Power of Attorney Acceptance and Refusal Rules in Georgia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Covered instrument and first response

An attested power is defined by the attestation requirement in § 10-6B-19(a). The seven-business-day rule concerns an attested statutory form power, not every document called a power of attorney. The defined forms include one substantially in the Georgia statutory form, a qualifying military power, and one substantially reflecting the statutory language (§ 10-6B-20(a)). Under § 10-6B-20(b), the Act gives detailed conditions for the last category; merely resembling a form is not enough.

After that power is presented for acceptance, the recipient must accept or request permitted supporting material within seven business days, absent a § 10-6B-20(d) ground. It cannot demand a different form for authority granted in the presented document (§ 10-6B-20(c)).

Requested material and later response

The recipient may ask for an agent's factual certification under penalty of perjury, an English translation when the document contains non-English text, or an attorney's opinion on a legal question. For the opinion, the requester must give its reason in writing or another record (§ 10-6B-19(d)). A translation or opinion is at the principal's expense unless requested more than seven business days after presentation (§ 10-6B-19(e)).

Once requested material arrives, the recipient generally must accept within five business days, subject to the listed refusal grounds (§ 10-6B-20(c)–(d)).

What trips people up

A power does not require a person to undertake a transaction it would not undertake with the principal. The statute also excuses acceptance for federal-law conflict, actual knowledge of termination, refusal to provide requested proof, a good-faith validity or authority concern, and a specified protective-services report (§ 10-6B-20(d)). Whether a ground applies depends on the facts.

Common questions

Must rejection be in writing? Section 10-6B-20(c)–(d) sets acceptance periods and refusal grounds without a separate written-rejection step.

What can happen after an improper refusal? Under § 10-6B-20(e), improper refusal can lead to an order mandating acceptance and liability for reasonable attorney's fees and litigation expenses incurred in an action confirming validity or mandating acceptance.

Statutes and sources

The quoted Georgia Code text derives from the official enrolled H.B. 897, accessed October 3, 2026. The later signed H.B. 327 was checked for changes to Chapter 6B.