2026-09-10 · Georgia · Compliance

What happened. One short section of the Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act rewrites the arithmetic of every delinquent account in the state. New O.C.G.A. § 43-17A-8 takes effect 1 January 2027 and does three things, each of which overrides a clause found in a great many Georgia declarations.¹

The order of application

“All funds remitted by an owner to an owners' association shall be applied by such owners' association to the following expenses by ranking of highest to lowest priority as follows:

(1) Regular assessments or dues until current;
(2) Special assessments until current;
(3) Specific assessments until current; and
(4) Other fees and fines.”

The three assessment categories are defined terms. Regular assessments (§ 43-17A-1(8)) fund the operating budget — common area maintenance, routine repairs, utilities, landscaping and reserve contributions. Special assessments (§ 43-17A-1(9)) cover costs outside the operating budget, including legal costs and non-routine or emergency repairs, renovations and capital projects. Specific assessments (§ 43-17A-1(10)) are charges to one owner — damage that owner caused, and fines or fees for late payment or covenant violations.

Why the order is the whole point

The standard Georgia declaration does the opposite. It applies an owner's payment first to costs and attorney's fees, then to fines and interest, and only then to the assessment itself. The effect is familiar to anyone who has read a Georgia collection ledger: an owner who pays their annual dues in full stays permanently delinquent on dues, because the payment was consumed by fines, while the fine balance is replenished by new late charges on the dues that were never credited.

Section 43-17A-8(a) ends that. From January, the first dollars go to regular assessments until current. Fines are paid last, out of whatever is left.

Pair it with the foreclosure amendment in the same Act — which excludes fines and specific assessments from the lien calculation entirely — and the fines-to-foreclosure pipeline is dismantled from both ends at once.

Two flat prohibitions

Subsection (b) is two lines and neither has an exception:

“No owners' association shall:
(1) Refuse to accept payment from an owner in any amount for any assessment; or
(2) Assess or collect accelerated assessments against any owner.”

“Accelerated assessment” is defined at § 43-17A-1(1) as “any regular assessment that would otherwise not be due until some future date but has been accelerated and made due and payable prior to such future date.”

1. Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩