Evicting a residential tenant in Georgia is rarely as simple as telling someone they have to go. The process is governed by statute, shaped by case law, and executed differently from one county to the next. Skip a step, choose the wrong service method, or shortcut the put-out, and a landlord owed a few thousand dollars in back rent can quickly find themselves on the wrong end of a wrongful eviction lawsuit worth tens of thousands.
This guide walks through the standard eviction process for non-payment of rent or other lease defaults, and then covers the complications that come up most often along the way.
Step 1: Send a Notice of Default
Every lease should contain a notice provision describing how default is communicated to the tenant. It may require certified mail, an emailed notice, or some other delivery method. Whatever the lease specifies, follow it precisely.
Strictly speaking, Georgia law does not require a late notice before filing for eviction. But it is a strong best practice. No landlord wants to stand in front of a magistrate explaining that their very first action against a non-paying tenant was a lawsuit. Sending a written notice of default establishes the timeline, demonstrates good faith, and gives the tenant a chance to cure before things escalate.
Step 2: Make a Demand for Possession
Georgia’s landlord-tenant statutes are codified in Title 44, Chapter 7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. Sections 44-7-50 through 44-7-59 cover dispossessory proceedings specifically. Landlords should also be aware that significant portions of Georgia eviction law are shaped by case law, which the code itself does not capture.
A simple example: the code says that if a tenant pays the full rent owed after an eviction has been filed, the landlord must accept payment and dismiss the dispossessory warrant. Case law has refined this to apply only once every twelve months. So if a tenant pays up after a filing in January, then falls behind again in March of the following year, the landlord is no longer obligated to accept a late payment and can proceed with the eviction.
The 2024 Safe at Home Act
The Georgia Safe at Home Act, passed in 2024, modified the demand-for-possession requirements under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50. The notice must now be:
- Placed inside a sealed envelope
- Taped, tacked, or pasted to the front door (or another conspicuous location the tenant will see)
- Combined with at least a three-day window for the tenant to pay what is owed or otherwise cure the default
This is commonly called the “three-day notice to vacate or pay.” The clock has to run before the landlord can move forward with filing.
Step 3: File the Dispossessory Warrant
After the three-day notice has expired without cure, the landlord files a dispossessory warrant in the Magistrate Court of the county where the property is located. Many counties allow online filing.
The filing requires the landlord to indicate the basis for the eviction. There are two categories:
- Non-payment of rent
- Holding over — every other reason
For example, if the eviction is being pursued because the tenant brought in unauthorized pets, the process begins with a default notice citing the pet violation. The tenant is given the opportunity to cure. When they refuse, the landlord terminates the lease and demands possession. Even if ten months remain on the lease, the tenant is now occupying the property beyond a terminated tenancy — that is “holding over,” and that is what gets checked on the warrant.
Step 4: Choose Your Service Method — Personal Service vs. Tack and Mail
This decision matters more than most landlords realize, and choosing wrong can cost weeks.
Personal service. If the tenant is personally served and fails to appear in court, the landlord can obtain both a writ of possession and a money judgment for unpaid rent. The catch: a tenant who knows what the deputy is there for can simply refuse to answer the door. This is not an arrest warrant — the deputy will not force entry. Each unanswered visit means another week (or more) of delay before another attempt, with the seven-day answer clock never starting.
Tack and mail. The deputy or process server visits the property, knocks, and if no one answers, tapes the warrant to the door. Service is complete. The seven-day clock starts immediately. The trade-off is that without personal service, a money judgment is generally not available — only the writ of possession.
For most landlords whose primary goal is recovering the property quickly, tack and mail is the better choice. Lost rent can be pursued separately; lost time cannot be recovered.
Step 5: The Seven-Day Answer Period
Under Georgia law, the tenant has seven days from service to file an answer. On day eight, if no answer has been filed, the landlord can return to the Magistrate Court clerk to request the writ of possession.
That is what the law says. What actually happens depends on the county.
In some counties, no-answer cases move quickly toward a writ. In others — Forsyth County, Georgia is a notable example — the court schedules a hearing date when the warrant is filed, regardless of whether the tenant answers. A warrant filed on the third of the month might come with a hearing set for the twenty-fifth. Whether the tenant answers or not, no writ issues until that hearing.
The lesson: know your county’s procedure. What the statute permits and what your local magistrate court actually does are not always the same thing.
Step 6: Going to Court
If the case proceeds to a hearing — because the tenant filed an answer, or because local procedure requires it — strong recommendation: appear with an attorney.
A frequent and avoidable problem: properties owned by an LLC or S-corporation. The legal entity is separate from its owner. Under Georgia law, an LLC cannot be represented in court by its non-attorney owner unless that owner has filed a Rule 31 application with the court in advance. Showing up to evict a tenant from a property owned by “123 Main Street LLC” without that paperwork in place typically results in a lecture from the bench and a dismissal — meaning the eviction process has to start over.
Assuming the hearing goes well, the judge issues a writ of possession, and the tenant is told they have seven calendar days to vacate.
Step 7: The Writ of Possession and the Put-Out
On day eight, the writ becomes enforceable. But “enforceable” does not mean “executable today.”
Only law enforcement officers authorized in the jurisdiction where the property is located may execute a put-out. Historically that meant the county sheriff’s office. The 2024 legislation also allows sheriffs to publish a list of approved off-duty deputies whom landlords can hire at their own expense to schedule put-outs more quickly.
Even so, the wait can be long — particularly in larger metro counties. Two to five weeks beyond day eight is not unusual.
When the put-out is scheduled:
- The deputy removes any people from the property
- The landlord must provide a put-out crew to remove the contents
- The deputy will not wait for hours while a single person empties a house
Counties have their own policies on crew size. Some require two people per bedroom. Confirm the local expectation in advance so the put-out is not delayed or aborted on the day of execution.
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to execute a put-out without law enforcement. That is wrongful eviction.
Common Complications and “What-Ifs”
The clean process described above is the exception, not the rule. Here are the situations that come up most often.
The Tenant Pays After You File
If this is the first time within twelve months that the tenant has fallen behind and is now offering full payment, the landlord must accept it and dismiss the dispossessory action — that is the case-law refinement of the statute.
If, however, the tenant has triggered the same situation within the previous twelve months and the goal is to recover possession, do not accept the payment. Accepting rent continues the tenancy. Once possession has been recovered, the landlord can pursue the unpaid rent separately as a money judgment.
The Tenant Appears to Have Skipped
This is where landlords get into the most trouble. Walking into a property, seeing a broken-down recliner and a few bags of trash, and assuming the tenant is gone is a costly mistake.
A real example: a small apartment complex’s resident manager discovered exactly that scene after filing a dispossessory and obtaining a writ. The unit looked abandoned. The manager cleaned it out and re-rented it. Nine months later, the tenant’s roommate — not even the tenant, but the roommate — sued for wrongful eviction because the put-out had never been formally executed. Settlement: $20,000.
Under Georgia case law, there are essentially three ways possession is cleanly returned from tenant to landlord:
- All adult tenants on the lease return all keys and explicitly state, in person, that they are out — not “we plan to be out Sunday,” but “we are out, past tense.”
- All tenants on the lease sign a written document confirming they have vacated. Same standard: past tense, all of them, all signatures.
- The full eviction process is completed — writ of possession, sheriff’s put-out, locks changed.
Anything else is risky.
The Two-Inspection Technique
When a property looks abandoned but the formal process has not been completed, here is a defensible approach that has been tested in practice over many years:
- First move-out inspection. Visit the property. Document everything thoroughly with photos and video. Specifically note whether utilities are connected and whether there is food in the refrigerator. Leave everything in place.
- Wait at least a week, including a weekend. This window is the critical part.
- Second move-out inspection. Document again. If the property is in the same condition — no food added, no items removed, utilities still off — abandonment is far more defensible.
Once it is clear the tenant is genuinely gone, bag up any belongings left behind and store them somewhere safe (a garage, a closet). Turn the unit over and put it back on the market. Hold the tenant’s possessions until just before the new tenant moves in.
The reason for this discipline: a single inspection followed by immediate cleanup gives a former tenant the perfect wrongful-eviction story — “I was one pickup truck away from being moved out, and the landlord took my priceless heirlooms, my coin collection, my grandmother’s jewelry.” The two-inspection record, combined with documentation of stored possessions and an unbroken timeline showing the tenant never returned, makes that claim very difficult to sustain. In practice, when this evidence is presented, even attorneys representing former tenants tend to walk away.
This is not a statutory safe harbor — it is a practical risk-management approach. But it has held up well over decades.
The Tenant Files for Bankruptcy
A bankruptcy filing triggers an automatic stay, which halts all collection activity, including eviction proceedings. Think of it the way you would tell a dog to stay: stop, everyone, until the bankruptcy court figures out what is owed and to whom.
The good news for landlords: a residential lease is a usufruct — the tenant has the right to enjoy the property but holds no estate in it. The lease itself is not an asset of the bankruptcy estate, and there is no legal basis for the tenant to remain in the property by virtue of the bankruptcy. A motion to lift the stay, filed by the landlord’s attorney, will be granted.
The bad news: it takes days or weeks to file the motion, get it heard, and obtain the order. That is additional delay built into the eviction. Once the stay is lifted, the eviction resumes through Magistrate Court as before.
(Bankruptcy is federal law, so this is one of the few areas where contacting your congressional representatives — rather than your state legislators — is the appropriate avenue if you would like to see the law modified to separate possession of the leased premises from the tenant’s debts.)
Final Thoughts
This is an overview, not a comprehensive treatment. Every eviction has its own facts, and the variations from county to county make local knowledge essential.
Two takeaways are worth repeating:
Use an attorney who specializes in landlord-tenant law and handles evictions regularly. The cost of representation is small compared to the cost of a misstep. A landlord owed $4,000 in unpaid rent can very quickly become a defendant in a $50,000 or $100,000 wrongful eviction lawsuit if the process is mishandled.
Know your county. What the Official Code of Georgia says is one thing. What your local Magistrate Court does in practice is another. The two do not always align, and the local procedure is the one that controls the timeline of your case.
Handled correctly, eviction is a manageable process with predictable steps. Handled poorly, it becomes one of the most expensive mistakes a property owner can make.