Georgia rules for property managers

Managing, leasing, or renting property for others for a fee requires a Georgia real estate license. Since July 1, 2025, an owner who lives outside Georgia and owns or operates single-family or duplex rentals must employ a Georgia-licensed broker, and an out-of-state broker must employ someone in Georgia to handle tenant communications. The owner and full-time employee exemptions do not apply to those out-of-state owners.

Owners, spouses, family members, general partners, LLC officers, and their regular employees managing that owner's property; full-time employees of the owner; attorneys in fact; licensed attorneys; court fiduciaries; government employees; people doing only physical maintenance; certain short-term rental managers; CPAs. A broker's unlicensed employees may deliver and receive applications and leases, take payments made out to the broker or owner, show units, and give authorized information under a written agreement.

Brokers must hold rents and security deposits for others in a trust account at a federally insured bank and keep records the Commission can audit.

A landlord may not demand or receive a deposit above the equivalent of two months' rent. The cap applies to residential leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.

Return the full deposit, or send a written statement of what you kept with any balance. You cannot keep money for ordinary wear and tear. Mailing the statement and payment first class to the tenant's last known address complies. If it comes back undelivered and you cannot find the tenant after reasonable effort, the money becomes yours 90 days after mailing.

The escrow account must be at a bank or lending institution regulated by Georgia or the federal government, and tenants must be told in writing where it is. A bond with the superior court clerk must equal the deposits held or $50,000, whichever is less. Give the tenant a signed move-in damage list before taking the deposit. A natural person whose family owns 10 or fewer units is exempt from these rules unless a third party manages the units for a fee.

Georgia law does not set a late fee amount or grace period. Keep fees reasonable and state them in the lease.

Application fees are usually nonrefundable. Give a receipt.

Georgia law sets notice to end a tenancy at will (60 days from the landlord), not notice to raise rent. To change rent on a tenancy at will without the tenant's agreement, give at least the 60-day termination notice.

No county or city may enact, maintain, or enforce an ordinance that regulates the amount of rent on privately owned single-family or multifamily rentals. Local governments may still regulate their own property and make rent agreements with private owners.

The notice can cover rent, late fees, utilities, and other charges owed. Post it in a sealed envelope on the door and also deliver it by any other method the rental agreement provides. After filing, a tenant can stop a nonpayment case by paying all rent claimed plus the cost of the warrant within 7 days of service, but you must accept that only once in any 12-month period.

For holdovers and other cases, the owner must demand possession and may file a sworn affidavit if the tenant refuses. The demand must be posted in a sealed envelope on the door and delivered by any other method the lease provides. Follow any notice and cure terms in your lease.

These notice periods apply to tenancies at will. A tenancy with no set end date is a tenancy at will.

After the required notice, file a sworn affidavit. The sheriff, a constable, or an approved process server serves the tenant. If the case is not decided within two weeks of service, the tenant must pay rent into court as it comes due. If the sheriff cannot execute the writ within 14 days of your request, you may hire an approved off-duty officer at your cost, with 5 days' written notice to the sheriff. Appeal rules in § 44-7-56 were not verified here.

The writ authorizes removing the tenant and their belongings. The landlord is not a bailee and owes the tenant no duty for the property after removal. Apply to execute the writ within 30 days of issuance unless you show good cause.

Put entry terms in the lease. Without a lease right of entry, the tenant may refuse non-emergency entry.

These duties cannot be waived in the lease. Retaliation for a tenant's good-faith action about a life, health, safety, or habitability concern is barred and is a defense to a dispossessory case. 'Utilities' for the landlord's utility duties means cooling, heat, light, and water.

At or before move-in, disclose in writing the owner of record (or their agent for notices) and the person who manages the unit, and update tenants within 30 days of any change. Before signing, disclose in writing if flooding damaged the living space at least 3 times in the past 5 years. Tell tenants where the deposit escrow account is and give the move-in damage list before taking a deposit. Federal lead disclosure applies to pre-1978 units.

Georgia adds no statewide source of income protection. Some cities and counties have their own ordinances.

For leases entered or renewed on or after this date: deposits capped at two months' rent, every lease includes a fitness for habitation promise, and a 3-business-day notice to vacate or pay is required before filing for nonpayment, posted on the door and sent by any method in the lease.

Makes entering property to live there without the owner's consent a form of criminal trespass and creates a fast citation and hearing process to remove unauthorized occupants.

If the sheriff cannot execute a writ of possession within 14 days of the landlord's request, the landlord may hire an approved off-duty officer at its own cost, with 5 days' notice to the sheriff.

Approved process servers, as well as sheriffs and constables, may serve dispossessory summonses.

Out-of-state owners of single-family or duplex rentals must use a Georgia-licensed broker with in-state staff for tenant communications. License exemptions were revised. Local governments cannot require rental registration and need probable cause to inspect rentals.

On motion and hearing, a court may make dispossessory records non-public if the tenant won, paid the judgment in full, or 7 years have passed since dismissal or a fully paid judgment.

• NARPM Atlanta Chapter

• Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity
• Metro Fair Housing Services