One of the most important ways for an owner to be involved in a community is to pay his or her assessments. Community associations cannot fulfill their obligations related to maintenance, repair, and operations without owners paying their assessments. Many associations have had enough of delinquent owners who continue not to pay and are increasingly looking to foreclosure as a way to rid themselves of these deadbeat owners. There are two types of foreclosure in Georgia. Judicial and...
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Restrictive covenants against property were historically not favored under the law. Statutes and court opinions throughout the United States instead favored that property owners should be able to use their property how the owners would like, as long as such use does not violate local, state, or federal law, and that covenants restricting the use of land should be limited. Following that general consensus throughout the country, Georgia law likewise generally provided at Code Section 44-5-60...
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The first part of this article addresses Georgia Code Section 44-5-60, which is the Georgia statute that generally pertains to the duration of restrictive covenants, and the Georgia appellate court cases that have addressed that Code Section. The second part of his article addresses how Code Section 44-5-60 relates to the Georgia Property Owners’ Association Act (commonly referred to as the “POA”). I. CODE SECTION 44-5-60 Georgia Code Section 44-5-60 used to provide that covenants...
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One of the best ways to get involved in your community is to volunteer to serve on your association’s board of directors. The board members are in a unique position to make decisions and implement changes and policies that can affect the entire community in a very positive way. Many owners may not realize that their community’s association is a nonprofit corporation. And, like every corporation, profit or nonprofit, associations have directors. Section 14-3-802 of the Georgia Nonprofit...
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The Georgia Property Owners’ Association Act (“POA”) was adopted in 1994 to expand the powers of homeowners associations. The POA does not, however, apply automatically. Instead, the developer of a community or the members of a community’s homeowners association must “opt-in” to be governed by the POA. The “opt-in” process generally takes place either by the developer when the developer initially creates the declaration of covenants for the community, or by the members of the...
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