---
title: O.C.G.A. § 44-12-211. When bequeathed property presumed abandoned; when person presumed dead without heirs or distributees and property presumed abandoned.
collection: code
id: 44-12-211
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 44-12-211 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12-211
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12-211.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12-211/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t44-ch8-15-(v32)-2022-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=9e9e06de_0#page=295
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12-210.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-12-211.1.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: PROPERTY / RIGHTS IN PERSONALTY / DISPOSITION OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 44-12-211. When bequeathed property presumed abandoned; when person presumed dead without heirs or distributees and property presumed abandoned.

(a) Property which has been bequeathed to any person shall be presumed abandoned if not claimed by that person or his heirs, legatees, or distributees within five years after the death of the testator unless the will makes provision in case of a lapse, failure, or rejection of the bequest for the disposition of the property.

(b) When a person owning property is not known for five successive years to be living and neither the person named, his heirs, or distributees can be located or proved for five successive years to have been living, he shall be presumed to have died without heirs or distributees and his property shall be presumed abandoned.

## History

Code 1981, § 44-12-211, enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 1506, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1237, § 15.