{
    "dataset": "Homzora Georgia Regulatory Gaps Reference 2026",
    "jurisdiction": "State of Georgia",
    "scope": "What Georgia does not regulate in residential tenancies, set against what it does. Covers late fees, application fees, entry notice, deposit interest, rent control and rent increase notice.",
    "why_this_exists": "Most published guidance describes what a law requires. Knowing what is unregulated matters as much, because where the statute is silent the lease governs entirely, and a renter arriving from a stricter state will assume protections that do not exist here.",
    "the_short_version": "No cap on late fees, no required grace period, no regulation of application fees at all, no entry notice requirement, no deposit interest, and no local rent control anywhere in the state. What Georgia does provide is a two month deposit cap since July 2024, a thirty day return with itemization, a non waivable warranty of habitability, and a prohibition on self help eviction.",
    "documented_error_in_a_source": "One guide carrying a 2026 date states that Georgia sets no statutory limit on security deposits. That was correct before 1 July 2024 and is not correct now. O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1 caps deposits at two months rent for leases entered into or renewed on or after that date. Homzora records this because a reader comparing sources will find the two positions and needs to know which is current.",
    "unresolved_conflicts": [
        {
            "question": "Whether daily or compounding late fees are enforceable",
            "positions": "One source states daily fees are permitted if specified in the lease. Another states any clause imposing daily, weekly or compounding late fees is unenforceable and only a single fee per late payment is permitted.",
            "homzora_position": "Not resolved. No figure or rule published. If this matters to your lease, take advice."
        },
        {
            "question": "Whether a pre suit notice period applies to nonpayment",
            "positions": "One source gives three days. Another states Georgia requires no pre suit notice period for nonpayment and that a landlord may demand possession and file immediately once rent is late.",
            "homzora_position": "Not resolved. This is the same conflict recorded in the Homzora Georgia eviction process dataset, and no figure is published for it there either."
        },
        {
            "question": "What late fee amount a court will treat as reasonable",
            "positions": "Published ranges include four to five percent and five to ten percent of monthly rent.",
            "homzora_position": "Not resolved, and in any case a guideline drawn from practice rather than statute. Published as a range with its source disagreement noted rather than as a rule."
        }
    ],
    "basis": "Compiled from published practitioner and legal publisher summaries of Title 44 Chapter 7. Where sources conflict, the conflict is recorded rather than resolved.",
    "sources": [
        "Published practitioner and legal publisher summaries of Georgia landlord tenant law, 2026"
    ],
    "verified": "2026-09-13",
    "note": "This is not legal advice and does not evaluate any particular lease or tenancy. The absence of a statutory rule is not the same as an absence of risk, and a clause a court considers unconscionable remains a problem regardless of whether a cap exists.",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0 for the Homzora compilation.",
    "methodology": "https://homzora.co/atlanta/atlanta-methodology/",
    "rows": [
        {
            "area": "late fees",
            "subject": "No statutory cap",
            "position": "Georgia sets no maximum late fee for residential rentals. The amount is whatever the lease provides.",
            "key_figure": "no cap",
            "notes": "Policed only by the general rule against contractual penalties. Sources suggest courts treat fees in the range of four to ten percent of monthly rent as reasonable, but the figures differ between them and none is statutory."
        },
        {
            "area": "late fees",
            "subject": "No grace period required",
            "position": "Georgia does not require a landlord to allow any grace period before charging a late fee. A fee can technically apply the day after rent is due if the lease permits.",
            "key_figure": "none required",
            "notes": "Market practice commonly includes a voluntary three to five day grace period, which is a competitive choice rather than an obligation."
        },
        {
            "area": "late fees",
            "subject": "Must be in the lease",
            "position": "A late fee not stated in the written lease is generally unenforceable. Verbal agreements about late fees do not bind.",
            "key_figure": "written only",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "area": "application fees",
            "subject": "Not regulated at all",
            "position": "Georgia sets no limit on rental application or tenant screening fees, does not tie the charge to what a report costs, and requires no receipt, no refund, no disclosure before collection and no denial notice beyond federal requirements.",
            "key_figure": "no cap",
            "notes": "Compare New York, which caps application fees at twenty dollars."
        },
        {
            "area": "entry",
            "subject": "No notice period for entry",
            "position": "Georgia has no statute specifying a minimum advance notice before a landlord may enter a rental unit.",
            "key_figure": "no statutory period",
            "notes": "Florida requires twelve hours and most states following the uniform act require twenty four to forty eight. Georgia is silent."
        },
        {
            "area": "deposit interest",
            "subject": "Not required",
            "position": "Georgia does not require a landlord to pay interest on a security deposit. The word interest does not appear in the state security deposit article.",
            "key_figure": "none",
            "notes": "Chicago requires annual interest at a rate set by the City Comptroller, and Massachusetts requires it at the lesser of five percent or actual. Georgia requires nothing."
        },
        {
            "area": "rent control",
            "subject": "Preempted since at least 1984",
            "position": "O.C.G.A. 44-7-19 preempts local rent control. No Georgia city or county may enact rent stabilization or a rent cap.",
            "key_figure": "preempted",
            "notes": "So a tenant cannot benefit from any local rent limit anywhere in the state."
        },
        {
            "area": "rent increases",
            "subject": "No separate notice statute",
            "position": "Georgia has no statute governing notice of a rent increase. Notice is derived from the termination provisions, which require sixty days from a landlord to end a tenancy at will under 44-7-7.",
            "key_figure": "derived, not direct",
            "notes": "Compare Chicago, which requires up to one hundred and twenty days notice of any increase by tenancy length."
        },
        {
            "area": "manufactured homes",
            "subject": "No separate act",
            "position": "Georgia has no manufactured home community tenancy act. A resident who owns the home and rents the lot falls under the general landlord and tenant law at Title 44 Chapter 7, which sets no ceiling on lot rent.",
            "key_figure": "general law applies",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "area": "what does exist",
            "subject": "Deposit cap",
            "position": "Two months rent for leases entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2024, under O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1. The cap applies to any refundable move in charge regardless of what the lease calls it and cannot be waived by agreement.",
            "key_figure": "2 months",
            "notes": "See the documented error note in this dataset. Guidance still describing no limit is out of date."
        },
        {
            "area": "what does exist",
            "subject": "Deposit return",
            "position": "Thirty days from the end of the tenancy, with an itemized statement of any deductions, under 44-7-34.",
            "key_figure": "30 days",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "area": "what does exist",
            "subject": "Habitability",
            "position": "The Safe at Home Act added an express statutory warranty of habitability at O.C.G.A. 44-7-13(b), and the repair duties cannot be waived by lease.",
            "key_figure": "implied in every lease",
            "notes": ""
        },
        {
            "area": "what does exist",
            "subject": "No self help eviction",
            "position": "A landlord cannot remove a tenant without a court issued writ of possession under 44-7-1.",
            "key_figure": "writ required",
            "notes": ""
        }
    ]
}