2026-09-10 · Georgia · Regulation · Pending — not yet law

What is happening. On 1 January 2027 it becomes unlawful to operate an owners' association in Georgia without being registered. The machinery for registering does not yet publicly exist.

The Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act hands the job to the Secretary of State in a single sentence, new O.C.G.A. § 43-17A-9:¹

“The Secretary of State shall adopt such policies, rules, regulations, and procedures as are necessary to implement this chapter.”

There is no deadline in that sentence, and none anywhere else in the Act.

What the statute leaves to rules

More than a reader of the Act might assume. The statute is detailed about consequences and thin about process:

• The registration form. Section 43-17A-2(a)(3) requires filing “on a form as prescribed by the Secretary of State” and specifies only a minimum content — name, address, officers, and a financial statement under a year old. The form itself is a rule.
• The first deadline. Registrations expire on 31 December each year, but the Act does not say by what date an association already operating on 1 January 2027 must have made its first filing.
• The opt-out notice. Section 43-17A-2(a)(2)(B)(i) lets an association elect not to register “by written notice to the Secretary of State.” No form, no content requirement, no deadline.
• The hearing officers. Section 43-17A-5 says the Secretary “shall appoint a hearing officer” on each complaint. Who they are, how they are appointed and what qualifications they need is unaddressed.
• The complaint form and the stay. The automatic stay on collections begins on filing — but nothing in the Act says how the association is told a complaint has been filed against it.

What exists so far

The Secretary of State's office has stood up a Georgia Property Owners' Associations Division landing page, and the function sits with the Securities and Charities Division — the same division whose assistant commissioner testified to a Georgia Senate committee in September 2025 recommending association registration and asking for resources to support oversight.²

As of the Georgia Rules and Regulations site's stated currency date of 2 September 2026, no proposed rule under Chapter 43-17A had been filed.

Why the timing is unusually tight

Georgia rulemaking runs through the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires published notice and a comment period before adoption. Working back from 1 January, a rule package that has not been noticed by the early autumn is not a rule package that is final on the effective date.

Meanwhile the scale is not small. The Community Associations Institute's Georgia figures put the state at more than 11,300 associations covering some 2.5 million residents — roughly one Georgian in four.³ Every one of those associations is a prospective filer, or a prospective opt-out, on the same day.

1. Senate Bill 406, as passed (26 LC 49 2879S) — signed copy, Office of the Governor ↩
2. Georgia Property Owners' Associations Division — Georgia Secretary of State ↩
3. 2026 Georgia End of Session Report — Community Associations Institute Advocacy ↩
4. 2026 Georgia Secretary of State election — overview ↩