Georgia Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified July 8, 2026 Correction September 5, 2026

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure has been signed and takes effect on the date shown:

SB 406 (2026), Ga. L. 2026, p. 988 — the Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act — Already SIGNED but not yet effective: on January 1, 2027, new O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(e) lets a court, on motion and after a hearing, make all records of a dispossessory proceeding unavailable to the public when the tenant won the case, when the tenant has paid the judgment in full including interest and costs, or when seven years have passed since a dismissal or a paid-in-full judgment. The landlord may still pursue any amounts owed in a separate action or through collections. The rest of the act concerns homeowners' and property owners' associations, not landlord-tenant law. Status: Signed 2026; section 9 makes the dispossessory-records provision effective January 1, 2027 (only the association attorney-fee section took effect July 1, 2026). The answers shown do not yet reflect it. (checked August 16, 2026).

Georgia at a glance

Rule	Georgia	Cited to
Max security deposit	2 months' rent	O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1 +4 more
Deposit return deadline	30 days	O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1 +4 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	No statute — derived from termination notice	O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 +2 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 +2 more
Late-fee cap	No statutory cap	O.C.G.A. 44-7-34 (late-payment fees as permitted deposit deduction; no late-fee cap exists in the landlord-tenant code) +1 more
Entry notice	No fixed statutory period	O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 7 (no entry-notice statute exists; official O.C.G.A. portal)
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	3 days	O.C.G.A. 44-7-50 +11 more
Application fee cap	No statutory cap	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30 +15 more
Interest owed on deposits	No — no statute addresses it	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-31 (placement of security deposit in trust in escrow account; notice of account location) +4 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	No statutory count	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-13 (landlord's duties as to repairs and improvements; the 2024 fit-for-human-habitation term) +12 more
Repair and deduct	No — no statute or decision authorizes it	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-13 (landlord's duties as to repairs and improvements; the 2024 fit-for-human-habitation term) +12 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	60 days, from delivery	O.C.G.A. § 44-7-7 +17 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Georgia Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified July 8, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/georgia/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Georgia statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in Georgia

Georgia law bars every county and city from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing any ordinance that regulates rent on privately owned residential rental property, while leaving local governments free to set rents on housing they own and to make rent agreements for such properties.

Cited to O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19 (official O.C.G.A. portal) · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Georgia rent-increase rules →

Georgia landlord-tenant laws by topic

Georgia security deposits

Georgia caps security deposits at two months' rent for leases signed or renewed on or after July 1, 2024, and the landlord must return the deposit — or an exact written statement of deductions plus the balance — within 30 days of getting the unit back.

Georgia rent increase notice

Georgia has no statute that regulates rent increases or sets a rent-increase notice period, and no cap on the size or frequency of an increase.

Georgia late fees

Georgia sets no statutory cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period — the fee is whatever the lease provides, policed only by Georgia's general rule against contractual penalties.

Georgia entry notice

Georgia has no statute setting how much notice a landlord must give before entering a rental unit — no 24-hour rule, no 'reasonable notice' standard, nothing.

Georgia eviction process

Georgia's eviction — a 'dispossessory proceeding' filed most often in magistrate court — starts, for nonpayment under leases signed or renewed since July 1, 2024, with a written notice giving the tenant three business days to pay everything owed or vacate, posted in a sealed envelope on the door.

Georgia application & screening fees

Georgia does not regulate rental application or tenant-screening fees: state law sets no limit on the amount, does not tie the charge to what a report costs, and requires no receipt, no refund, no disclosure before the money is collected, and no denial notice beyond what federal law already requires.

Georgia deposit interest

Georgia does not require landlords to pay tenants interest on a security deposit, and the word "interest" does not appear anywhere in the state's security-deposit article.

Georgia habitability & repairs

Georgia law requires a landlord to keep a rented home in repair, and since July 1, 2024 every residential rental agreement is deemed to include a provision that the premises is fit for human habitation.

Georgia lease termination

Georgia takes 60 days' notice from the landlord and 30 days from the tenant to end a tenancy at will, and the asymmetry is written into the one sentence that is the whole rule.

Georgia mobile home park laws

Georgia has no manufactured-home community tenancy act: a resident who owns the home and rents the lot is covered by the state's general landlord and tenant law, O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 7, which sets no ceiling on lot rent, requires no notice before a rent increase, and lets a community owner end a tenancy at will on sixty days' notice without giving a reason.

Georgia Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Georgia metro area and county.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (July 8, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, September 5, 2026 — Corrections from official reads: Tennessee's Jones v. VCPHCS I premises were office space, not a clinic; South Dakota's 2024 SB 90 was signed March 26, 2024 (three places said March 14) and § 16-2-58.2 was amended, not added, by 2026 ch. 93; Massachusetts' fee-in-lieu-of-deposit proviso came from St. 2024, c. 150, § 50, not St. 2025, c. 9 (which extended the move-in limit to the landlord's agent); Georgia's Alexander v. Steining holds that a rent-increase notice is itself the 60-day termination notice, so the higher rent cannot begin until the period has run; Missouri's § 441.043(2) preemption list is now stated in full.
Updated, August 16, 2026 — A pending-legislation row flags Georgia SB 406 (Ga. L. 2026, p. 988, § 8): effective January 1, 2027, new O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(e) allows a court, on motion and after a hearing, to make dispossessory-proceeding records unavailable to the public where the tenant prevailed, the judgment has been paid in full with interest and costs, or seven years have passed since a dismissal or a paid judgment; the landlord may still pursue amounts owed in a separate action or through collections. Current answers are unchanged until that date.
Updated, August 12, 2026 — Georgia's eviction page now reflects the Eviction Service Act (Ga. L. 2025, Act 255, effective July 1, 2025): approved process servers may serve the dispossessory summons under O.C.G.A. 44-7-51(a), alongside the sheriff, deputies, and lawful constables, with the personal-service-first fallback ladder unchanged. Notes also record two dead bills readers ask about: the repeal attempts on the § 44-7-19 local rent-regulation preemption (HB 299, SB 106) and the seven-day notice bill (HB 1389) all died before the biennium's April 2, 2026 adjournment.

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text: O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1, 44-7-34, 44-7-35, 44-7-36, 44-7-7, and 44-7-19 read in full from the 2024 Code of Georgia (Justia mirror of the official code, which is not deep-linkable on the official legis.ga.gov LexisNexis portal), cross-checked against the official Georgia General Assembly HB 404 (2024 Ga. Laws 392) bill record on legis.ga.gov and the Georgia Appleseed / magistrate-judge bench card summarizing the Safe at Home Act. 44-7-31, 44-7-32, and 44-7-33 mechanics confirmed across the code mirror section listing and multiple consistent secondary sources. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — § 44-7-30.1 and § 44-7-7 through the enrolled acts on gov.georgia.gov and the official reporter text of Alexander v. Steining on static.case.law; the earlier reads stand as recorded.