2026-09-10 · Georgia · Compliance · Reported — unconfirmed

What happened. Georgia went from having no state oversight of community associations to a signed statutory regime in roughly eighteen months. The documented driver was a local television investigation, and the legislators who passed the bill said so on the record.

The series

Investigative reporter Anastassia Olmos ran HOA Nightmares for Atlanta News First across broadcast, digital and podcast, beginning in 2025 and continuing through the legislative session.¹

Its signature datapoint came from a survey of Georgia homeowners in association disputes. A survey of more than 130 homeowners found 63% facing fines and fees averaging around $9,000, 41% in litigation with their association, and 30% carrying liens. A later account of the advocacy-day period put it at roughly 63% owing fines averaging over $8,000.²

These are self-selecting samples — homeowners in dispute are the ones who answer a survey about disputes — and should be read as evidence of the grievance's intensity rather than as a population estimate.

The credit, on the record

Rep. Rey Martinez (R-Loganville), who carried SB 406 in the House, thanked “Atlanta News First's Anastassia Olmos for reporting on this very important issue” when presenting the bill.

Rep. Viola Davis (D-Stone Mountain) told the station in January 2026: “Your series on this issue has put a lot of heat in this house.”

That is an unusually clean documented instance of local investigative journalism producing a statute, and it is worth recording as such.

The individual cases behind the numbers

The series' force came from named Georgians, not aggregates. Among the cases reported in the period:

• Ayanna Fuller, a multiple myeloma patient undergoing chemotherapy in Fairburn, had $828.54 garnished from her bank account by her association, plus a $125 legal fee. The garnishment overdrew the account by $855, and she was subsequently billed $1,386. After the story aired in August 2025, an anonymous viewer paid her entire HOA bill.³
• Michelle Bernard of Conyers sued over a lien for under $3,000 in fines; in May 2025 a Rockdale County judge granted the association's motion to enforce a settlement at $40,000 — more than thirteen times the disputed lien.⁴
• In Greighfield, Loganville — 28 homes on a 0.2-mile street — residents voted out their board president in February 2025. One homeowner had received a debt-collection notice for $137,768.⁵

The hearings the reporting produced

Two Senate hearings in September 2025 built the record. On 16 September the Rules Committee heard SB 361, with about two dozen homeowners testifying about management-company incentives, payment portals that locked them out once fines were assessed, and improperly constituted boards. On 18 September the Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Donzella James, took up SB 106, SB 107 and SB 108.

1. “HOA Nightmares” investigation hub — Atlanta News First ↩
2. “‘Something's going to pass’ — Georgia senators vow HOA reform” — Atlanta News First, 14 January 2026 ↩
3. “Cancer patient receives help after HOA drains bank account” — Atlanta News First, 23 December 2025 ↩
4. “HOA to pay Georgia homeowner $40K settlement after she sued them for a lien on her home” — Atlanta News First, 19 May 2025 ↩
5. “Gwinnett homeowners facing thousands in fines oust HOA board” — Atlanta News First, 20 March 2025 ↩
6. Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩