Step 1: the notice to vacate or pay
Since the Safe at Home Act, HB 404, O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(c) requires a written notice to vacate or pay all past-due rent, late fees, utilities and other charges owed within three business days before you can file for nonpayment. It applies to residential leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.
Under 44-7-50(d), the notice must be posted in a sealed envelope conspicuously on the door of the unit, and also delivered by any additional method your lease requires. Read your lease delivery clause before you post. Georgia courts construe dispossessory steps strictly, so a skipped delivery method is an easy defense. List every charge you intend to collect, since the notice covers rent, late fees, utilities and other charges.
Holdovers and other grounds
For a tenant who stays past the lease term, or a tenant at will or at sufferance, the owner makes a demand for possession under 44-7-50(a), posted the same way. Ending a tenancy at will takes 60 days’ notice from the landlord, a rule our Georgia landlord-tenant law guide covers along with deposits and repairs.
Georgia has no statewide just-cause requirement, so a lease that has ended or been properly terminated is enough grounds to demand possession.
Step 2: the dispossessory affidavit
If the tenant doesn’t pay or leave, you swear to the facts in a dispossessory affidavit before a magistrate, a judge or clerk of the state or superior court, or a notary public, under 44-7-50. The case can be brought in the magistrate court for the district where the land lies, or in state or superior court.
The affidavit states the amount claimed, because on a default the court treats every item in it as proven and enters judgment for all rent due under 44-7-53(a).
Step 3: service, including the 2025 process server rule
The court issues a summons to the sheriff, a constable or, since the Eviction Service Act, HB 270, effective July 1, 2025, an approved process server, under 44-7-51(a). Service is personal first, then on any adult resident, and if no one can be found, by posting the summons and affidavit on the door and mailing a copy by first-class mail the same day.
Posting service has a limit. Under 44-7-51(c), the court can grant possession by default, but it can’t enter a money judgment unless the tenant answers or otherwise appears. If you want a judgment for back rent, push for personal service.
Step 4: the 7-day answer and the default writ
The tenant must answer, orally or in writing, within seven days of actual service, and if the seventh day is a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day under 44-7-51(b). The summons states the last day to answer, and you don’t have to appear on that date.
If the tenant doesn’t answer, 44-7-53(a) directs the court to issue a writ of possession instanter, with no jury and no further hearing. Georgia courts have read the statute as leaving no discretion to open that default for a tenant who missed the seven days.
The tenant’s one-time rent tender defense
In a nonpayment case, the tenant can tender all rent allegedly owed plus the cost of the dispossessory warrant within seven days of service, and a valid tender is a complete defense under 44-7-52(a). You have to accept it only once in any 12-month period from the same tenant.
Rent alone isn’t enough; the warrant cost must be included. Track tender dates in your ledger so you can show when a second tender inside 12 months doesn’t count.
Step 5: registry payments and trial
A tenant who answers stays in possession until the case ends but must pay rent into the court registry. If the court can’t decide possession within two weeks of service, 44-7-54 requires the tenant to deposit rent and utilities as they come due, plus amounts claimed from before the warrant, unless the tenant shows a receipt. Miss a payment, and the court issues a writ of possession.
Under 44-7-53(b), the court is to make every effort to expedite trial. A trial judgment against the tenant includes all rents due, and the writ becomes effective seven days after the judgment is entered under 44-7-55(a).
Appeals
A notice of appeal or petition for review must be filed with the trial court clerk within seven days after judgment under 44-7-56(b)(1). To stay in possession while it is pending, the tenant must pay all rent the trial court found due into the reviewing court’s registry and keep paying future rent as it comes due. For appeals to the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court, the payments go to the trial court’s registry.
Step 6: executing the writ
You must apply for execution within 30 days after the writ issues, or show good cause by affidavit, or you need a new writ, under 44-7-55(d). The sheriff isn’t required to act within 30 days. If the sheriff, constable or marshal can’t execute within 14 days of your request, 44-7-55(e) lets you use an off-duty officer certified by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council at your own expense, with five calendar days’ written notice to the sheriff.
The writ authorizes removal of the tenant and belongings, which may be placed on part of your property or another spot the officer approves. You are not a bailee, and the property is regarded as abandoned after execution under 44-7-55(c).
Lockouts and retaliation
The dispossessory process and an officer’s writ are the lawful route to remove a tenant and belongings in Georgia. Changing locks or setting belongings out on your own skips 44-7-55 and invites a wrongful eviction suit.
Under 44-7-24, filing a dispossessory action or depriving a tenant of the unit within three months after a good-faith habitability complaint, repair request or tenant organizing is retaliation, unless it rests on a listed ground such as the tenant being behind on rent when you gave notice or filed. The tenant can recover one month’s rent plus $500, costs and, for willful conduct, attorney’s fees.
Federal overlays: CARES Act and SCRA
At a property with a federally backed mortgage or federal housing program, 15 U.S.C. 9058(c) bars requiring a tenant to vacate until 30 days after a notice to vacate. Its 120-day moratorium ended in 2020, and courts are divided on whether the 30-day text still applies, so serving 30 days at a covered building avoids the issue. Georgia’s rule letting public housing authorities give the demand alongside the federal termination notice is in 44-7-50(b). File the military status affidavit 50 U.S.C. 3931 requires before any default.
Georgia eviction timeline
Statutory minimums in a nonpayment case. Sheriff scheduling sets the real lockout date.
| Step | Deadline | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Notice to vacate or pay | 3 business days | O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(c), (d) |
| Tenant answer | 7 days from service, rolling past weekends and holidays | 44-7-51(b) |
| Tender of rent plus warrant cost | Within 7 days of service, once per 12 months | 44-7-52(a) |
| Writ on default | Instanter | 44-7-53(a) |
| Registry payments | If not decided within 2 weeks of service | 44-7-54(a) |
| Writ after trial judgment | Effective 7 days after judgment | 44-7-55(a) |
| Appeal | Within 7 days of judgment, rent into registry | 44-7-56(b) |
| Apply to execute writ | Within 30 days of issuance | 44-7-55(d) |
| Off-duty officer option | If not executed within 14 days of request; 5 days’ notice to sheriff | 44-7-55(e) |
Worked example: a Georgia nonpayment case in March
Assume a two-bedroom renting for $1,650 a month in a 24-unit building in DeKalb County, rent due Monday, March 1, 2027, and an assumed $900 in attorney fees. You post the notice on Tuesday, March 2, and the three business days end Friday, March 5. You file the affidavit Monday, March 8, and a process server serves the tenant personally on Tuesday, March 9.
No answer comes by Tuesday, March 16, so the court issues the writ instanter on Wednesday, March 17, day 16. At $54.25 a day, that is $867.95 in lost rent, or $1,767.95 with the fee, if the writ is executed that day.
Sheriff scheduling is the variable. If the sheriff can’t act for 14 days after your request, the total reaches day 30 and $2,527.40, the point where you can bring in an off-duty officer. If the tenant answers instead and loses at a trial assumed for March 30, the writ takes effect seven days later, on day 36, for $2,852.88, although registry payments should offset part of that.
| Scenario | Days to possession | Lost rent | With fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default, writ executed when issued | 16 | $867.95 | $1,767.95 |
| Default, sheriff acts 14 days after request | 30 | $1,627.40 | $2,527.40 |
| Answer, trial March 30 (assumed), 7-day writ | 36 | $1,952.88 | $2,852.88 |
Payment plans and cash for keys
A payment plan is worth a look after the notice, since a tenant who can raise the full amount plus the warrant cost can end your case once a year anyway. Put it in writing and keep the notice and ledger.
Cash for keys trades a payment at move-out for a vacant unit on a date you choose. It can also matter for the tenant’s record, because from January 1, 2027, a Georgia court can restrict public access to some dispossessory records under the new 44-7-50(e).
Selling a Georgia building with a dispossessory case pending
You can sell with a case open. The buyer takes subject to the leases, and the contract should say who continues the case, who pays counsel and who gets registry funds. Hand over the posted notice, proof of the lease delivery method, the affidavit, the return of service and tenant estoppels for the other units.
Selling your Georgia apartment building to Skyline
Skyline Capital Investments buys apartment buildings with five or more units across Georgia, including occupied properties with nonpaying tenants or dispossessory cases underway. Send the address and unit count through the form on this page or call (469) 660-2977, and we typically respond within 48 hours.
