Does Georgia Law Require a Seller to Disclose HOA or Condo Information When Selling?
Georgia does not have a comprehensive statutory "resale certificate" requirement like some states do. Instead, sellers in a homeowners association or condominium community disclose dues, fees, and pending assessments through the GAR Community Association Disclosure Exhibit, a contract exhibit attached to the purchase agreement. Separately, a buyer, lender, or owner can force the association to put unpaid-assessment information in writing, and Georgia law gives the association five business days to respond. Whether a broader state disclosure law applies to your specific HOA depends on whether it is a condominium, a homeowners association that formally opted into Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act, or neither.
TL;DR
- Georgia has no single statute requiring a full HOA or condo "resale certificate" at resale, unlike some other states.
- The GAR Community Association Disclosure Exhibit (Form F322) is the contract document that actually does this work in a Kennesaw, Acworth, or Marietta transaction, and it must be updated with any new material information up until closing.
- Georgia's Condominium Act seller-disclosure statute (O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-111) applies only to the first sale of a unit by the original developer, not to an owner selling a resale condo.
- Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act only governs a subdivision's HOA if the recorded declaration contains an affirmative election to be covered by it. Plenty of Cobb County HOAs never made that election.
- Under both the Condominium Act and the POA Act, an owner, buyer under contract, or lender can request a written statement of unpaid assessments, and the association has five business days to provide it or risk losing its lien rights on that sale.
I tell every seller the same thing before we put a Kennesaw or Acworth home with a mandatory HOA on the market: the association paperwork is not optional, and it is not the same thing as a disclosure law. Those are two different things, and mixing them up is where sellers get surprised late in a transaction.
The Community Association Disclosure Exhibit: What Kennesaw and Acworth Sellers Actually Sign
If your home sits in a mandatory homeowners association or condo community anywhere in Kennesaw, Acworth, or Marietta, the document that does the real disclosure work is the Georgia Association of REALTORS® Community Association Disclosure Exhibit. It attaches to the purchase and sale agreement, and you complete it, not your agent and not the association.
On this exhibit, you disclose:
- Whether membership in the association is mandatory or optional, and what type of community it is: a condominium, a property owners' or homeowners' association, a master association, an age-restricted community, or a voluntary association that is transitioning to mandatory
- Contact information for the association and any master association, including the management company
- Regular dues and how often they're billed (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual), plus any separate mandatory fees
- Special assessments, both ones already adopted and ones currently under consideration by the board or membership
- Transfer, initiation, and administrative fees, and which portion the buyer pays versus which portion falls on you as the seller
- Any utilities or services the association bills separately
- Pending or threatened construction-defect litigation
- Any notice you've received alleging a rule or covenant violation on the property
This is a living document. If something changes between when you sign the listing agreement and closing day, a special assessment gets adopted, a violation notice shows up, you're required to update the exhibit. I walk every HOA seller through this before we go live, because a stale disclosure exhibit is one of the more common reasons a deal gets renegotiated during due diligence.
What This Exhibit Is Not
This exhibit is a contract requirement built by the Georgia Association of REALTORS® for use with its standard purchase agreement. It is not, by itself, a state law mandating HOA disclosure. That distinction matters for the next section.
The Resale Certificate Myth: What Georgia Law Does and Doesn't Require
A lot of sellers assume Georgia has a law forcing HOAs to produce a detailed resale certificate before closing, the way some other states do. It doesn't, and this is one of the more persistent misconceptions I run into with Cobb County clients who've bought or sold elsewhere.
Georgia's Condominium Act does have a seller-disclosure statute, O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-111, but it applies only to the first bona fide sale of a residential condominium unit, the sale from the original developer or declarant to the first buyer. It requires that first seller to furnish the condominium declaration, bylaws, current budget, and related documents before the buyer is bound, and it gives that first buyer a window to void the contract if those documents aren't delivered on time.
If you're reselling a condo you've owned for years in a Marietta community, that statute doesn't apply to you. Georgia doesn't have a parallel resale-certificate statute for owner-to-owner condo sales, and it doesn't have one for typical subdivision HOA resales either. The Community Association Disclosure Exhibit described above fills that gap by contract, not by statute.
Which Georgia Law Actually Covers Your HOA: POA Act, Condominium Act, or Neither
This is the part most Kennesaw sellers have never heard, and it's worth understanding before you assume a particular rule applies to your community.
If you're selling a condominium, your community was created by a recorded condominium declaration under Georgia's Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-70 et seq.), and that Act governs it.
If you're selling in a non-condo subdivision with a mandatory HOA, Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-220 et seq.) is not automatic. Under O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-222, a property owners' development is only subject to that Act if the recorded declaration, or a later recorded amendment adopted the way the declaration's own amendment process requires, contains an affirmative election to be governed by the Act. Plenty of older Cobb County subdivisions set up their covenants before that election was common practice, or never made it at all.
If your HOA never made that election, its dues structure, lien rights, and voting procedures run on the recorded declaration and covenants themselves, under ordinary Georgia contract and property law, not on the Property Owners' Association Act. That doesn't make the HOA unenforceable. It just means the specific statutory protections and procedures in Article 6 of the Act don't apply to it.
If you're not sure which category your HOA falls into, your association's management company or the recorded declaration itself, not a general rule of thumb, is the only way to know for sure. This is exactly the kind of question I help sellers sort out before we draft the disclosure exhibit, because the answer changes what I tell a buyer's agent about how dues or special assessments will be handled.
What Buyers in Marietta Are Entitled to Request
Whether or not the Property Owners' Association Act applies to your HOA, both it and the Condominium Act give buyers and lenders a specific, narrower right that has nothing to do with the disclosure exhibit: the right to a written statement of unpaid assessments.
Under O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-109(d) for condominiums and O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-232(d) for property owners' associations, a unit or lot owner, a person under contract to purchase, a mortgagee, or a lender considering a loan can request a statement of any past-due assessments, late charges, and interest against that property. The association has five business days from receiving that written request to provide it.
Miss that window, and the consequence is specific: the association's assessment lien is extinguished as to that buyer's or lender's interest in the transaction. Once the statement is issued, it's binding on the association and every owner, meaning the buyer can rely on that number at closing. The association can charge a fee for producing it, but only up to $10, and only if its own governing documents allow that charge.
In practice, this is the document a closing attorney or title company typically orders during due diligence in a Kennesaw or Marietta HOA sale, separate from the disclosure exhibit you sign as the seller. It protects the buyer from inheriting an unpaid dues balance they never knew about.
Where This Leaves Kennesaw and Marietta Sellers
If you're listing a home in an HOA or condo community, your obligation comes from the contract, through the Community Association Disclosure Exhibit, and from keeping it current through closing. Whether a broader Georgia statute also governs your HOA's internal procedures depends on whether it's a condominium or whether its declaration made the Property Owners' Association Act election. Neither question is one you want to guess at once you're under contract.
Your specific community's status, and what belongs on your disclosure exhibit, is exactly the kind of thing worth sorting out before your home goes live in Marietta or anywhere else in Cobb County. Schedule a consultation with me, Robert Masoudpour, Associate Broker in Atlanta, GA, and I'll walk through your HOA's documents with you and make sure your disclosure exhibit is accurate from day one. Schedule a 15-minute consultation
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to disclose a pending special assessment when I sell my home in Kennesaw?
Yes. The GAR Community Association Disclosure Exhibit specifically asks whether any special assessment has been adopted or is currently under consideration by the association, and you're required to update that disclosure if the status changes before closing. Leaving out a known pending assessment is one of the more common sources of a renegotiation during the buyer's due diligence period.
Is a condo resale certificate required by Georgia law?
No single statute requires a comprehensive resale certificate for an owner-to-owner condo sale in Georgia. The Condominium Act's seller-disclosure statute, O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-111, only applies to the first sale of a unit by the original developer. For a resale, the GAR Community Association Disclosure Exhibit and a separately requested statement of unpaid assessments cover similar ground by contract rather than by statute.
How long does an HOA or condo association have to respond to an assessment statement request in Georgia?
Five business days from receiving a written request, under both the Condominium Act (O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-109) and the Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-232). If the association misses that deadline, its assessment lien against that buyer's or lender's interest in the transaction is extinguished.
Does the Property Owners' Association Act automatically apply to every HOA in Cobb County?
No. Under O.C.G.A. Section 44-3-222, a property owners' development is only governed by the Act if its recorded declaration, or a properly adopted amendment, contains an affirmative election to be covered by it. Many subdivisions in and around Acworth run on their recorded covenants under ordinary property law instead, because that election was never made.
Where can I see a sample of the Community Association Disclosure Exhibit before I list my home?
Your listing agent can walk you through a blank copy of the current GAR exhibit and help you gather the dues, fee, and assessment information from your association's management company ahead of time. You can also review general listing preparation guidance on Path2Sold.com.
