Georgia property deeds

Deeds Georgia recognizes

Georgia does not recognize lady bird deeds, so recording one here may not do what you want.

How a deed has to be signed in Georgia

Georgia is one of only 5 states that still require witnesses. Georgia requires an unofficial witness in addition to the notary (O.C.G.A. § 44-5-30; § 44-2-14(a) for recording). Two signatures other than the grantor's must appear: one witness and one notary, and both must watch you sign. The notary cannot also be the witness. If you sign outside Georgia, the same rule applies: two witnesses, one of whom may be the notary (O.C.G.A. § 44-2-21(b)).

Georgia document formatting rules

A safe layout for Georgia is 8.5 × 11 inch paper with a 3-inch clear space at the top of the first page for the clerk of superior court's stamp, 1-inch margins elsewhere, and no type smaller than 10 point. Writing into the recorder's stamp area is the most common formatting rejection there is.

• Required by Georgia law: 8.5 × 11 or 8.5 × 14 inch pages (or the scanned equivalent) with a 3-inch blank margin at the top of page one for the clerk (O.C.G.A. § 15-6-61(a)(10)), and the name and mailing address of the person the recorded deed goes back to at the top of page one (O.C.G.A. § 44-2-14(b)).

Georgia transfer tax and recording fees

Georgia charges Real estate transfer tax at $1.00 per $1,000 of consideration (first $1,000 is $1.00, then $0.10 per additional $100). The PT-61 must be filed electronically through the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority before the deed can be recorded. To claim an exemption you still report the price or value on the PT-61 (O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2(b)). The tax is charged on the price or value, minus any existing loan the buyer takes the property subject to, and no tax is due if that amount is $100 or less (O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1). The Georgia Department of Revenue says the seller is liable for the tax, though buyer and seller often agree in the sales contract that the buyer will pay it.

Common exemptions: deeds of gift, for which nothing is paid (§ 48-6-2(a)(2)), including adding a spouse to the title for no payment, transfers between spouses in connection with a divorce case (§ 48-6-2(a)(5)), transfers to a company or other entity you majority-own (§ 48-6-2(a)(11)), transfers to or from a trustee or other fiduciary for no consideration (§ 48-6-2(a)(9)), and deeds correcting an error in a prior deed, when nothing is paid.

Recording fees run $25 per document. Set by state law: $25 per deed, whatever its page count, in every Georgia county (O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(f)).

See how Georgia's transfer tax and recording fee compare with other states.

How to hold title in Georgia

• Sole ownership. One person owns everything.
• Tenancy in common. Separate, divisible shares with no survivorship. A deceased owner's share goes to their heirs.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Equal shares; the survivor takes the whole property automatically.

Where to record a deed in Georgia

Deeds are recorded with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the property is located. Georgia has 159 counties. Georgia requires you to e-file. Since January 1, 2025, anyone who is a party to a deed and records it personally must file it electronically through the Clerks' Authority portal, efile.gsccca.org (O.C.G.A. § 44-2-2(d)). The clerk will not accept your paper deed at the counter or by mail.

Fulton · Gwinnett · Cobb · DeKalb · Chatham · Clayton · Cherokee · Forsyth · Henry · Richmond. all Georgia recording offices

Why deeds get rejected in Georgia

• Georgia deeds need TWO signatures besides the grantor's: one unofficial witness and one notary. A notary alone is not enough.
• Georgia requires you to e-file your own deed through efile.gsccca.org, after the portal verifies your identity with a government-issued photo ID (O.C.G.A. § 44-2-2(d)). Every clerk's office has a public computer terminal for it (§ 44-2-2(e)).
• A PT-61 transfer tax declaration must be filed electronically before a deed is recorded, even for an exempt gift. The one exception is a transfer-on-death deed, which must be recorded without one (O.C.G.A. § 44-17-2(a)(7)).
• Georgia has no tenancy by the entirety. A deed to a married couple makes them tenants in common unless it expressly says "joint tenants with survivorship" (O.C.G.A. § 44-6-190(a)(2)). Choose joint tenancy with right of survivorship if you want the survivor to take the whole property.
• Georgia only got transfer-on-death deeds on July 1, 2024, so most guidance written before then says it has none. It does.
• After the owner dies, each Georgia TOD beneficiary must sign an acceptance affidavit. It confirms the death, states whether the beneficiary was married to the owner, and gives the deed book and page of the TOD deed and the legal description. The beneficiary attaches a copy of the death certificate and records the affidavit with a PT-61 at the clerk of superior court. Ownership passes only when that affidavit is recorded (O.C.G.A. § 44-17-2(c)-(e)). The nine-month deadline in the 2024 law was repealed on April 22, 2026, but beneficiaries should not wait. Until they accept, the estate's personal representative can pay the mortgage, taxes and urgent repairs and take a lien for them. If the estate is insolvent and foreclosure is imminent, the representative can sell the property (§ 44-17-2(g)).
• Georgia is a title theory state and uses a Security Deed rather than a mortgage.