HOA and Condominium Association Liability in Georgia

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The hazard that injures someone in a planned community usually sits in a space no single resident controls: a cracked common sidewalk, an unlit parking deck, a pool gate that no longer latches, a malfunctioning security arm at the entrance. Those are common areas, and in Georgia a homeowners or condominium association that controls them carries a property owner’s duty to keep them reasonably safe. What makes these claims distinct is the entity behind the hazard, a community organization whose obligations are defined partly by Georgia premises law and partly by a stack of recorded governing documents that says, in writing, what the association agreed to maintain.

What the Association Controls, and Why That Matters

Liability in a community follows control. An association answers for the areas it is responsible to maintain, and the line between those common areas and the individual unit or lot is what determines whether a claim runs against the association or against an owner. Common areas typically include community grounds, sidewalks, and landscaping, swimming pools and clubhouses, commonly owned parking and drives, security gates and access systems, and shared recreational facilities. An injury inside an individual unit, or on a hazard the unit owner alone controls, is not the association’s premises claim; an injury on a hazard in a controlled common area is.

For condominiums, Georgia draws this line through the Condominium Act. Maintenance and repair responsibility for common elements is allocated by the condominium instruments under OCGA 44-3-105, which makes the recorded declaration and bylaws the controlling text for who maintains what, with common elements, the roofs, exterior walls, structural supports, and shared spaces serving multiple units, ordinarily falling to the association. A separate provision, OCGA 44-3-107, requires the association to carry property insurance on the common elements and structures, which is an insurance mandate rather than the source of the maintenance duty. For HOA communities that are not statutory condominiums, the duty arises from the recorded covenants and from the general premises-liability principles that apply to any party controlling property.

The Standard of Care Over Common Areas

Where an association controls and invites residents and their guests onto a common area, it owes the duty an owner or occupier owes an invitee under Georgia premises law, OCGA 51-3-1: ordinary care to keep the premises and approaches safe. That duty is not a guarantee of safety. It is the obligation to address unreasonable hazards of which the association has, or through reasonable inspection should have, superior knowledge. Three strands follow from it:

  • Maintenance. Keeping common areas in reasonably safe condition, so that broken pavement, defective equipment, and similar hazards are corrected within a reasonable time.
  • Inspection. Reasonable inspection for hazards, rather than waiting for a resident complaint to reveal a dangerous condition.
  • Warning. Alerting residents to a known hazard that cannot be corrected at once, through temporary signage or barriers until repair.

Security in the Common Area, and How SB 68 Reframed It

Many associations provide some security, a gate, cameras, a patrol, and that voluntary undertaking raises the separate question of liability for a third party’s crime against a resident. Georgia’s 2025 tort reform, Senate Bill 68, applicable to claims arising on or after April 21, 2025, replaced the general premises analysis for third-party-crime claims with a dedicated negligent-security framework codified at OCGA 51-3-51 for invitees and OCGA 51-3-52 for licensees. Under that framework an owner or occupier is not liable in defined situations, including where the injured person was a trespasser, the injury occurred off the premises, the wrong happened where the owner had no legal authority to exclude the third party, the injured party was committing a felony or theft-related misdemeanor, the third party was a tenant or guest being evicted, or the injury occurred in a single-family residence. Outside those carve-outs, foreseeability does heavier work than before, informed by a specific prior warning or substantially similar prior crime on the property or within a defined radius, and fault must be apportioned among the association, the criminal actor, and any others who contributed. The detailed structure of that framework is owned by the comparative-negligence guide (#29) and referenced here, not re-explained.

Two practical points survive the change. An association that promises security in its governing documents or marketing and then fails to deliver it, a gate left broken, a patrol that does not patrol, faces exposure that an association making no such promise generally does not, and an association that provides security measures may be liable where those measures fail through negligence, within the limits the new framework now sets.

Governing Documents Cut Both Ways

The recorded documents are not background. The declaration, bylaws, covenants, and rules establish what the association promised to maintain and how, creating contractual obligations that sit alongside the tort duty. Where a declaration requires the association to keep sidewalks in good repair, a failure to repair a known defect supports a breach. The same documents can also limit exposure: Georgia enforces reasonable exculpatory provisions that do not offend public policy, so a community’s instruments may narrow liability. Because the text controls, two communities with identical hazards can produce different answers depending on what their documents say.

Who Insures the Claim

Associations ordinarily carry liability insurance covering common-area injuries through a master policy, frequently with general liability limits of $1,000,000 or more, separate from any individual unit owner’s coverage. Directors-and-officers coverage protects board members for decisions made in their board capacity, and umbrella policies can provide excess coverage above the primary limits. The condominium insurance mandate of OCGA 44-3-107 addresses property coverage on the common elements; liability coverage for injury claims is a separate line. Which policy answers a given claim turns on whether the hazard sat in a controlled common area and on the terms of the master policy.

Dividing Fault Among Criminal Actor, Association, and Resident

The figures below are illustrative and show only how the apportionment arithmetic operates, not what any claim is worth. Suppose a resident is injured by a third party’s assault in an unlit common parking area and the claim survives the negligent-security framework. Suppose a jury assigns 70 percent of the fault to the criminal actor, 20 percent to the association for an unaddressed lighting failure, and 10 percent to the resident. If total damages are calculated at $100,000, the association’s apportioned share under OCGA 51-12-33 is $20,000, and the resident’s own 10 percent reduces the recoverable figure accordingly. The numbers are arithmetic only; they assign no value and predict no outcome, and the resident’s status as a member of the association does not change the math, though it can mean that defense costs ultimately reach members through assessments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a resident sue their own HOA or condominium association for a common-area injury?
Yes, where the association controlled the area and failed to exercise ordinary care under OCGA 51-3-1. The resident’s membership in the association does not bar the claim, though association defense costs can reach members through assessments.

Who is responsible for maintaining condominium common elements in Georgia?
Responsibility is allocated by the condominium instruments under OCGA 44-3-105, with common elements such as roofs, exterior walls, and shared spaces ordinarily maintained by the association. The declaration and bylaws are the controlling text.

How did SB 68 change association liability for crime in common areas?
It replaced the general premises analysis for third-party-crime claims with the negligent-security framework at OCGA 51-3-51 and 51-3-52, narrowing the situations in which an owner is liable and requiring fault to be apportioned among the association, the criminal actor, and others.

Can governing documents limit an association’s liability?
They can. Georgia enforces reasonable exculpatory provisions that do not violate public policy, so the recorded declaration, bylaws, and covenants may narrow exposure, and they also define the maintenance the association promised to perform.

  • Duty of owner or occupier of land to invitee, OCGA 51-3-1
  • Allocation of condominium maintenance and repair by the condominium instruments, OCGA 44-3-105
  • Condominium association property insurance on common elements, OCGA 44-3-107
  • Negligent-security framework for invitees and licensees, OCGA 51-3-51 and OCGA 51-3-52 (enacted by SB 68)
  • Modified comparative negligence and apportionment, OCGA 51-12-33
  • Senate Bill 68 (2025 Georgia tort reform): negligent-security framework and apportionment to the criminal actor

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how Georgia law treats liability claims against homeowners and condominium associations for common-area injuries. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and may not reflect the most recent changes in the law. The outcome depends heavily on the recorded governing documents, the area controlled, and the specific facts of each injury. A person dealing with an association-liability claim in Georgia should consult a licensed Georgia attorney about the particular situation.

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