Eviction Notice Requirements in Georgia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law — Georgia's dispossessory framework

Georgia does not use the word "eviction" in its statute, and it never adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act that gives many states their tidy 7-day / 14-day / 30-day notice grid. Instead, a landlord who wants a tenant out files a dispossessory proceeding under O.C.G.A. §§ 44-7-49 through 44-7-59. The core step is a demand for possession: whenever a tenant holds over past the term, fails to pay rent, or holds "as tenant at will or sufferance," the owner "may... demand the possession of the property," and if the tenant "refuses or fails to deliver possession when so demanded," the owner may file an affidavit and get a summons (§ 44-7-50(a)). Because of this one-track design, Georgia has no separate statutory cure-or-quit period for ordinary lease violations and no graduated unconditional-quit category — those distinctions that other states put in the statute are, in Georgia, left to the lease and to the court.

The one big recent change came from the 2024 "Safe at Home Act" (House Bill 404), which added a mandatory pre-filing notice for unpaid rent, a two-months'-rent cap on security deposits, and a statutory duty of habitability.

Notice for unpaid rent

Before the Safe at Home Act, a Georgia landlord could demand possession for nonpayment and file immediately. Now, for residential leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024, the landlord must first give a written notice to vacate or pay. The statute lets the landlord file only "after being provided with a notice to vacate or pay all past due rent, late fees, utilities, and other charges owed to the landlord within three business days" (§ 44-7-50(c)). In plain terms: you get three business days to pay everything the notice demands, and paying it in full within that window stops the case from being filed. Because most residential leases renew at least once a year, this notice now covers essentially every current Georgia tenancy; only an old, unrenewed pre-July-2024 lease would fall under the former file-immediately rule.

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

If you rent with no fixed lease term — or your lease ended and you stayed on with the landlord's consent — you are a tenant at will, which Georgia treats as month-to-month. To end that tenancy for no particular reason, "Sixty days' notice from the landlord or 30 days' notice from the tenant is necessary to terminate a tenancy at will" (§ 44-7-7). So a landlord who just wants the unit back owes you 60 days, while a tenant who wants to leave owes only 30. This is a no-fault notice: Georgia has no statewide "just cause" law, so the landlord does not have to give a reason (a city or county ordinance could add one, but that is outside this state-law survey).

How the notice must be served

The Safe at Home Act also fixed how the pre-filing notice reaches you. The demand for possession or the three-day pay-or-vacate notice "shall be posted in a sealed envelope conspicuously on the door of the property and delivered via any additional method or methods agreed upon in the rental agreement" (§ 44-7-50(d)). A landlord can also hand the demand to you directly. This is the notice step; the separate court summons that follows a filing is served later by the sheriff — in person, or by posting it on the door and mailing a copy ("tack and mail").

Your right to stop the eviction, and the retaliation defense

Georgia's main statutory off-ramp comes after a nonpayment case is filed, not before. Under § 44-7-52(a), "in an action for nonpayment of rent, the tenant shall be allowed to tender to the landlord, within seven days of the day the tenant was served with the summons... all rents allegedly owed plus the cost of the dispossessory warrant," and "such a tender shall be a complete defense to the action." The catch: a landlord "is required to accept such a tender... only once in any 12 month period." So paying everything owed plus court costs within seven days of being served will stop the eviction — but you can use that right only once a year.

Separately, since 2019 Georgia law forbids retaliatory eviction. If a landlord files a dispossessory (or cuts services, raises rent, or terminates) within three months after you exercised a right — asking for a repair, reporting a code violation, organizing tenants — "such retaliation shall be a defense to a dispossessory action," and you may recover "a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500.00," court costs, and attorney's fees (§ 44-7-24(c), (e)). The protection does not apply if you are actually behind on rent when the landlord acts, so it will not by itself stop a genuine nonpayment case.

What trips people up

"Three business days" is not three calendar days, and it is a pre-filing step, not a court deadline. The § 44-7-50(c) notice gives you three business days to pay or move before the landlord can even file — weekends and holidays don't count. Do not confuse it with the seven-day answer deadline that starts later, once the court summons is served.

Georgia gives no statutory second chance for non-rent violations. If the problem is something other than money — an unauthorized pet, a guest who moved in, a broken lease rule — there is no statutory cure period. Whether you get a chance to fix it depends entirely on what your lease says; the statute just lets the landlord demand possession and file.

The tender defense is a once-a-year, post-filing right. Paying all rent owed plus warrant costs within seven days of being served is a complete defense to a nonpayment case, but the landlord only has to accept it once in any 12-month period (§ 44-7-52). If you already used it in the past year, a second late payment may not save you.

Self-help is illegal no matter what the notice says. A landlord cannot change the locks, shut off your utilities, or remove your belongings to force you out. Only a court, through the dispossessory process and a writ of possession carried out by an officer, can put you out.

Common questions

I've been renting month-to-month for years with no written lease — how much warning does my landlord owe me? Sixty days. A tenancy with no fixed term is a tenancy at will, and § 44-7-7 requires 60 days' notice from the landlord to end it (you would owe 30 if you were the one leaving). The landlord doesn't have to give a reason.

My landlord filed for eviction the same day my rent was late — is that allowed? For a residential lease entered into or renewed since July 1, 2024, no. The Safe at Home Act requires a written notice giving you three business days to pay or vacate before the landlord files (§ 44-7-50(c)). A case filed with no such notice can be challenged.

If I pay everything I owe, can the landlord still evict me? For nonpayment, if you tender all rent owed plus the cost of the dispossessory warrant within seven days of being served the court summons, that is a complete defense — but only once in any 12-month period (§ 44-7-52). Pay the full amount, keep proof, and act fast.

Does Georgia require a landlord to have "just cause" to evict? No. There is no statewide just-cause law. On a month-to-month tenancy the landlord can decline to renew and end it on 60 days' notice for any lawful reason; some local governments may add rules, but state law does not.

Statutes and sources

• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(a) — demand for possession framework (holdover, tenant at will or sufferance). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-44/chapter-7/article-3/section-44-7-50/ (accessed 2026-07-10)
• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(c)-(d) — 2024 Safe at Home Act: 3-business-day notice to vacate or pay for nonpayment, and sealed-envelope door posting (official enrolled HB 404, applies to leases entered/renewed on or after July 1, 2024). https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2024-signed-legislation/hb-404/download (accessed 2026-07-10)
• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-7 — 60 days' notice by landlord / 30 days by tenant to terminate a tenancy at will. https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-44/chapter-7/article-1/section-44-7-7/ (accessed 2026-07-10)
• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-52(a) — tender of all rent plus warrant costs within 7 days of the summons is a complete defense, once per 12 months. https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-44/chapter-7/article-3/section-44-7-52/ (accessed 2026-07-10)
• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-24(c)-(e) — retaliatory eviction is a defense; civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500 (added 2019 Ga. Laws 311 / HB 346). https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-44/chapter-7/article-1/section-44-7-24/ (accessed 2026-07-10)