Georgia HOA Mediation & Dispute Resolution

Key Findings

• The POAA is elective. A planned community answers to it only if the community expressly submits through a recorded declaration. A community that has not submitted falls back on its CC&Rs, the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, and common law.
• Neither the Condominium Act nor the POAA forces the parties into pre-suit ADR. Their dispute provisions do a narrower job: they drive enforcement through notice, an opportunity to be heard, fines, suspension, and lien foreclosure.
• Georgia runs a developed court-connected ADR system under the Supreme Court's ADR Rules, and since 2021 the Georgia Uniform Mediation Act has governed private mediation as well.
• Condominiums and POAA-submitting communities can recover attorney's fees by statute when they collect assessments. Fees under the general bad-faith statute are another matter: a court awards them at its discretion, and never on summary judgment.
• Today, Georgia has no working HOA regulator or ombudsman and licenses no community-association managers. That changes on January 1, 2027, when SB 406 opens a Secretary of State complaint process.

Details

Section 1: Overview: how HOA disputes are resolved in Georgia

Georgia settles community-association disputes through a contract-and-court model, and which statute applies turns on a single question: is the association a condominium, or a planned community that has opted into the POAA?¹ The Georgia Condominium Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq., governs condominiums by operation of law. The Property Owners' Association Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq., governs a planned community only when that community expressly submits to it in a recorded declaration.² A planned community that never submitted stands outside the POAA and runs on its recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq.), and common law.³ Courts test arbitration provisions in a declaration under the Georgia Arbitration Code, and the Federal Arbitration Act can preempt those state formalities whenever the contract involves interstate commerce.⁴ For mediation, circuit programs administered by the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution operate under the Supreme Court of Georgia's ADR Rules.⁵ Step back, and Georgia stands as a contract-and-court state with an opt-in planned-community statute — a different animal from the comprehensive-statute states and from the nine states that adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA).⁶ The sections that follow lay out the statutory framework, the general civil ADR tools, the role of the CC&Rs, the pathways a dispute actually travels, and the recent work of the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The dispute resolution framework

2A. Statutory dispute resolution under the Condominium Act and the POAA

The Condominium Act tackles disputes mainly through enforcement. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76 makes noncompliance with the condominium instruments grounds for an action to recover money owed, to win damages, or to obtain injunctive relief, and — to the extent the instruments allow — it lets the association impose fines and suspend voting rights and the use of certain common elements, subject to notice and limits.⁷ The association enforces assessment liens under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109, which creates the lien, requires pre-foreclosure notice, and allows recovery of the reasonable attorney's fees the association actually incurred.⁸ The POAA hands submitting planned communities the same tools: O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223 governs enforcement, fines, and suspension, and O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232 creates the assessment lien and its foreclosure procedure.⁹ Those POAA provisions reach a planned community only after it expressly submits by recorded declaration under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222; the statute says plainly that it applies to property submitted to it and does not apply to condominiums.¹⁰ A planned community that never submitted has no POAA dispute framework at all — it depends on its CC&Rs, the Nonprofit Corporation Code, and common-law covenant doctrine, with subdivision covenants enforceable under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 for developments of at least 15 lots.¹¹ Neither statute imposes a comprehensive mandatory pre-suit ADR requirement. Georgia sets no statewide HOA pre-suit mediation mandate of the kind California's Davis-Stirling Act or Florida's condominium and homeowners' association statutes impose.¹² For many enforcement actions, the statutes demand just one pre-litigation step — written notice. HB 220 (2024) amended §§ 44-3-76 and 44-3-223 to require that notice, in accordance with the instrument or within ten days if the instrument is silent, before an association pursues injunctive relief.¹³

2B. General civil ADR and arbitration

A declaration may require arbitration, and courts enforce those clauses as contractual obligations. Under the Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-1 et seq., agreements to arbitrate are generally enforceable, but O.C.G.A. § 9-9-2(c) carves out several categories — among them sales or loan agreements for the purchase or financing of residential real estate, unless every signatory initials the arbitration clause at execution.¹⁴ That initialing formality governs purchase-and-sale and financing agreements, not recorded declarations. And even where a Georgia formality would otherwise block enforcement, the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) preempts state-law limits for any contract that evidences a transaction involving interstate commerce; the Georgia Court of Appeals has held that the FAA preempts Georgia's signature and subject-matter formalities in that setting.¹⁵ So arbitration clauses are not categorically unenforceable in Georgia. On the mediation side, the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution and the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution administer court-annexed mediation under the Supreme Court's ADR Rules, and many judicial circuits run approved programs that can take referred civil cases — though referral rests in the discretion of the court or program rather than a uniform statewide rule.¹⁶ Neutrals who handle court-referred cases must register with the Office of Dispute Resolution, and the ADR Rules keep statements made in court-program sessions confidential and shielded from disclosure.¹⁷ Georgia went further in 2021: it adopted the Georgia Uniform Mediation Act, O.C.G.A. § 9-17-1 et seq., effective July 1, 2021, extending confidentiality protections to private mediations. The common assumption that Georgia never adopted the Uniform Mediation Act is simply wrong.¹⁸ For lower-value assessment disputes, the Magistrate Court hears civil claims up to $15,000 and functions as a small-claims forum.¹⁹

2C. CC&R-based dispute resolution and order of precedence

In non-submitting planned communities, the recorded declaration does most of the work; in condominiums and POAA communities, it supplements the statute. Declarations routinely include mediation conditions precedent, arbitration clauses, venue selection, and prevailing-party or attorney-fee provisions, and Georgia treats the declaration as a binding contract, construed under ordinary contract rules.²⁰ Governing documents also often set up internal grievance procedures and architectural-review appeal steps that an owner must exhaust before the association acts. The order of precedence runs from the applicable statute — the Condominium Act, or the POAA if the community has submitted — down to the CC&Rs, then the bylaws, then the rules and regulations. In practice, a manager has to answer the threshold question first: is this a condominium or a POAA-submitting planned community? Only then can the manager read the declaration against the right framework, because the same clause carries different consequences depending on submission status.

Section 3: Dispute resolution pathways and obligations

A. Internal / association-level resolution

Before an association takes adverse action, it has to observe notice-and-opportunity-to-be-heard steps tied to fines and suspensions. For condominiums, that duty is statutory and arises under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76; for POAA-submitting communities, it arises under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223.²¹ HB 220 (2024) added a written-notice prerequisite before injunctive relief under both sections.¹³ Internal grievance and architectural-appeal procedures come from the declaration itself, so they bind every community — including non-submitting planned communities that rely on their CC&Rs and the Nonprofit Corporation Code. Georgia offers no administrative HOA forum to escalate an internal dispute today, so an unresolved matter moves on to mediation, arbitration, or court. That gap narrows on January 1, 2027, when SB 406 opens a Secretary of State complaint process.

B. Mediation

Mediation comes to the table three ways: by agreement, by a declaration clause, or by court referral. Court-annexed mediation operates under the Supreme Court's ADR Rules, through the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution and the circuit programs, and it reaches every community that appears as a civil litigant.¹⁶ Referral stays discretionary with the court or the local program rather than mandatory across the state. Confidentiality attaches to court-program sessions under the ADR Rules, and the Georgia Uniform Mediation Act extends that protection to private mediations.¹⁸ Each program sets its own cost allocation locally, and it provides services free to indigent parties.²²

C. Arbitration

When a declaration contains an arbitration clause, courts enforce it under the Georgia Arbitration Code — a mix of contract and statute that binds any community whose declaration provides for it — subject to the § 9-9-2(c) formality exclusions.¹⁴ For a clause in a contract that involves interstate commerce, the Federal Arbitration Act takes over and preempts any conflicting Georgia formality.¹⁵ A clause may call for binding or non-binding arbitration, and non-binding arbitration conferences held within court programs carry the same confidentiality the ADR Rules provide.¹⁷

D. Litigation and appeals

Trial-level disputes proceed in the Superior Courts, which hold general jurisdiction and the equitable jurisdiction that covers injunctions, covenants, and title. The State and Magistrate Courts handle the lower-value matters, and the Magistrate Court hears civil claims up to $15,000 under O.C.G.A. § 15-10-2.¹⁹ An association can recover assessment-lien fees under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109 for condominiums and O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232 for POAA-submitting communities.⁸ The general litigation-expense statute, O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11, allows fees when a defendant acted in bad faith, proved stubbornly litigious, or caused needless trouble and expense — but a party must specially plead it, and no court can award it on summary judgment.²³ The clock on a breach of a written covenant runs six years under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24.²⁴ Appeals travel to the Court of Appeals of Georgia, with discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Georgia. The Appellate Jurisdiction Reform Act of 2016 shifted equity, title to land, and related categories from the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeals for any case in which a party filed a notice of appeal on or after January 1, 2017 — so the Court of Appeals now hears covenant-enforcement and equity appeals.²⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

The 2026 Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act (SB 406) capped a sustained run of legislative attention to owner protections, clearing the Senate 51-0 and the House 155-10. Its registration, complaint, and foreclosure provisions take effect January 1, 2027, and the Secretary of State's implementation and rulemaking around them remain the active work to watch.²⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Georgia is a contract-and-court state with an opt-in planned-community statute, the POAA. That sets it apart from the comprehensive-statute states — California, whose Davis-Stirling Act applies uniformly, and Florida — and from the nine UCIOA states, where a single act governs every common-interest community.⁶ Because the POAA reaches only the communities that expressly submit, and because Georgia imposes no mandatory pre-suit ADR regime, dispute strategy here starts with reading the governing documents, not with assuming a statutory pathway. For a multi-state operator, confirming POAA submission status is the threshold step, and any arbitration clause has to be measured against both Georgia's statutory formalities and the Federal Arbitration Act. The 2026 reforms push Georgia toward more owner-facing process, but they leave the contract-and-court core in place.

Federal frameworks also bear on Georgia association disputes regardless of the state framework, notably the Federal Arbitration Act, along with the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

Recommendations

• Start by fixing the community's status. Is it a condominium, governed by the Condominium Act by operation of law; a POAA-submitting planned community; or a non-submitting community that runs on its CC&Rs plus the Nonprofit Corporation Code? That single threshold determination controls every pathway that follows.
• In POAA communities, put the SB 406 Section 7 procedure in place now. Run the fee-notice and 30-day cure steps on any collection action filed on or after July 1, 2026, and get ready for January 1, 2027 registration and the Secretary of State complaint forum.
• Review the declaration's arbitration and mediation clauses today. Test each arbitration clause under both § 9-9-2 and the FAA, and treat an interstate-commerce nexus as the trigger that hands control to the FAA.
• Know the benchmarks that change your strategy. If a community has not submitted to the POAA, do not lean on statutory lien or fee remedies. If the amount in controversy sits at or under $15,000, use the Magistrate Court. If an appeal involves equity or covenants, send it to the Court of Appeals.

Caveats

• SB 406's non-fee provisions are not operative yet — they take effect January 1, 2027, and Secretary of State rulemaking may still refine the registration and complaint mechanics. The foreclosure threshold is a formula, not a flat figure: the lesser of $4,000 or twelve months of regular assessments, with a $2,000 floor.
• This page corrects two common assumptions. Georgia did adopt a Uniform Mediation Act, back in 2021, and Georgia will have an administrative HOA complaint forum, run by the Secretary of State, as of January 1, 2027.
• Case outcomes turn on the specific language of a declaration. The rulings cited here illustrate principles; they do not guarantee results.

1. Georgia General Assembly, SB 406 (2025-2026) bill page (framework context for two-track structure) ↩
2. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq. (Georgia Condominium Act) and § 44-3-220 et seq. (Property Owners' Association Act) ↩
3. O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq. (Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code); non-submitting communities ↩
4. Georgia Arbitration Code, O.C.G.A. § 9-9-1 et seq. ↩
5. Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution, ADR Rules ↩
6. Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution (national-positioning context); Community Associations Institute, UCIOA enacted in 9 states (Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, West Virginia; Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, Washington) ↩
7. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76, as amended by HB 220/AP (2024) ↩
8. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109 (condominium assessment lien; attorney fees) ↩
9. O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-223, 44-3-232, as referenced/amended in SB 406 signed text ↩
10. O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-222, 44-3-235 (submission and applicability of the POAA) ↩
11. O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 (subdivision covenants; 15-lot provision in HB 220/AP) ↩
12. No statewide mandatory HOA pre-suit ADR mandate in Georgia (ADR Rules context) ↩
13. HB 220/AP (2024), amending O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-76 and 44-3-223 ↩
14. O.C.G.A. § 9-9-2(c), Georgia Arbitration Code exclusions ↩
15. Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.; FAA preemption of § 9-9-2 formalities ↩
16. Supreme Court of Georgia ADR Rules (Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution) ↩
17. ADR Rules, confidentiality and registration of neutrals ↩
18. Georgia Uniform Mediation Act, O.C.G.A. § 9-17-1 et seq. (effective July 1, 2021) ↩
19. O.C.G.A. § 15-10-2 (Magistrate Court civil jurisdiction, $15,000) ↩
20. Salter v. St. Charles Homeowners Ass'n, 368 Ga. App. 504 (2023) (declaration construed as contract) ↩
21. O.C.G.A. §§ 44-3-76, 44-3-223 (enforcement; notice and hearing) ↩
22. ADR Rules, compensation of neutrals and services for indigent parties ↩
23. O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11; Salter v. St. Charles Homeowners Ass'n (no § 13-6-11 fees on summary judgment) ↩
24. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 (six-year limitation on written contracts) ↩
25. O.C.G.A. § 15-3-3.1; Appellate Jurisdiction Reform Act of 2016 (HB 927), effective January 1, 2017 ↩
26. SB 406 (2026), "Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act," Act 715, signed text ↩
27. HB 220/AP (Act 388) (2024); Deerlake Homeowners Ass'n v. Brown, 361 Ga. App. 860, 864 S.E.2d 202 (2021) ↩
28. Kinnaird v. Morningview Homeowners Ass'n, No. A25A1083 (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 10, 2025) ↩
29. Salter v. St. Charles Homeowners Ass'n, 368 Ga. App. 504, 890 S.E.2d 391 (2023), No. A23A0620 ↩