Georgia Eviction Process 2026: The Seven Day Deadline Most Tenants Miss

If you are served with a dispossessory summons in Georgia, you have seven days to answer. That is the single most important thing on this page, and it is the deadline most people miss, because a court summons does not look like something with a clock attached.

This guide sets out the process and the deadlines that govern it, with the statute sections cited. It is a summary of published statutory text rather than legal advice. If you have been served, contact a Georgia attorney or a legal aid organization today rather than after reading this.

The thing a landlord cannot do

Start here, because everything else follows from it. Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-1 a landlord may not remove a tenant without a court issued writ of possession.

Changing the locks, removing your belongings, cutting the power or water, or otherwise making the property unusable in order to force you out is unlawful regardless of how much rent is owed. A landlord who does any of that has stepped outside the process and is exposed, whatever the merits of the underlying dispute.

If this is happening to you, it is worth documenting immediately with dated photographs and written communication, and worth contacting legal aid the same day.

Before a case can be filed

Two different situations, two different requirements.

Ending a tenancy at will. Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 a landlord must give sixty days written notice to terminate a tenancy at will. A tenant ending the same arrangement gives thirty days. This applies to month to month arrangements rather than fixed term leases that are simply running out.

Demand for possession. Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(a) a landlord must demand possession before filing a dispossessory action. If the tenant refuses or fails to deliver possession when demanded, the owner may go before a judge or magistrate. The statute permits the demand to be oral as well as written, which is worth knowing because a verbal demand still counts.

The seven day answer window

Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-51(b) a tenant has seven days from the date of actual service to answer the summons. The answer may be oral or in writing. If the seventh day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

This is the deadline that decides most cases, and here is why.

Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-53(a), if the tenant files no answer, the writ of possession issues instanter with the default judgment. Instanter means immediately. There is no hearing, no opportunity to explain, and no further notice.

An answer, even a brief one, moves the case to a hearing where the facts get examined. A tenant who answers has a case. A tenant who does not has a judgment against them.

The answer does not need to be elaborate. It needs to exist, and it needs to be filed within seven days of the date you were actually served rather than the date on the paperwork.

Paying to end a nonpayment case

A tenant sued for nonpayment may end the case by tendering all rent owed plus court costs within seven days of the summons. The landlord must accept it.

There is a limit. A landlord is required to honor this only once in any twelve month period. If you have already used it within the last year, the same right does not apply a second time.

It runs on the same seven day clock as the answer, which is another reason that first week matters so much.

After a hearing

Where the case is tried and judgment is entered for the landlord, O.C.G.A. 44-7-55 provides that the writ becomes effective at the expiration of seven days after the date the judgment was entered.

That seven day window matches the period for filing an appeal. A tenant who appeals keeps possession only by paying the rent covered by the judgment, and continuing rent as it falls due, into the court registry. Appealing without paying does not stop the writ.

Once the writ is effective, execution is carried out by the sheriff or marshal rather than the landlord. The timing of that depends on the county’s backlog rather than on the statute, which is why real world timelines vary from the figures on this page.

What a judgment covers beyond possession

A dispossessory case decides who is entitled to the property. It can also decide money, and the two are worth separating in your mind because they have different consequences.

A judgment for possession means the landlord gets the property back. A money judgment means you owe a stated sum, typically unpaid rent and court costs. A landlord can seek both in the same action, and a tenant who does not answer may find both entered by default without ever appearing.

The money judgment is the part that follows you. It is a court record, it can be enforced, and it appears in the tenant screening reports that most Atlanta property managers run. A filing alone, even one that was dismissed or resolved, can show up in those reports and affect future applications. That is a practical reason to answer rather than to walk away from a case you expect to lose.

What happens to your belongings

Once a writ of possession is effective, execution is carried out by the sheriff or marshal. Georgia’s process places belongings at the property line rather than into storage, and there is no statutory obligation on the landlord to store them or to give further notice of when the removal will happen.

In practice this means anyone facing an effective writ should arrange removal of their possessions themselves rather than waiting to see what happens. The timing of execution depends on the county’s backlog, so the window between the writ becoming effective and the removal occurring is unpredictable and is not something to plan around.

Answering the summons in practice

The statute permits an answer to be oral or written, which surprises people. An oral answer means going to the court that issued the summons within the seven days and stating your response to the clerk, who records it.

A written answer does not need to be a formal legal document. It needs to identify the case, state that you dispute the claim, and set out why. Many Georgia magistrate courts provide a form for exactly this, and court clerks can tell you how to file even though they cannot give legal advice.

What matters is that something is filed within seven days. A weak answer preserves your hearing. No answer forfeits it entirely under O.C.G.A. 44-7-53(a).

If you dispute the amount owed, if you have receipts the landlord has not credited, if repairs were promised and not made, or if you believe the property was not habitable, those are matters for the hearing. They cannot be raised at all if the seven days pass without an answer.

What the statute does not control

Two things worth being realistic about.

Court calendars. The seven day deadlines are statutory. How quickly a hearing is scheduled after an answer is filed is not, and it varies by county and caseload.

Execution. How long after the writ becomes effective the sheriff actually arrives is a matter of resourcing rather than law. Neither party should plan around a specific date.

If you have been served

• Note the date you were served, because the seven days run from actual service rather than from the date printed on the summons.
• Answer within seven days regardless of the merits. Failing to answer forfeits the hearing entirely.
• Contact legal aid today. Georgia Legal Services and Atlanta Legal Aid handle housing matters, and the seven day window does not accommodate waiting.
• Keep everything. The summons, the envelope it arrived in, any written demand, your lease, and every payment record.
• Do not leave because you were asked to. Only a writ of possession removes you lawfully, and leaving voluntarily may affect what you can argue later.

The short version

A landlord cannot remove you without a writ. A demand for possession comes before any filing, and sixty days notice applies to ending a tenancy at will. Seven days to answer a summons, from the date of actual service, or the writ issues immediately by default. Seven days after a contested judgment before the writ takes effect. And a nonpayment case can be ended by paying everything owed plus costs within seven days, once in any twelve month period.

Every deadline that matters is seven days. That is the number to remember.

Homzora Housing Intelligence · Atlanta edition