---
title: O.C.G.A. § 44-14-39. Effect of defective record as notice.
collection: code
id: 44-14-39
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 44-14-39 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-14-39
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-14-39.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-14-39/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=477
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/44-14.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-14-38.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/44-14-40.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 / MORTGAGES, CONVEYANCES TO SECURE DEBT, AND LIENS / MORTGAGES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 44-14-39. Effect of defective record as notice.

A mortgage which is recorded in an improper office or without due attestation or probate or which is so defectively recorded as not to give notice to a prudent inquirer shall not be held to be notice to subsequent bona fide purchasers. A mere formal mistake in the record shall not vitiate it.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 1961; Code 1868, § 1949; Code 1873, § 1959; Code 1882, § 1959; Civil Code 1895, § 2729; Civil Code 1910, § 3262; Code 1933, § 67-111.

## Law Reviews

For article, “Eleventh Circuit Survey: January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013: Casenote: The Decline and Fall of Constructive Notice,” see 65 Mercer L. Rev. 1203 (2014).