The management agreement must say specific things
Property management puts an owner's property and money in a broker's hands, so Rule 520-1-.06(2) dictates the agreement's contents:
- identification of the property
- how and when the broker remits income, plus written income and expense statements at least annually
- payment of third-party expenses
- the amount of the fee and when it is paid
- how security deposits and prepaid rents are handled
- the effective date, termination date, and terms for termination by either party
- signatures of the parties
The rule requires no tenant-screening standard. The credit score the broker will demand of prospective tenants is a business decision, not a required clause.
Thirty days to hand everything back
O.C.G.A. 43-40-25(b)(34) makes it an unfair trade practice to fail, on termination of a property management contract, to deliver to the owner within 30 days or within the period stated in the contract a complete accounting, all records and documents, and all funds held.
Ten business days shortens the period and changes the unit. Sixty days doubles it. Waiting for the next annual reporting date would let the broker hold the owner's money and records for up to a year.
Georgia caps security deposits at two months' rent
Georgia rule: O.C.G.A. 44-7-30.1, added by the Safe at Home Act for leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024, bars a landlord from demanding or receiving a security deposit exceeding two months' rent. O.C.G.A. 44-7-30 defines security deposit to include damage deposits, advance rent deposits and pet deposits.
Work an example. Rent is $1,400. The landlord collects a $1,500 damage deposit and a $1,500 pet deposit.
- Collected: $1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000
- Cap: 2 × $1,400 = $2,800
- $3,000 > $2,800, so the collection is unlawful
Two traps. Pet deposits are not outside the cap; the statutory definition sweeps them in. And the cap is not three months' rent, or $4,200 — that figure comes from the introduced version of HB 404 and never became law. No one-month cap exists either.