Georgia wrote “community association management services” into its licensing law, and nobody noticed
Georgia wrote “community association management services” into its licensing law, and nobody noticed
2026-09-10 · Georgia · Legislation
What happened. Georgia's real estate licensing statute now speaks directly to community association management for the first time. The change arrived inside a bill known for something else entirely, and has been in force since 1 July 2025.
House Bill 399 is 2025 Ga. Laws Act 315, signed 14 May 2025. Its Section 3 amends O.C.G.A. § 43-40-29(a) — the exemptions from Georgia's real estate broker licensing law.1
The two new exemptions
Verbatim:
“(8.1) Any person employed on a full-time basis by a community association for the purpose of providing community association management services;”
“(12) Any person who is a member of a community association and who provides community association management services only to one community association of which such person is a member;”
A third new paragraph, (13), exempts “[a]ny person who performs only physical maintenance on a property.”
The Act also inserted the phrase “community association management services” into the existing owner and management-company exemptions at § 43-40-29(a)(7) and (8), which previously spoke only of “property management services.”
Why this matters
Georgia is one of the minority of states that licenses community association managers, through the Georgia Real Estate Commission under O.C.G.A. Chapter 43-40. That creates a question every self-managed Georgia association has quietly faced: is our volunteer treasurer practising without a licence?
Paragraph (12) answers it. A board member who collects dues, handles vendors and manages the property for the one association they belong to is expressly outside broker licensure.
Paragraph (8.1) answers the other case: the on-site general manager, lifestyle director or bookkeeper employed by the association itself is exempt, provided the employment is full-time.
The limits, which are precise
Both exemptions are narrow, and the wording matters:
- “Only to one community association of which such person is a member.” A person who helps run two associations — a homeowner who also volunteers for a neighbouring community, or someone who owns in two — is outside paragraph (12) for both.
- “Employed on a full-time basis.” A part-time association employee is outside paragraph (8.1). So is a contractor, who is not employed at all.
- “Physical maintenance” only in paragraph (13). A caretaker who also collects rent or dues is outside it.
The paid third-party manager remains fully inside the licensing requirement, which is as it should be.
The other half of the bill: no local rental registries
HB 399's Section 1 does something quite different and equally relevant to Georgia associations: it bars local governments from requiring registration of residential rental property and limits inspections to cases of probable cause.
That is a preemption, and it closes a route some Georgia communities have pursued. A homeowners association frustrated by absentee investor owners has sometimes lobbied its city or county for a rental registry — a list of who owns what and who to call. Section 1 removes that option.
What replaces it, in part, is Section 2's new O.C.G.A. § 44-7-25:
“Any landlord that is not a resident of this state that owns or operates single-family or duplex residential rental properties in this state shall employ a broker licensed pursuant to Chapter 40 of Title 43… If the broker does not reside within this state, the broker shall employ at least one person, to be located within this state, who shall be responsible for receiving, coordinating, managing, and responding to communications from tenants.”
For a Georgia association dealing with an out-of-state investor owner, that is genuinely useful: there must be a licensed Georgia broker, and a person in Georgia who answers the phone. It is not a registry, but it is a point of contact the association can insist exists.
What this means for a self-managed Georgia association
- Your volunteer treasurer is fine — for one association. Paragraph (12) is the express exemption. Do not let a board member drift into helping a second community for a fee.
- If you employ a manager, employ them full-time. Paragraph (8.1)'s exemption is conditioned on it. A part-time on-site manager handling leasing-adjacent functions is in a grey area.
- A paid third-party manager must be licensed. Verify it, in writing, annually — the Georgia Real Estate Commission revoked the licences of a management-company owner and her husband in May 2025, roughly ten months before a Gwinnett grand jury indicted her on eight felony counts over nearly $600,000 in missing rent, HOA dues and deposits.2
- Do not expect a local rental registry. Section 1 preempts it.
The regulatory seam this leaves open
Here is the structural problem, and it gets worse in January.
The Georgia Real Estate Commission licenses managers. Its published rulemaking for the entire 2025-2026 period consists of two broker continuing-education rules effective 1 July 2025; its “Proposed” and “Pending” sections are empty.3
Meanwhile, from 1 January 2027, Georgia's new Chapter 43-17A imposes a registration regime on associations, administered by the Secretary of State. It contains no manager licensing provision and no coordination clause with GREC — but it reaches management companies incidentally in two places: § 43-17A-2(g) requires “[t]he property owners' association or property management company” to notify the Secretary of State of the address where the association's records are kept, and § 43-17A-2(a)(2)(A) bars an association “or its agent” from collecting fines or fees when the association is unregistered.4
So a licensed Georgia manager will be executing a state registration regime, enforced against their client, by an agency that does not license them — while their own licensing agency has issued no guidance about it. That is a real seam, and the Secretary of State's yet-unwritten rules are the only near-term opportunity to address it.
One practical consequence for management contracts
Because § 43-17A-2(g) requires ten years of assessment, fine, fee, lien and foreclosure records to be maintained at a Georgia office, and permits the management company to be the one holding them and reporting the address, Georgia management agreements need a clause they mostly do not have: what happens to the records at termination.
The retention duty runs to the association. A board that cannot produce ten years of records because a former manager kept them is in breach, and the Secretary of State may examine those records under § 43-17A-2(f) without any complaint being filed.
What to watch next
Whether GREC issues any guidance tying its licensing regime to Chapter 43-17A before January. Nothing is pending. The alternative is that Georgia managers spend 2027 working out the interaction for themselves, one client board at a time.
Related Georgia HOA Topics
- House Bill 399 (2025 Ga. Laws Act 315) — signed act text amending O.C.G.A. 43-40-29 and creating 44-7-25 ↩
- “Property manager indicted on 8 felony charges after clients report nearly $600K missing” — 11Alive (syndicated), 16 March 2026 ↩
- Real Estate Legislation and rule changes — Georgia Real Estate Commission ↩
- Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩
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