After the gavel: two separate duties
A foreclosure sale creates two follow-up obligations that candidates constantly merge. One is filing the deed under power. The other is confirmation, which matters only when the lender wants money still owed after the sale. Different deadlines, different courts, different consequences.
Filing the deed under power
O.C.G.A. 44-14-160 requires that "within 90 days of a foreclosure sale, all deeds under power shall be filed by the holder" with the clerk of superior court, and imposes a $500 penalty when filing is more than 30 days past that window. Under 44-14-162.4 the deed under power must also carry recitals of the 44-14-162.2 notice.
The trap: late filing is penalized, not fatal. It does not void the foreclosure. And the 30-day figure floating around belongs to confirmation, not to this filing.
Confirmation, and when it is required
If the sale does not bring the amount of the debt, O.C.G.A. 44-14-161(a) says "no action may be taken to obtain a deficiency judgment unless" the foreclosing party reports the sale to the superior court judge of the county where the land lies within 30 days after the sale and obtains an order of confirmation. The deficiency is never automatically collectible as part of the sale, and there is no re-foreclosure route within a year. Recording the deed under power within 90 days does nothing to establish a deficiency.
The true market value test
O.C.G.A. 44-14-161(b) provides that the court "shall not confirm the sale unless it is satisfied that the property so sold brought its true market value." The debtor is entitled to at least five days notice of the hearing.
Worked example: debt $250,000, winning bid $200,000, and the court finds the property's true market value was $260,000. Because the bid did not bring true market value, the court may not confirm, so no deficiency judgment is allowed — not the $50,000 gap, and not a reduced $10,000 figure, since the statute authorizes no judicial trimming. The court may order a resale for good cause. Title is not returned to the debtor free of the debt; the debt itself is not cancelled.