Security Deposit Alternative in Georgia
Georgia caps a security deposit at two months' rent, a limit that arrived with the Safe at Home Act and applies to every residential lease signed or renewed on or after July 1, 2024. The bill text is one sentence, and it is the whole rule: no landlord shall demand or receive a deposit above the equivalent of two months' rent. Older leases keep their deposit until renewal, at which point the cap applies.
What Georgia law says about security deposits
Read from the Georgia statute on 2026-09-14. Deposit rules change, and this is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm the current text with your own counsel before you change a lease.
Can you require it of every Georgia resident?
Georgia has no statute written for a monthly fee charged instead of a deposit, so the arrangement rests on your lease and the general deposit rules. The one rule that changed recently is the ceiling. House Bill 404, the Safe at Home Act, added Code section 44-7-30.1, which says no landlord shall demand or receive a security deposit in an amount that exceeds the equivalent of two months' rent. That cap applies to residential leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024, so a lease signed before then keeps its original deposit until it renews. The rest of Georgia's deposit article, covering escrow, move-in inspection, and the return timeline, is unchanged by the Act and is not restated on this page.
Rules differ by state and by city, and subsidized housing is its own question. This is general information for property managers, not legal advice. Get a written opinion before you make the fee a condition of tenancy anywhere.
How the program works in Georgia
The mechanics are the same in every state Beagle operates in. The program is designed to comply with applicable state and local regulations, and the rate is set by the deposit amount rather than by geography, so a Georgia property and one two states over are quoted the same way.
The resident chooses at signing
Instead of producing the full deposit, the resident pays a smaller non-refundable monthly fee that is billed with rent. Nothing is held, so nothing has to be returned.
The property keeps its protection
Damage beyond normal wear is reimbursed up to the deposit amount the unit would otherwise have required, so what you can recover does not shrink.
Move-out stops being a negotiation
A claim is filed against the program rather than deducted from money you are holding, which takes the itemised-deduction letter and the dispute that follows it off your team's desk.
You earn on every resident who takes it
You set an administrative fee on top of the premium, up to $5 per unit per month, and keep it.
Georgia security deposit alternative FAQs
Georgia has no statute answering that, so a mandatory version is a question for your own attorney. The Safe at Home Act only capped the deposit itself, at two months' rent for leases signed or renewed from July 1, 2024, so the review should also cover the older escrow and return rules in Georgia's deposit article.
See it on your Georgia units
Run the program against your own unit count, or walk through it with our team. No upfront fees, no onboarding charges, no long-term contracts.