2026-09-10 · Georgia · Legislation

What happened. Georgia has more than doubled the amount of home equity a judgment creditor cannot reach. For a community association holding a money judgment for unpaid assessments, fines and attorney's fees, this is the number that decides whether the judgment is collectible.

House Bill 1024 is 2026 Ga. Laws Act 480, signed 11 May 2026 and effective 1 July 2026. It amends O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100(a)(1), Georgia's exemption from levy and sale.¹

The new numbers

Verbatim, with the strikes and inserts as enrolled:

“The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed $21,500.00 $50,000.00 in value, [in real or personal property used as a residence]… provided, however, that beginning July 1, 2031, and annually thereafter, such exemption shall be revised by being multiplied by the inflation rate of the prior year. In the event title to property used for the exemption… is in one of two spouses who is a debtor, and such property is the primary residence of both spouses, the amount of the exemption hereunder shall be $43,000.00 $100,000.00.”

Subparagraph (B) defines the inflation rate as the annual rate determined by the state revenue commissioner, who “may utilize the Consumer Price Index as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

What it changes for an association

Georgia associations have two routes to a delinquent owner's money: the assessment lien, enforced by judicial foreclosure, and an ordinary money judgment, enforced by levy, execution and garnishment.

The homestead exemption governs the second. A judgment creditor levying on a Georgia home must leave the debtor the exempt amount out of the proceeds. Raise the exemption and you shrink the pool of homes worth levying on.

Work through a common case. An owner has a home worth $320,000 with a $290,000 mortgage — $30,000 of equity. Before 1 July 2026, an association could theoretically reach $8,500 of it. Today it can reach nothing, and if the owners are married and both live there, nothing up to $100,000 of equity.

For a great many Georgia homeowners, particularly recent buyers, the money judgment is now uncollectable against the home.

Three levers tightened in fifteen months

This is the part that has gone unremarked, because the changes came in separate bills.

• Lien foreclosure — SB 406 raised the threshold and excluded fines from the calculation, effective 1 January 2027 (for POA Act associations).
• Fee-shifting — SB 406 Section 7 gated attorney's fees behind notice, a 30-day window, itemisation and a judicial reasonableness order, in force since 1 July 2026.
• Judgment execution — HB 1024 doubled the homestead exemption, in force since 1 July 2026.

The fourth lever moved the other way: SB 406 extended the assessment lien's lapse period from four years to six.

1. House Bill 1024 (2026 Ga. Laws Act 480) — signed act text amending O.C.G.A. 44-13-100 ↩
2. Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩