inaugural Georgia Legislative Capitol Day on 26 February 2026, with over 100 members lobbying at the statehouse. A paid LinkedIn campaign in the closing weeks drew 454,036 impressions.
The arguments
CAI's objections, as stated in its own materials, were four:
- Duplication. Georgia associations already file an annual registration with the Corporations Division as nonprofit corporations. Chapter 17A adds a second $100 annual filing with a different agency function and a different expiry date.
- Constitutionality. CAI argued that “allowing the state to change association obligations breaks contracts, likely considered unconstitutional, and almost guarantees lawsuits ultimately paid for by homeowners” — a Contracts Clause argument aimed at applying the new foreclosure thresholds, the acceleration ban and the payment-priority rule to covenants recorded decades ago.
- Cost and volunteer recruitment. The regime would “make it more difficult to recruit volunteer board members, leading to higher costs, lawsuits, and unintended harm.”
- Framing. “SB 406 treats HOAs like state-controlled entities rather than private communities.”
In the final week, with Kemp's 40-day window running out, CAI went public. Chief executive Dawn Bauman told Atlanta News First on 4 May 2026 that the legislation “introduces a new statewide regulatory framework with significant administrative responsibilities, without a clearly defined implementation plan or funding structure to support it.”2
The votes
The margins are the story. The Senate passed SB 406 on 4 March 2026 unanimously — a result its own author did not expect. Senator Matt Brass told Atlanta News First: “I was not expecting unanimous. I thought we'd have a few dissenting, but we did not.”3
The House passed the Rules Committee substitute on 31 March 2026 by 155-10, and the Senate agreed to the House substitute the same day.4 Kemp vetoed twelve bills that session. This was not among them.
What the industry did win
Reading the outcome as a total defeat misses two things the enacted text gives associations that the bill's earlier versions did not.
The lien lasts longer. Section 5 extends the assessment lien lapse period in § 44-3-232(c) from four years to six. That is a fifty-percent increase in the enforcement window, and it appears in no press account of the bill.
The bidding ban vanished. An earlier draft's caption promised language “to prohibit bidding at foreclosure sales by property owners' associations and related individuals and entities.” The enacted § 44-3-232(c) instead confirms that “the association shall have the power to bid up to the amount of the lien on the lot at any foreclosure sale and to acquire, hold, lease, encumber, and convey the same.”
And the independent board went too. The five-member State Board for Review of Complaints in the Senate-passed version — members drawn from associations, six-year terms, gubernatorial and legislative appointments, a duty to refer suspected crimes to the Attorney General and the sheriff — was replaced in House Judiciary by a single hearing officer inside the Secretary of State's office. That change was made over homeowner-advocate objection, not over industry objection.
The industry was not united
At CAI's own 26 February Capitol Day, the message from Georgia practitioners was not uniformly oppositional. Connie Suhr, a twenty-year former Roswell townhome board member, told Atlanta News First that homeowners with serious grievances need “somebody to talk to.”5
The collections argument came from Samantha Bailey of a management firm handling 300 Georgia communities: “The only income HOAs have are from the assessments.” That is the substantive core of the industry case, and it is not frivolous — an association that cannot collect cannot maintain, and the cost of non-collection falls on the owners who do pay.
CAI's own lobbyist, Julie Howard, put the proportionality argument to a legislative committee: with 11,300-plus associations and 2.5 million residents, “We don't think it's good law to make law based on a few rogue actors.”6
Why the campaign failed
Three factors are visible in the record, and none is about lobbying competence.
The votes were not close, and not partisan. 155-10 in a House with a Republican majority, and unanimity in the Senate, means the bill's support crossed every line a trade association could work. The sponsors themselves were bipartisan — Republican Matt Brass of Newnan and Democrat Donzella James of Atlanta, with Rey Martinez carrying it in the House.
The opposing evidence was individual, not statistical. A trade body arguing from aggregate good conduct is poorly placed against a legislature that has spent two years hearing from named constituents about specific balances.
The alternative was worse. Two 2026 bills, HB 1035 and HB 1036, would have abolished association foreclosure authority entirely and let homeowners dissolve their associations by petition and vote. Against those, SB 406 is the moderate outcome — and CAI's report records that it opposed and defeated HB 1035 while losing on SB 406.
What to watch next
Two things, on different timescales.
Litigation. CAI publicly predicted lawsuits over retroactive application to existing covenants. No Contracts Clause challenge to Act 715 has been filed that we could find. If one comes, the natural moment is before 1 January 2027.
The offseason. CAI's Georgia chapter advocacy materials now say plainly that “the offseason is when the real groundwork gets laid,” listing stakeholder engagement, coalition building and member mobilisation. It names no 2027 bill. Neither, so far, does anyone on the homeowner side, who have gone quiet since the win.
Related Georgia HOA Topics
- 2026 Georgia End of Session Report — Community Associations Institute Advocacy ↩
- “National association urges governor to reject Georgia HOA bill as deadline nears” — Atlanta News First, 4 May 2026 ↩
- “Georgia Senate unanimously passes bill to rein in alleged HOA abuses” — Atlanta News First, 4 March 2026 ↩
- “Georgia legislature passes state's most comprehensive HOA oversight bill in history” — Atlanta News First, 31 March 2026 ↩
- “Georgia HOAs fight for authority amid legislative changes” — Atlanta News First, 26 February 2026 ↩
- Capitol Beat News Service on SB 406 final passage, April 2026 ↩
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