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Georgia Ch. 44-3
Georgia Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 3, Article 6)Opt-in statutory framework for Georgia subdivision homeowners associations (O.C.G.A. Article 6, §§ 44-3-220 to 44-3-235). The article applies only to developments whose recorded declaration states an affirmative election to be governed by it under O.C.G.A. § 44-3-222. It supplies standardized authority for assessments, a statutory lien with judicial foreclosure, fining and enforcement, and association powers and records.Official source
§ 44-3-220
Names the article: it shall be known and may be cited as the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act. The short title marks the boundary of the opt-in framework the rest of the article supplies.
§ 44-3-221
Defines the terms the rest of the article runs on, including declaration, declarant, lot, lot owner, common area, common expenses, instrument, association, and development. It defines court as the county superior court and foreclosure to include judicial foreclosure and the exercise of a power of sale.
§ 44-3-222
The opt-in provision. A development comes into existence on recordation of a declaration under the article, or on amendment of an existing declaration under Code Section 44-3-235. Any declaration or amendment intending to claim the article's benefits must state an affirmative election to be governed by it.
§ 44-3-223
Requires every lot owner and occupant to comply with the instrument, reasonable rules, and the bylaws. Noncompliance is grounds for an action for sums due, damages, injunctive relief, or any other remedy at law or in equity. If and to the extent the instrument provides, the association may impose fines and temporarily suspend voting rights and certain common-area use rights.
§ 44-3-224
Addresses how common expenses are allocated among lots and assessed by the association, including the budgeting framework that supports the lien for assessments. Read together with Code Section 44-3-225 on special and disproportionate assessments.
§ 44-3-225
Governs special and disproportionate assessments where the instrument expressly provides, bars an owner from escaping assessment liability through nonuse or abandonment, makes a grantee jointly and severally liable for the grantor's unpaid assessments unless a statement is requested under Code Section 44-3-232(d), and protects first-mortgage and certain purchase-money-mortgage foreclosure purchasers from pre-acquisition assessment liability.
§ 44-3-226
Addresses membership in the association and the allocation and exercise of voting rights among lot owners. Read together with the powers and meeting provisions in Code Section 44-3-231.
§ 44-3-231
Sets out the association's powers, exercisable except as the instrument prohibits, including employing agents, improving the common area, architectural-control approval, granting and accepting easements and leases, acquiring property, borrowing, and amending instruments to conform to mandatory law. It requires detailed minutes and accurate financial records and gives the association standing to sue and be sued.
§ 44-3-232
Creates the association's lien for lawfully assessed sums, prior and superior to other liens except ad valorem taxes, a first-priority or pre-declaration mortgage, and certain purchase-money mortgages. After at least 30 days' certified-mail or statutory-overnight notice, the lien may be foreclosed by an action, judgment, and court order in the same manner as other liens for the improvement of real property. No foreclosure action is permitted unless the lien is at least $2,000.00.
§ 44-3-233
Directs that the article and instruments recorded under it be liberally construed in favor of valid establishment of a property owners' association, and that substantial compliance suffices, with defects curable by a recorded amendment or by decree of the court.
§ 44-3-235
Defines what the article applies to: property submitted to it, and any mandatory-membership association whose declaration is amended under Code Section 44-3-222 to submit to and conform with the article. It does not affect the validity of instruments recorded before or after July 1, 1994.
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