Georgia HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Georgia?

Yes, a Georgia condominium association can restrict or prohibit short-term rentals through its declaration under the mandatory Georgia Condominium Act, and a planned community can do so through the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act, POAA, if it has opted in, or through its recorded covenants if it hasn't. The first analytical step for any planned community is determining which framework applies. Condominiums fall automatically under the Georgia Condominium Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq.,¹ while planned communities fall under the POAA, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq., only where the recorded declaration expressly submits the community to it under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222.² The opt-in determination carries real consequences: a POAA amendment approved by two-thirds of the votes binds all owners, whereas a non-opted-in community that adds a greater use restriction can enforce it only against owners who consent in writing.⁹ Georgia's 20-year covenant rule under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 can terminate use covenants in zoned areas after 20 years, but that rule doesn't apply to communities submitted to the POAA or the Condominium Act, and planned subdivisions of 15 or more lots enjoy automatic renewal.⁹ Local short-term rental licensing and the hotel-motel tax stand as owner-facing layers that regulate the owner-to-government relationship and neither grant nor remove association authority.¹⁰ Georgia runs declaration-driven, with a mandatory condominium statute and an opt-in planned-community statute rather than a statute that caps association rental authority. The sections that follow set out the framework, the operational mechanics, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The mandatory Condominium Act and the opt-in POAA

Georgia divides its common-interest community law into two statutes. The Georgia Condominium Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq., runs mandatory and governs residential condominiums created after October 1, 1975, as well as condominiums that opt in by recording a declaration.¹ The Georgia Property Owners' Association Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq., works differently in a way that defines Georgia practice: it's opt-in. The POAA applies to a planned community only where the recorded declaration expressly elects to be governed by it under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222.² A community that hasn't opted in answers to its recorded covenants, the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-101 et seq.) for corporate governance, and the common law of restrictive covenants. Determining opt-in status comes first, since it changes the rules for amendments, use restrictions, fines, and liens. A practitioner confirms opt-in status by reading the recorded declaration for language submitting the community to the POAA. Georgia hasn't adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so neither statute mirrors the UCIOA framework some other states use. The practical result: the phrase "Georgia HOA law" describes at least three regimes — condominiums under the mandatory Condominium Act, planned communities that have opted into the POAA, and planned communities that haven't and remain governed by their covenants and common law.

2B. Restricting rentals, the 20-year covenant rule, and grandfathering

For condominiums, a rental restriction lives in the declaration, amended under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-93, which requires agreement of unit owners holding two-thirds of the association votes, or a larger figure specified in the instrument, capped at 80%.⁶ For POAA communities, the declaration gets amended under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-226, which likewise requires two-thirds of the lot-owner votes, capped at 80%.⁷ For non-opted-in communities, the declaration's own amendment clause controls, and no statutory threshold applies. The 20-year covenant rule matters most for non-opted-in communities. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(b), covenants restricting land to certain uses cannot run more than 20 years in municipalities or county areas that have adopted zoning.¹³ Subsection (d) then provides that covenants affecting planned subdivisions of 15 or more lots automatically renew for successive 20-year periods unless terminated by 51% of owners, and the Georgia Supreme Court, in Bickford v. Yancey Development Co., Inc. (2003), held that this automatic renewal applies only to covenants established after July 1, 1993, so that covenants recorded before that date "are deemed unenforceable after a period of 20 years."¹⁴ Both the Condominium Act and the POAA state that O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 doesn't apply to instruments submitted to them, so condominiums and POAA communities can hold covenants perpetually.⁹ Grandfathering turns on community type. In non-opted-in communities, O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(d)(4) provides that a change imposing a greater restriction is enforceable only against an owner who agreed to it in writing; in Charter Club on the River Home Owners Association v. Walker, the Court of Appeals held that a leasing prohibition adopted after a homeowner purchased couldn't be enforced against her because she hadn't consented.¹⁵ For POAA communities, a 2020 amendment to O.C.G.A. § 44-3-226(a), effective January 1, 2021, protects a non-owner-occupied lot already leased under the pre-amendment rules until the lot is conveyed for value.⁴ Georgia doesn't otherwise cap association rental authority by statute; the authority runs declaration-driven.

2C. State law, the hotel-motel tax, and the local layer

Georgia has no statewide statute preempting local short-term rental regulation, and no comprehensive statewide STR licensing scheme. Regulation runs primarily local.³ Two owner-facing tax layers apply. First, the state imposes sales and use tax at a rate of 4% on the rental of accommodations under O.C.G.A. § 48-8-30.¹⁶ Second, the state imposes a $5-per-night state hotel-motel fee, and cities and counties impose a local hotel-motel excise tax under O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51.¹¹ Since House Bill 317, effective July 1, 2021, marketplace facilitators such as Airbnb and Vrbo get treated as innkeepers and must collect and remit the state hotel-motel fee and applicable taxes.¹⁷ Local licensing regimes vary. Savannah defines a short-term vacation rental as "the rental of an entire dwelling unit for 30 days or less," requires an STVR certificate, and, as of September 29, 2017, imposes a 20% per-ward cap on non-owner-occupied parcels in its Downtown and Victorian historic districts.¹⁸ Atlanta requires a short-term rental license under Ordinance 20-O-1656, ties eligibility to a primary residence plus one additional dwelling, and charges a $150 annual fee.¹⁹ The distinction that matters for associations: these local rules regulate the owner-to-government relationship. They neither grant nor remove an association's authority, which comes from the declaration and the applicable framework. An owner who obtains a valid Atlanta or Savannah STR license may still violate the governing documents if the declaration prohibits short-term leasing, and an owner who satisfies the declaration may still get barred by local zoning or caps. Compliance with one layer isn't compliance with the other.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common tool is a minimum-lease-term restriction, which sets a floor — commonly six months or one year — that effectively prohibits transient, nightly rentals without banning leasing outright. Georgia sets no statutory minimum lease term, so the defining day-count comes from the declaration itself. A second tool is the rental cap, limiting the percentage of units or lots that may be leased at any time. Neither the Condominium Act nor the POAA sets a statutory cap or authorizes one by default; a cap must get adopted in the declaration under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-93 for condominiums⁶ or § 44-3-226 for POAA communities,⁷ and in a non-opted-in community under the declaration's own amendment clause. Associations may also impose internal requirements such as tenant registration, lease filing, and owner-contact information, to the extent the instrument authorizes them. Because Georgia runs declaration-driven, the enforceability of any of these tools depends on whether it was validly adopted for the community type at issue, and, for non-opted-in communities, on whether O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(d)(4) requires the consent of an affected owner.⁹

Enforcement

Enforcement authority runs statutory in both statutory frameworks and contractual in non-opted-in communities. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76 for condominiums⁵ and O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223 for POAA communities,¹² non-compliance is grounds for an action to recover sums due, for damages, for injunctive relief, or for any other available remedy. Before pursuing injunctive relief, an association must give notice as provided in the instrument, or, if the instrument is silent, 10 days' written notice, except where a violation presents a clear and imminent danger. Both statutes empower the association to impose fines only to the extent provided in the instrument, and as amended in 2024, unpaid fines can't affect an owner's voting rights.¹² In POAA communities, unpaid assessments — and charges the declaration treats as assessments — become an automatic statutory lien under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232, and condominiums have a comparable assessment lien under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-109; whether a fine can be enforced as a lien depends on how the declaration characterizes it. Non-opted-in communities rely on remedies in their covenants and general contract and equity principles, without the automatic statutory lien. Association enforcement runs in parallel with, and independently of, local-government STR enforcement; a city can cite an owner for operating without a license while the association separately pursues a covenant violation.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

Recent appellate rulings

No published decision from the Georgia Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia in the past 36 months squarely resolves the enforceability of a short-term-rental restriction. The controlling authority on rental-restriction amendments remains older: Charter Club on the River Home Owners Association v. Walker (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2009), holding a leasing prohibition unenforceable against a non-consenting owner under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(d)(4),¹⁵ and Marino v. Clary Lakes Homeowners Association, Inc. (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2013 and 2015), holding that a use restriction adopted at the same time a community submitted to the POAA required two-thirds approval to bind non-consenting owners.²² A recent decision touching association authority generally, though not rentals, comes from the Court of Appeals.

Active legislative or local debates

Georgia hasn't moved toward statewide STR preemption, leaving licensing to local governments, and metro-Atlanta jurisdictions keep tightening local rules. DeKalb County's Short-Term Rental Ordinance, approved by the Board of Commissioners on July 24, 2025, went live May 20, 2026, requiring operators to obtain a license, designate a 24-hour local contact, and remit the local hotel-motel excise tax.²⁴ Savannah and Atlanta continue to enforce their existing certificate and license regimes.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Georgia sits in the declaration-driven camp among the broad approaches states take to short-term rentals and associations. It pairs a mandatory condominium statute with an opt-in planned-community statute, the POAA, rather than a statute that directly limits how far an association can restrict rentals. That sets Georgia apart from states such as California, whose Civil Code § 4741 bars rental caps below 25% of the homes in a development and voids provisions that unreasonably restrict leasing, and Arizona, whose A.R.S. § 33-1260.01 bars an association from prohibiting rentals unless the declaration expressly so provides.²⁵ It also differs from states such as Florida and Arizona, which preempt local STR bans. In Georgia, local STR licensing restrains owners and governs their compliance with city and county government; it doesn't touch association authority, which flows from the declaration and the applicable framework. For a multi-state operator entering Georgia, the practical sequence: determine opt-in status first, then apply the Condominium Act, the POAA, or the recorded CC&Rs and common law, because the same rental question produces different answers across the three regimes.

HOA Weekly updates its Georgia Short-Term Rentals coverage quarterly as the General Assembly, the Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Georgia, and local governments act. Federal frameworks — including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD — also apply to Georgia associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 44, Chapter 3, Article 3 (Georgia Condominium Act, O.C.G.A. § 44-3-70 et seq.) ↩
2. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 (short title, Georgia Property Owners' Association Act); election/opt-in under § 44-3-222 ↩
3. Georgia has enacted no statewide statute preempting local STR regulation or requiring statewide STR licensing; regulation is delegated to local governments (Governor's 2026 signed-legislation record; Georgia General Assembly) ↩
4. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-226(a) (2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, protecting a non-owner-occupied lot already leased for an initial term of six months or longer until conveyance for value) ↩
5. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-76 (compliance with condominium instruments; enforcement; 10 days' written notice before injunctive relief if the instrument is silent) ↩
6. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-93 (amendment of condominium instruments; two-thirds of association votes, capped at 80%) ↩
7. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-226 (amendment of POAA instrument; two-thirds of association votes, capped at 80%) ↩
8. Both the Georgia Condominium Act and the POAA provide that O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 does not apply to instruments submitted to them (Lueder, Larkin & Hunter, "Restricting leasing through amendment," summarizing the statutory exclusion) ↩
9. O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60 (covenants running with land; subsection (b) 20-year rule in zoned areas; subsection (d) automatic renewal for subdivisions of 15+ lots; subsection (d)(4) written-consent requirement for greater restrictions) ↩
10. Local STR licensing regulates the owner-to-government relationship (City of Savannah, Short-term Vacation Rental Regulations); see also City of Atlanta Short-Term Rental program ↩
11. Georgia Department of Revenue, State Hotel-Motel Fee FAQ ($5-per-night state fee); local hotel-motel excise tax under O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51 ↩
12. O.C.G.A. § 44-3-223 (compliance with POAA instrument; enforcement; fines only if provided in the instrument; fines shall not impact voting rights; 10 days' written notice before injunctive relief if silent; amended by 2024 Ga. Laws 388) ↩
13. O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(b) (covenants restricting land to certain uses shall not run for more than 20 years in municipalities or county areas that have adopted zoning laws) ↩
14. Bickford v. Yancey Development Co., Inc., 276 Ga. 814, 585 S.E.2d 78 (2003) (1993 automatic-renewal revision applies only to covenants established after July 1, 1993; pre-1993 covenants deemed unenforceable after 20 years), as discussed in Lueder, Larkin & Hunter, "Duration of covenants: A survey of Georgia Law" ↩
15. Charter Club on River Home Owners Association v. Walker, 301 Ga. App. 898, 689 S.E.2d 344 (2009) (leasing amendment unenforceable against non-consenting owner under O.C.G.A. § 44-5-60(d)(4)) ↩
16. O.C.G.A. § 48-8-30 (state sales and use tax at the rate of 4% on retail sales, rentals, and services) ↩
17. Georgia Department of Revenue Policy Bulletin FET-2021-01 (House Bill 317; marketplace innkeepers/facilitators must collect and remit the state hotel-motel fee and sales and use tax for facilitated accommodations, effective July 1, 2021) ↩
18. City of Savannah, Short-term Vacation Rental Regulations (STVR defined as rental of an entire dwelling unit for 30 days or less; as of September 29, 2017, a 20% per-ward cap on non-owner-occupied parcels in the Downtown and Victorian historic districts) ↩
19. City of Atlanta Code of Ordinances, Part 20 (Short-Term Rentals), Ordinance 20-O-1656 (short-term rental license required; primary residence plus one additional dwelling unit; $150 annual fee) ↩
20. Georgia General Assembly, House Bill 220 (2023-2024), amending Title 44 to provide for means of enforcement of condominium and property owners' association instruments; signed 2024, effective July 1, 2024 ↩
21. Georgia General Assembly, Senate Bill 406 (2025-2026), "Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act" (registration of property owners' associations; amendment of O.C.G.A. § 44-3-232; Section 7 effective July 1, 2026, remainder effective January 1, 2027) ↩
22. Marino v. Clary Lakes Homeowners Association, Inc., 322 Ga. App. 839 (2013) and 331 Ga. App. 204, 770 S.E.2d 289 (2015) (use restriction adopted with POAA submission required two-thirds approval under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-226(a) to bind non-consenting owners) ↩
23. Kinnaird v. Morningview Homeowners Association, Inc. (Court of Appeals of Georgia, decided September 10, 2025) (architectural-review covenant not to sue), as reported by Freeman Mathis & Gary ↩
24. DeKalb County Short-Term Rental Ordinance (approved by the Board of Commissioners July 24, 2025; program went live May 20, 2026; registration, 24-hour local contact, and local hotel-motel excise tax), as reported in Georgia STR market coverage ↩
25. Comparative context: California Civil Code § 4741 (rental caps may not fall below 25% of units) and Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-1260.01 (an association may not prohibit rentals unless the declaration expressly provides), contrasted with Georgia's declaration-driven approach ↩