Budget packet checklist for Georgia boards

Georgia sets no statutory proposed-budget mailing. Your declaration and bylaws may, and if they do, that requirement binds. Check them first.

Beyond that, circulate the proposed budget, a one-page summary of what changed and why with the largest driver first, the line-by-line budget with the prior year actual alongside, the per-unit or per-lot assessment in both billing-period and monthly terms, the reserve contribution and the study behind it, and the meeting date, time, location, and agenda.

If the plan includes a special assessment, say in the packet where the authority comes from. Under § 44-3-225(a) that authority exists only to the extent the instrument expressly provides, so a citation to the relevant article of the declaration belongs in the notice rather than in the argument that follows it.

Under the POAA at § 44-3-231(d) the association must keep detailed minutes of all member and board meetings, detailed and accurate financial records with itemized receipts and expenditures, any books and records required by law, and whatever records are necessary to reflect the association's affairs accurately.

Budget season is when that duty is easiest to satisfy and most often neglected. Assemble the working file as you go: vendor-level ledger detail, contract copies with renewal dates and escalation terms, insurance submissions and quotes, the reserve study and its funding plan alternatives, three years of collection history, and the minutes of every workshop.

Record the adoption vote and the substance of the discussion in the minutes. Those minutes are the evidence that the process was followed if the budget is later questioned, and in a state that leaves the calendar to the instrument they are frequently the only such evidence.

For a condominium, the operating budget and the unit's expense schedule are two of the ten documents required in the § 44-3-111 first-sale disclosure package. The package must be bound or stapled into one indexed set, the contract is voidable until at least seven days after the seller furnishes it, and the right may not be waived.

All year, the statement of amounts due has a five business day clock. Under § 44-3-109(d) for condominiums and § 44-3-232(d) for POAA developments, failure to furnish the statement within five business days of a written request delivered to the registered office extinguishes the lien as to that transaction. Decide during budget season who covers that request and confirm that the registered office address is current.

If the community has recently emerged from declarant control, add one more item. Under § 44-3-101(b) the declarant is jointly responsible for the books, records, and accounts on transition, and the association must be in good standing as of the transition date. The first post-transition budget is the right moment to confirm that the records the association actually holds match the ones it should have received.

Publish the new rate and the date it starts. Update payment instructions and any automatic payment authorizations before the first billing period, or owners on automatic payments will underpay through no fault of their own.

Refresh whatever the association uses to answer payoff and disclosure requests, so the five business day clock is a routine task rather than an emergency.

Record the budget calendar itself as a board policy the first time you adopt one. In a state that supplies no statutory calendar, that single artifact is what carries the practice across board and manager turnover.