2026-09-10 · Georgia · Legislation

What happened. The largest change to Georgia community-association liability exposure in this biennium was not in a community-association bill. It was in the 2025 tort package, and it has been in force since 21 April 2025.

Senate Bill 68, “Civil Practice; substantive and comprehensive revision,” is 2025 Ga. Laws Act 9. Its Section 6 creates a new Article 5 of Chapter 3 of Title 51, O.C.G.A. §§ 51-3-50 through 51-3-57, governing premises-liability claims arising from third-party wrongful conduct.¹

Section 9(b) of the Act limits it: Sections 6 and 7 “shall apply only with respect to causes of action arising on or after the effective date.”

The definition that names your board

§ 51-3-50(2), verbatim:

“‘Owner or occupier’ means any person that owns, leases, occupies, operates, maintains, or manages real property of any kind or any director, officer, employee, or agent of such person.”

That is the association, its individual board members, and its management company, all inside one defined term.

What the new elements require

§ 51-3-51 narrows invitee claims to five conjunctive elements. The plaintiff must establish either:

• a “particularized warning of imminent wrongful conduct” — defined at § 51-3-50(3) as information “specific as to the identity of the third person, the nature and character of the wrongful conduct, the degree of dangerousness… and the location, time, and circumstances”; or
• prior substantially similar wrongful conduct on the premises, on adjoining property, or “otherwise occurring within 500 yards of the premises.”

And the claim must show the criminal “exploit[ed] a specific physical condition of the premises known to the owner or occupier” creating risk “substantially greater than the general risk of wrongful conduct in the vicinity.”

Licensee claims under § 51-3-52 require a particularised warning plus a “willful[] and wanton[]” failure.

The bars, and the one that matters most

§ 51-3-54 lists seven absolute bars. Two are worth a Georgia board's attention:

• Paragraph (6) bars a claim “[a]rising from an injury sustained upon premises that is used as a single-family residence.”
• Paragraph (7) bars a claim where the owner or occupier “made any reasonable effort to provide such information to law enforcement personnel, provided that calling 9-1-1… shall be deemed a reasonable effort.”

Note carefully what paragraph (6) does not cover. Pools, clubhouses, parking decks, playgrounds, gates and private streets held as common area are not “used as a single-family residence.” The association's common areas are outside the bar.

1. Senate Bill 68 (2025 Ga. Laws Act 9) — signed act text, Office of the Governor ↩
2. Tuscany Condominium Association, Inc. v. C.P., No. A25A0145 (Ga. Ct. App. 2 July 2025) — slip opinion ↩
3. Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩