The Georgia Property Owners’ Association Act ("POAA") was enacted on July 1, 1994 to empower homeowners’ associations (HOAs) in Georgia with similar rights as Georgia’s condominium associations. Although not as expansive, many essential provisions of the POAA mirror provisions of the Georgia Condominium Act. However, while the Georgia Condominium Act applies to all condominiums in Georgia, HOA submission to the POAA is optional.

There are many great advantages for HOAs to submit to the POAA. The biggest advantage may be that under Georgia case law, unless a community’s governing declaration is subject to the Georgia Condominium Act or POAA, the only way to change or add new use restrictions (including leasing restrictions) to the declaration is with each owner’s written consent, rather than with the typical 2/3rds or 75% approval of the owners. The rise in short-term leasing through Airbnb, Vrbo and other like sites and a desire by many HOAs to prevent short-term and other leasing may be the reason that pushes many Georgia HOAs to finally submit to the POAA.

How Do HOAs Submit to the POAA?

For HOAs, if the community’s developer did not submit the HOA to the POAA, the only way for the community to take advantage of the POAA is to amend the governing declaration to affirmatively submit to the POAA.

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While most news outlets deemed Atlanta’s hosting of the Super Bowl a success, it brought an unwelcome surprise for many condominium and homeowners associations: Airbnb and similar short-term tenants. Not unexpectedly, many of those tenants came ready to party, and associations were concerned about the common complaints for most short-term tenants: frequent move-ins and move-outs of unknown occupants, discourteous and obnoxious behavior, and excessive use of the common areas. Compounding this unpleasant surprise, many boards of directors and community managers learned that their association’s covenants did not provide the authority to prohibit Airbnb or other short-term rentals. 

Because the rise in Airbnb, VRBO and similar short-term leasing websites is a relatively recent phenomenon, most community association governing documents do not specifically address the issue.  Even declarations of condominium and covenants drafted only a few years ago which include general leasing restrictions do not include provisions specifically prohibiting short-term leasing. This gap creates a potential problem for many associations who want to control or prohibit Airbnb and other short-term leasing because Georgia law generally favors the rights of owners to do what they want with their property. 

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