Who licenses whom
The Georgia Residential Mortgage Act, O.C.G.A. 7-1-1000 et seq., is administered by the Department of Banking and Finance (DBF), which licenses mortgage brokers, lenders and mortgage loan originators (MLOs) through the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). Do not confuse the agencies: GREC licenses brokers and salespersons; the Department of Community Affairs runs Georgia Dream; the Department of Revenue collects the transfer and intangible recording taxes but licenses no one.
O.C.G.A. 7-1-1001(a) exempts from broker and lender licensing a Georgia real estate broker or salesperson not actively engaged in negotiating mortgage loans. A licensee who does negotiate loans for compensation needs a DBF license. Not every referral is brokering, no disclosure of a referral fee to GREC buys the exemption, and MLO licensing runs through DBF and NMLS, never GREC.
The $10 per-loan fee
O.C.G.A. 7-1-1011 imposes "a fee of $10.00" on the closing of every mortgage loan subject to the article, "paid by the borrower to the collecting agent at the time of closing." Whoever closes such loans, including the closing attorney, is collecting agent and remits the fees semiannually — the attorney collects it, never pays it out of the attorney's fee. This is not the $25 recording fee of 15-6-77.
High-cost loans, flipping and late charges
The Georgia Fair Lending Act, O.C.G.A. 7-6A, governs loan terms. Section 7-6A-2(17)(B)(i) makes a home loan high-cost when total points and fees "exceed 5 percent of the total loan amount if the total loan amount is $20,000.00 or more." Worked example: on a $200,000 loan, 5% × $200,000 = $10,000; points and fees of $11,000 exceed that, so it is high-cost. For loans under $20,000 the trigger is instead the lesser of 8 percent or $1,000 — never apply that $1,000 to a big loan.
Section 7-6A-4 forbids flipping: a high-cost refinance within five years of the prior loan with no reasonable, tangible net benefit to the borrower. Refinancing a special subsidized mortgage that loses its benefits is presumed flipping. Remedies include actual and punitive damages, twice the interest paid, forfeiture of future interest, and fees.
Section 7-6A-3 allows a late charge only if the loan documents authorize it, only after the payment is past due for ten days or more, and only up to 5 percent of the payment. An eight-day delinquency is inside the grace period. The section also bars financing single-premium credit insurance and fees for payoff information.