A Dacula HOA budgeted $40,000 in fines and collected nearly $200,000
A Dacula HOA budgeted $40,000 in fines and collected nearly $200,000
2026-09-10 · Georgia · Compliance · Reported — unconfirmed
What happened. A Gwinnett County subdivision has become the clearest documented example of the pattern Georgia's 2026 legislation was written to stop: an association whose fine income substantially exceeds what its own budget contemplated.
WSB-TV reported in December 2025 that the Daniel Park subdivision HOA in Dacula has issued more than $400,000 in fines and is now foreclosing on homes.1
The number that reframes it
Between January and Halloween 2025, the association is reported to have collected nearly $200,000 in fines against $40,000 in budgeted fine revenue for the year.
A five-fold overshoot is not an enforcement outcome. A budget line for fines is a forecast of expected violations; collecting five times it means either the community's conduct changed dramatically in one year, or the enforcement did.
What the fines were for
Reported violations include:
- leaves in the yard as the season changed;
- tree removal — one homeowner fined $500 despite having obtained prior approval; and
- door replacement issues.
At least one resident, Bryan Cherrie, faced sheriff's foreclosure proceedings over approximately $37,000 in April 2025, following disputes about modifications to his home.
The governance picture behind it
Residents report no board elections in a decade, with most current members appointed rather than elected, and difficulty obtaining minutes, financial records and voting documentation.
The association's property manager and legal counsel said they operate “in accordance with governing documents and Georgia law.” That may well be right — which is the point. Nothing described above was unlawful in Georgia in 2025.
Separately, a scheduled HOA meeting to address the controversy was cancelled after the local church that was to host it declined, citing the contentiousness of the situation.
The same pattern, 28 houses
Scale is not the variable. In Greighfield, Loganville — 28 homes on a 0.2-mile street — residents voted out board president Melanie Downing at a special meeting on 1 February 2025, electing Takesha Allen with 16 votes.2
Homeowner Frank Bosah received a debt-collection notice for $137,768; John Coleman received one for $10,150. Others reported $3,500 violation fines, a $200 special assessment and $50 late fees. The new board filed for court validation of the election and a financial audit. The management company terminated its contract after one month, citing “serious conflict among homeowners.”
What changes for Daniel Park on 1 January 2027
Quite a lot, and it is worth tracing precisely because this community is close to the archetype the statute addresses.3
Fines stop being a route to foreclosure. The amended § 44-3-232(c) provides that “no specific assessment… or other fine or fee shall be included in the calculation of the amount of such lien” — and “specific assessments” is defined at § 43-17A-1(10) to include “[f]ees or fines… for violation of a covenant.” A $37,000 balance built substantially from fines does not get an association to the courthouse. Only regular assessments in arrears count, and they must reach the lesser of $4,000 or twelve months of dues, with a $2,000 floor.
Payments go to dues first. Section 43-17A-8(a) requires owner payments to be applied to regular assessments, then special, then specific, then “other fees and fines.” An owner who pays their dues will now be current on dues.
Partial payment cannot be refused. Section 43-17A-8(b)(1).
Acceleration is prohibited. Section 43-17A-8(b)(2).
Sixty days, not thirty. The pre-foreclosure notice period doubles, and the notice must state that payment before the sixtieth day following receipt eliminates the right of foreclosure.
A resident can freeze collection by complaining. Section 43-17A-5 — 180 days, automatic stay on the disputed fines and fees.
The records become obtainable. Section 43-17A-7(1) entitles an owner on written demand to the finalised balance sheet, budget, profit and loss statements and bank statements for the past three years. That is precisely the documentation Daniel Park residents say they cannot get — and it is what would show the $40,000 budget line against the $200,000 collected.
What does not change
Two things, and they are the two that matter most to this community.
There is still no cap on fines. A $500 fine for removing an approved tree remains a lawful sum to assess. The Act constrains what fines can be used for — they cannot reach a lien, and they are paid last — but it sets no ceiling and no proportionality requirement.
There is still no elections requirement. Section 43-17A-7 gives owners the right to notice of members' meetings and to attend meetings “which shall be called and held by the board of directors at least annually.” That is an annual meeting, not an annual election. Nothing in Chapter 17A requires periodic elections, one vote per lot, a minimum board size, or a route to contest a result.
HB 62 — the Georgia HOA Accountability and Community Empowerment Act — proposed all of those. It never left House Governmental Affairs.
So a Georgia community whose board has not held an election in a decade is, from January, in breach of the annual-meeting right, and can be complained about to the Secretary of State. It is not in breach of any election requirement, because Georgia does not have one.
What residents in this position can actually do
- Demand the records in writing now. The nonprofit corporation code's inspection provisions at O.C.G.A. § 14-3-1602 and following already apply to most Georgia associations, and do not wait for January.
- Compare the budget line to the collections. A fine budget and a fine ledger, side by side, is the single most persuasive document in a dispute of this kind — and it is what produced this story.
- Check § 44-5-60(d)(5). Where an association has failed to call member meetings, or to prepare and distribute an annual budget and assessment within 30 days of the fiscal year's start, that statute gives an owner standing individually — after a 30-day cure notice — to seek a declaratory judgment ordering an election and transferring control. The Court of Appeals confirmed in Boaz v. Thirteen Hundred on Lake Nottely that the remedy must be the one the statute names.
- From January, file the complaint. No lawyer, no threshold, and the filing stays collection of the disputed fines.
What to watch next
Whether communities like Daniel Park appear in the Secretary of State's first year of complaints, and what a hearing officer does with a fine that is lawful in amount but disproportionate in application. Nothing in Chapter 17A gives a hearing officer an express proportionality power — but § 43-17A-3 does let the Secretary of State “limit the fines or fees that an owners' association may collect,” which is the closest thing Georgia has to one.
Related Georgia HOA Topics
- “HOA fines $400K for issues like leaves on ground, homeowners say. Now, it's foreclosing on people” — WSB-TV, 11 December 2025 ↩
- “Gwinnett homeowners facing thousands in fines oust HOA board” — Atlanta News First, 20 March 2025 ↩
- Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩
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