The most expensive mistake a Georgia landlord can make costs three times the money involved. Withhold a security deposit without the required inspection paperwork, or blow the 30-day return deadline, and O.C.G.A. § 44-7-35 lets the tenant recover treble the amount wrongfully withheld plus attorney fees, while you forfeit the right to keep any of it. A $2,400 deduction handled sloppily becomes a $7,200 judgment with your name on it.

And since July 1, 2024, there is a second trap wired next to the first: the Safe at Home Act (HB 404) rewrote several rules landlords had memorized for decades, including a brand-new deposit cap and a mandatory pre-filing notice for nonpayment evictions. Plenty of 2026 dispossessory filings are still getting tossed because the landlord ran the old playbook.

Georgia deposits now stop at two months' rent

Until mid-2024 Georgia had no deposit cap at all. HB 404 changed that: security deposits on residential leases are capped at two months' rent (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30.1). That is still roomier than Washington, D.C.'s one-month ceiling, and unlike Florida, which never adopted a cap, Georgia now polices the front end of the deposit as well as the back.

The back end works like this (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-34): within 30 days of the tenant surrendering the unit, return the deposit or send an itemized statement of damages and the balance, by first-class mail to the tenant's last known address if needed. Deductions must reflect actual damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, backed by the inspection lists.

The inspection-list machinery, and who it binds

Georgia's deposit statutes bolt on real procedure for larger operators. If you own more than ten rental units, or use a management company at any size, you must: give the tenant a move-in condition list before taking the deposit (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-33), hold the money in a Georgia escrow account or post a surety bond (O.C.G.A. §§ 44-7-31 and 44-7-32), and complete a move-out inspection list within three business days of the tenancy ending, which the tenant may attend and dispute. Skip the lists or deadlines and § 44-7-35 forfeits your right to withhold and opens the treble-damages door.

Natural persons who own ten or fewer units and self-manage are exempt from the escrow, list, and penalty sections (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-36), but not from the two-month cap or the 30-day return rule. Even exempt landlords get sued for conversion when they sit on deposits, so run the full procedure anyway; it is cheap insurance. Rentari tracks the 30-day clock and stores the move-in and move-out lists against each lease, which is exactly the paper trail § 44-7-35 fights turn on.

Notices, entry, and the 60-day rule

Georgia's notice math for at-will and month-to-month tenancies is lopsided by design: the landlord must give 60 days' notice to terminate, the tenant only 30 (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-7). The same 60 days is the safe standard for changing terms mid-stream, including a rent increase on a month-to-month tenant, since an increase is legally a termination of the old terms and an offer of new ones.

Entry is the odd gap in Georgia law: there is no statute requiring advance notice before a landlord enters. Your lease controls. Write a 24-hour or 48-hour notice clause into it, because entering unannounced invites quiet-enjoyment and harassment claims that Georgia courts do entertain even without an entry statute.

Rent and late fees: almost no rules, on purpose

Georgia bans rent control outright; no city or county may regulate the amount of rent charged on private residential property (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19), so Atlanta cannot pass what Athens cannot pass. There is no cap on rent increases, no required grace period, and no ceiling on late fees. The catch: a late fee is only collectible if the lease provides for it, and outlandish fees can be attacked as unenforceable penalties. Keep them proportionate and defined in the lease, not improvised after the fact.

The dispossessory path, with the new 2024 step

Georgia eviction runs through a dispossessory action, usually in magistrate court, and it moves fast once filed. The sequence:

  • Demand for possession. Always required before filing, for any ground (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(a)). No specific day count attaches to the demand itself for most grounds.
  • Nonpayment gets a waiting period now. For leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024, you must deliver a written notice to pay or vacate and then wait at least three business days before filing the dispossessory affidavit (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(c)). Delivery includes posting the notice in a sealed envelope conspicuously on the door plus any additional method the lease specifies (§ 44-7-50(d)). If the tenant pays everything owed within the window, you do not file.
  • Answer window. The tenant has 7 days from service of the summons to answer (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-51). No answer means a writ of possession can issue immediately.
  • The once-a-year cure. In a nonpayment case, the tenant can stop the eviction by paying all rent owed plus costs within 7 days of the summons, but only once in any 12-month period (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-52).

Self-help is off the table. Cutting utilities before the case is finally resolved is a criminal misdemeanor (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-14.1), and lockouts without a writ expose you to damages. For genuine squatters who never had a lease, the Georgia Squatter Reform Act (HB 1017, effective April 24, 2024) created a fast affidavit-based removal track and made unauthorized residential occupation a criminal matter.

Habitability and the disclosures Georgia does require

HB 404 also wrote the duty of habitability into the code: rental housing must be fit for human habitation at move-in and kept that way (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-13), and that duty cannot be waived in the lease (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-2). Georgia still has no statutory rent-withholding or repair-and-deduct scheme; tenants' remedies run through damages claims and, in practice, through repair-and-deduct principles Georgia courts have recognized case by case. Fix things after written notice and you stay out of all of it.

Disclosures are short but mandatory: the owner's name and address, or the agent authorized to act (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-3); a written flooding disclosure before signing if living space in the unit has flooded three or more times in the past five years (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-20); the move-in inspection list where the deposit rules require it; and the federal lead-based paint disclosure for pre-1978 housing.

What changed in 2024, and what has not since

Two 2024 laws did the heavy lifting, and they still define the current rulebook:

  • April 24, 2024 (HB 1017): the Squatter Reform Act's expedited removal process and criminal penalties for unlawful squatting.
  • July 1, 2024 (HB 404, the Safe at Home Act): the two-month deposit cap, the statutory habitability duty, and the three-business-day pre-filing notice for nonpayment, applied to leases signed or renewed from that date.

The 2025 and 2026 sessions produced nothing of comparable scope for residential landlords, so if your leases and notices were updated for HB 404, they are current. The full landlord-tenant title is readable at O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 7, our Georgia quick-reference page tracks the headline numbers, and the forms library has Georgia-specific notices, including the 3-business-day pay-or-vacate letter. Landlords comparing markets can see how differently Delaware handles the same questions.

Georgia landlord FAQ

Does the two-month deposit cap apply to my old lease?

HB 404 applies to leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024. A lease signed before that date keeps its original deposit until renewal, but every renewal since then must comply with the cap and the notice rules.

Do I really have to wait three business days before filing for nonpayment?

Yes, for any lease signed or renewed on or after July 1, 2024 (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(c)). Filing early is grounds for dismissal, which costs you the filing fee and several weeks. Serve the written notice, count business days, then file.

Is there any limit on how much I can raise rent?

No. Georgia has no rent control and prohibits local governments from creating any (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19). On month-to-month tenants, give 60 days' notice of the increase; on fixed terms, wait for renewal unless the lease says otherwise.

Can my tenant just repair something and deduct it from rent?

There is no statute authorizing it, but Georgia case law has allowed tenants to repair after notice and offset reasonable costs. Do not test it: respond to written repair requests promptly and document the work.

What notice does a squatter get?

Someone who never had your permission or a lease is not a tenant. Under HB 1017 you can file the owner's affidavit and have law enforcement remove them within days, and they can face criminal charges; the dispossessory process is for tenants and holdover occupants who once had authority to be there.

This is general information for Georgia landlords, not legal advice. Statutes change and county courts apply them with local flavor, so before you act on a deadline or notice requirement, check the current O.C.G.A. text or ask a Georgia landlord-tenant attorney.