Georgia Just Gave Your HOA a Second Registration: What SB 406 Actually Requires (With the Statute's Own Words)

Starting January 1, 2027, most Georgia HOAs and condo associations will face a choice: file a new $100/year registration with the Secretary of State (on top of the $30 corporate registration you already do, with its own separate December 31 deadline), or formally opt out and give up the power to collect fines, fees, and certain other charges (details below). That's not a fee hike on the filing you know — it's a new filing that runs alongside it. You have time: the law isn't in effect yet, and this post walks through exactly what it requires, in the statute's own words, so you can plan for it instead of worrying about it.

I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice — it's a plain-English walk through Senate Bill 406, the "Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act," signed by Governor Kemp on May 12, 2026. I run the books for a 10-unit Decatur condo association myself, so I read this one the way I'd want it explained to me: what the text actually says, and where it stays quiet. Where the statute is genuinely unclear, I'll say so plainly instead of guessing — and for any decision that matters, talk to your association's own attorney.

Who this covers

SB 406 defines "owners' association" broadly — broader than the word "HOA" usually implies. The Act covers:

"a nongovernmental association of participating owners of residential property in a delineated geographic area in which recorded covenants apply to such delineated geographic area, comprising a neighborhood, condominium development, common interest community... or group of homeowners or property owners..." (O.C.G.A. § 43-17A-1(6))

Condo associations are named explicitly. The statute is written broadly enough that most communities with recorded covenants and a homeowners' or condo association fall inside its definition.

The two-registration reality

This is the part most summaries get wrong, so it's worth being precise. SB 406 doesn't touch your existing Georgia nonprofit corporate registration; that one continues exactly as it is, filed with the Corporations Division under O.C.G.A. § 14-3-1622, due between January 1 and April 1 each year, currently a $30 fee ($35 if filed online). SB 406 creates a brand-new, separate registration under a new chapter (Title 43, Chapter 17A) with its own fee and its own deadline:

Run the two together and a Georgia association is looking at roughly $130/year across two filings with two different deadlines, starting in 2027 — not a $100 replacement for the $30 filing.

When it takes effect (and the one thing the statute doesn't say)

The Act becomes effective January 1, 2027 (Section 9(a) of the bill). Here's the honest gap: the statute bars operating an unregistered owners' association from that date, but it never says whether your first registration statement has to be filed by January 1, 2027, or can be filed from January 1, 2027, once the Secretary of State actually opens the registration process (which, as of this writing, doesn't exist yet — there's no form). The statute does not say. We're not going to guess at an answer here, and I'd treat anyone who confidently tells you one date or the other with some skepticism until the Secretary of State issues guidance. If the timing matters for your board's planning, that's a fair question for your attorney or the Secretary of State's office directly. What we do know for certain, because the statute states it directly, is the ongoing rule once you're registered: renewals are due by December 31 each year.

Your two lawful paths: register, or opt out

This is the part that actually surprised me, because it's framed as a real choice, not just a mandate. Georgia's law lets an association elect out of registering entirely — on the record, in writing:

"An entity that would otherwise constitute an owners' association may by written notice to the Secretary of State elect not to register under this chapter as an owners' association or otherwise to comply with this chapter and thereby shall be deemed a nonregistered owners' association." (§ 43-17A-2(a)(2)(B)(i))

What each path costs you is spelled out just as plainly. If you register, you keep the ability to enforce collections the normal way. If you don't register (and don't file the opt-out notice either), you're simply noncompliant. If you do file the opt-out notice, the statute is specific about what you give up:

"...no owners' association or its agent shall collect fines or fees against any owner, or file or record liens or initiate foreclosure proceedings against any lot unless such owners' association is registered pursuant to this Code section." (§ 43-17A-2(a)(2)(A))

"No nonregistered owners' association or its agent shall assess or collect fines or fees or accelerated assessments against any owner." (§ 43-17A-2(a)(2)(B)(ii))

Read those two bans closely and notice what's not on the list: regular monthly or annual dues assessments. The statute's bans name fines, fees, and accelerated assessments. (Liens and foreclosures are named in the ban on unregistered associations, quoted first above — but the separate ban for formally opted-out associations doesn't repeat them. Whether that difference means an opted-out association keeps its lien and foreclosure power is a question the statute doesn't answer, and one to put to your attorney before a board relies on it in either direction.) Ordinary dues assessments aren't named in either ban. We read that as the statute leaving regular dues collection untouched either way, but this is exactly the kind of line-drawing your attorney should confirm before you rely on it — the statute doesn't use the word "dues" to say so explicitly; it simply doesn't list them among what's restricted.

One more piece of the trade-off worth knowing before the vote: the 10-year records-retention duty covered below is written for registered owners' associations — the Act's own definition (§ 43-17A-1(6)) excludes a formally opted-out association from the term "owners' association" — so that statutory mandate is part of what registering signs you up for. Keeping good records is wise either way; what differs is which duties carry the force of the statute.

Neither path is a violation. It's a genuine board decision, and the deadline pressure only applies if you choose to register.

If something changes: the 30-day amendment duty

Registered associations have one more standing duty — keeping the registration current:

"In the event of a change in name, address, officers, or other change which materially affects the business and control of an owners' association, the owners' association shall within 30 days file an amended registration statement with the Secretary of State." (§ 43-17A-2(d))

This one's event-driven, not calendar-driven — it only fires when something material actually changes (a new address, new officers), not on a fixed schedule.

Ten years, at an actual address (the banker-box requirement)

This is the one I feel personally, because I own the banker box this describes:

"An owners' association shall maintain for not less than ten years at an office located in this state or, if it has no office in this state, its principal office all records, including electronic records and records in any other format, relating to any assessments, fines, fees, liens, and foreclosures." (§ 43-17A-2(g))

Ten years — specifically for records tied to assessments, fines, fees, liens, and foreclosures. That's narrower than "keep everything forever"; it's the money-and-enforcement paper trail. The statute also requires notifying the Secretary of State of the address where these records live, if that's different from the address on your registration.

Here's the genuine gap for small self-managed boards: the Act never defines "office." Most volunteer-run associations don't have one in any real-estate sense — the treasurer's home office and a filing cabinet is often the actual office. The statute doesn't say whether that qualifies, and it doesn't say whether purely digital, cloud-stored records satisfy "at an office located in this state." We don't have a confident answer to either question, and we're not going to invent one. This is squarely a question for your attorney or your registered agent, and one the Secretary of State's eventual registration form and rules may also clarify. One option worth raising with them: the same registered-agent address your nonprofit corporation already has on file at ecorp.sos.ga.gov. Until the ambiguity is resolved, the concrete thing a board can act on doesn't require an answer either way: don't purge any of the records the statute lists, and know which Georgia address you'd point to if asked.

If you miss it

Life happens, boards are volunteers, and this is a new law nobody has filed under yet. Here's what we can point to directly in the text: the statute doesn't spell out a late-filing penalty layered on top of the $100 fee, and the enforcement section (§ 43-17A-3) frames enforcement as discretionary rather than automatic. The section is written in "may," not "shall": the Secretary of State may act after finding it in the public interest plus one of several listed grounds (a materially incomplete or false application, a willful violation, failing to pay the fee within 30 days of a deficiency notice, or ignoring a subpoena) — and the Act expressly contemplates reinstating a registration once a fee deficiency is corrected. What the statute doesn't say is what happens, procedurally, to an association that files late — whether a late first registration is treated the same as an on-time one, or carries some other consequence the text doesn't spell out. We're not going to guess at that. If your board is behind on this, that's a question for your attorney before you assume either answer.

Two things the statute genuinely doesn't resolve, and I'd take straight to your association's own attorney rather than guess: whether other collection tools — like a condominium lien for unpaid regular assessments — survive if you elect not to register, and whether fines or fees from an unregistered gap period can be pursued once you do register. Both are silent in the text. That's not us being cagey; it's the honest state of the law as written.

The honest limitations here

I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice for your specific association — talk to your own attorney or CPA before you rely on any of this for a real decision. And because the Secretary of State's registration process and forms don't exist yet, some of the practical mechanics above (what "office" means, exactly what the form asks for) could get clearer, or shift, once they're published. I'll update this post when that happens.

Where this fits at GnomeOwner

This is exactly the kind of thing our compliance calendar is built to track without asking your board to become legal researchers: every deadline shows the statute sentence it came from, right next to the plain-English version, so you (or your attorney) can check our work instead of taking our word for it. GnomeOwner is free for your whole board to use for this kind of tracking. No credit card, no sales call.

You have five months before this is live, and the Secretary of State hasn't opened the process yet. That's enough time to have the register-or-opt-out conversation calmly, at a normal board meeting, instead of in a panic next December.