Georgia CommonsHB 299: Property; landlord and tenant; repeal Code Section 44-7-19, relating to restrictions on rent regulation by local governments
Last action February 10, 2025 · House Second Readers
A Georgia House bill would repeal the state law that currently bars cities and counties from adopting rent control, opening the door for local governments to regulate rent if they choose.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19), local governments are prohibited from enacting any ordinance or resolution that regulates rental prices on private residential property, effectively banning rent control statewide. This bill would repeal that section entirely, removing the statewide ban. The bill does not create any new rent control program itself. It simply eliminates the existing legal barrier, leaving Code Section 44-7-19 marked as reserved for potential future use. If enacted, individual Georgia cities and counties would then be free to decide on their own whether to pass local rent regulation measures, something they currently cannot legally do.
What the bill does
- Repeals O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19, the Georgia law that currently prohibits local governments from regulating rent on private residential property.
- Designates the repealed section as reserved, meaning the space remains in the code but contains no current law.
- Repeals any other existing laws that conflict with this change, per Section 2.
- Does not itself impose or authorize any specific rent control ordinance; it only removes the state-level prohibition.
Who it affects
Renters and landlords across Georgia, city councils and county commissions that would gain new authority to consider rent regulation, and real estate and property management businesses operating in local jurisdictions that might act on that authority.
Why it matters
If passed, cities and counties in Georgia could, for the first time in decades, consider adopting rent control or rent stabilization ordinances. Whether any local government would actually do so is not addressed by this bill, but the legal obstacle to doing so would be removed.
Key provisions
- Section 1 repeals Code Section 44-7-19 within Article 1 of Chapter 7 of Title 44, which currently restricts local rent regulation, and marks it as reserved.
- Section 2 repeals any other Georgia laws that conflict with this change.
From the bill
“is amended by repealing Code Section 44-7-19, relating to restrictions on rent regulation by local governments, and designating said Code section as reserved”
Status timeline
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Rhonda Taylor (D, HD-092)
- Spencer Frye (D, HD-122)
- Viola Davis (D, HD-087)
- Sandra Scott (D, HD-076)
- Kim Schofield (D, HD-063)
- Dewey McClain (D, HD-109)
Topics
- rent control
- landlord tenant law
- local government authority
- housing policy