Subletting laws and regulations in Georgia - 2026

Georgia has no statute about subletting, and nothing the General Assembly passed in 2025 or 2026 created one.

Georgia lawmakers left subletting entirely untouched. They did not create a statute that grants a subletting right or governs how subletting works. What they did do is change a lot of other rental rules. The Safe at Home Act rewrote deposit caps and eviction notices for every lease that landlords and tenants signed or renewed since July 1, 2024. Chatham County froze new short-term vacation rentals in unincorporated areas on July 10, 2026. And SB 570 put a human trafficking training requirement on short-term rental operators as of July 1, 2026.

Whether you own a duplex in Decatur or you're the tenant hoping to hand your keys to a coworker for the summer, Georgia judges apply a property doctrine older than the state's current constitution. Landlords and tenants may add lease terms that determine who can sublet and who stays on the hook.

Georgia subleasing laws in short

Can a Georgia tenant sublet? Yes, with the landlord's consent. If the lease requires written consent, obtain it in writing. Even when it does not, written confirmation is safer. No Georgia statute grants residential tenants a right to sublet, and no appellate court has read one into the code.

The subleasing laws Georgia tenants and landlords search for fit in a short list.

• O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1(a) gives a tenant on a lease under five years only a "usufruct which may not be conveyed except by the landlord's consent." That is a default ban. A landlord does not need an anti-subletting clause to enforce it.
• The Georgia Department of Community Affairs' Landlord-Tenant Handbook, revised August 29, 2024, states: "The lease determines whether the original tenant can sublet to a subtenant. Often, subletting requires the landlord's permission."
• The original tenant stays liable for rent and for any damage the subtenant causes, even when the subtenant pays the landlord directly.
• A landlord whose lease requires consent may refuse for any reason or none, unless the lease itself promises consent will not be unreasonably withheld.
• Subletting without consent is a civil breach of the lease. It becomes a crime only when the tenant lies about having authority to rent the place or pockets rent that belongs to the owner.

For a fuller picture of what a Georgia renter can and cannot do under a standard lease, Steadily's guide to tenant rights covers the ground beyond subletting.

What is subleasing, and how it differs from subletting and assignment

Subleasing and subletting are the same transaction: the original tenant rents all or part of the unit to someone else while staying on the lease. The Georgia code and the DCA handbook say "sublet"; lease forms and listing sites usually say "sublease." The terms below carry specific meanings in a Georgia sublease.

• Master lease: The original lease between the property owner and the first tenant. Every sublease sits underneath it and cannot grant the subtenant anything the master lease denies the tenant.
• Sublessor: The original tenant. For the length of the sublease this person is both a tenant to the owner and a landlord to the subtenant.
• Sublessee or subtenant: The person renting from the original tenant. The DCA handbook describes the position this way: "A subtenant has the right to use and occupy the rental property from the original tenant and not directly from the landlord."
• Assignment: A transfer of the tenant's entire remaining interest in the lease to a new tenant. The new tenant then deals with the owner directly.

The practical difference between a sublease and an assignment is who remains in the chain. In a sublease the original tenant stays in the middle, collecting rent from the subtenant and owing rent to the owner. In an assignment the new tenant takes over the whole lease. Georgia lease clauses routinely keep the original tenant liable in either case; in Pritchett v. Afzal, the Court of Appeals enforced language providing that "no sublease or assignment by Tenant shall relieve Tenant of any liability hereunder." Both transactions require the owner's consent when the tenant holds a usufruct. The code annotation to § 44-7-1 says the tenant "can neither sublet the premises, convey the tenant's usufructuary interest, nor assign the tenant's lease, without the landlord's consent."

A subtenant's position is narrower than the rights a direct tenant holds under a state's landlord-tenant code. A subtenant's rights instead run through the sublessor's lease rather than against the owner.

The statutes that govern subleases in Georgia

O.C.G.A. § 44-7-1 governs most Georgia sublease questions, and it does so without ever using the word "sublet." Subsection (a) establishes the landlord-tenant relationship and then states the operative rule:

"In such a case, no estate passes out of the landlord and the tenant has only a usufruct which may not be conveyed except by the landlord's consent and which is not subject to levy and sale."

A usufruct is a right to use and enjoy property without owning any interest in it. Because a tenant cannot convey it "except by the landlord's consent," a tenant who holds one cannot hand it to a subtenant on their own. Subsection (b) sets the dividing line:

"All renting or leasing of real estate for a period of time less than five years shall be held to convey only the right to possess and enjoy such real estate, to pass no estate out of the landlord, and to give only the usufruct unless the contrary is agreed upon by the parties to the contract and is so stated in the contract."

A one-year residential lease is a usufruct. So is a month-to-month tenancy. The Georgia Supreme Court in Eastern Air Lines v. Joint City-County Board of Tax Assessors, 253 Ga. 18 (1984), held that a term over five years raises a rebuttable presumption of an estate for years, but courts still read the whole agreement. In Camp v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 232 Ga. 37 (1974), the court found only a usufruct despite the term because Delta's "subletting and assignment rights are restricted in a manner inconsistent with an estate for years."

The two categories behave differently on the point that matters here:

• Feature | Usufruct | Estate for years
• Presumptive lease term | Under five years | Over five years (rebuttable)
• Estate in land passes to tenant? | No | Yes
• Can tenant sublet or assign without consent? | No, § 44-7-1(a) forbids it | Generally yes, absent a lease restriction (Warehouses, Inc. v. Wetherbee, 203 Ga. 483 (1948))
• Subject to levy and sale? | No | Yes

The Court of Appeals has applied the rule to ordinary rentals since at least 1927. In Jenkins v. Smith, 92 Ga. App. 296 (1955): "Under a lease of real estate for a term of less than five years, and granting only the usufruct, the tenant cannot sublet the premises or transfer the lease without the consent of the landlord."

Other parts of Title 44 come into play once a sublease exists. O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19 shows up in a lot of subletting guides, but it prohibits cities and counties from regulating residential rent and says nothing about subtenants; it matters to this topic only because it is the reason Georgia has no local rent caps. § 44-7-31 through § 44-7-36 govern security deposits, which a sublessor becomes responsible for the moment they collect one from a subtenant. § 44-7-50 and the sections that follow set out the dispossessory process a landlord uses to remove an unauthorized occupant. The DCA's Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook is the state's own plain-language gloss on all of it, and Steadily's overview of Georgia law for landlords covers the same code from the owner's side.

Do you need your landlord's permission to sublet in Georgia?

Yes. The landlord's consent controls, and a silent lease does not change the answer. If the lease requires that consent in writing, the tenant must follow that requirement. Written confirmation remains safer even when the lease does not require it.

Tenants often assume that if the lease never mentions subletting, they are free to do it. In Georgia the opposite holds. When the landlord and tenant omit a subletting clause, § 44-7-1(a)'s default against conveying a usufruct without consent still applies. Ask anyway, and get the answer on paper. An email from the landlord saying "fine" is evidence; a phone call is not. Georgia's standard lease agreements usually include an express consent clause, which makes the question easier, but its absence is a risk for the tenant rather than a loophole.

When the lease requires consent and says nothing about reasonableness, the landlord can refuse for any reason. The Court of Appeals in Tap Room, Inc. v. Peachtree-TSG Associates, 270 Ga. App. 90 (2004), held that "the landlord's refusal to consent to such an assignment need not be reasonable." In Vaswani v. Wohletz, 196 Ga. App. 676 (1990), the court called the reasonableness of the refusal "otherwise irrelevant" and declined to follow the implied-reasonableness trend adopted in some other states. Hunting Aircraft, Inc. v. Peachtree City Airport Authority, 281 Ga. App. 450 (2006), later described this line of cases as a "limited exception" to Georgia's general duty of good faith in contracts.

Georgia courts enforce the lease terms but expressly decline to add a reasonableness requirement that the lease does not contain.

A lease can give the tenant more. When the lease says consent "shall not be unreasonably withheld," Georgia courts enforce that promise using a standard of "fairness and commercial reasonableness." Stern's Gallery of Gifts, Inc. v. Corporate Property Investors, Inc., 176 Ga. App. 586 (1985), ruled that "reasonable" cannot include "arbitrary or capricious reasons, or considerations based on such factors as race or religion or pecuniary gain, or merely personal preferences." The court directed a verdict for the tenant where the landlord's only stated ground was a standing policy against subletting.

Georgia courts classify refusals under a reasonableness clause roughly like this:

• Ground for refusing | How Georgia courts treat it
• Proposed subtenant lacks the finances to perform | Reasonable, and the primary factor (Pakwood Industries, Inc. v. John Galt Associates, 219 Ga. App. 527 (1995))
• Demanding a personal guaranty from an unproven subtenant | Reasonable (Pakwood)
• Blanket "we never allow subletting" policy, no reason given | Unreasonable (Stern's Gallery)
• Refusing to squeeze more money out of the tenant | Not reasonable (Stern's Gallery)
• Proposed use violates an express lease restriction | Refusal stands regardless of reasonableness (Duff's Enterprises, 170 Ga. App. 9 (1984))
• Criteria the lease itself lists, such as financial condition or business type | Enforceable as written (WPD Center, LLC v. Watershed, Inc., 330 Ga. App. 289 (2014))

Every one of those decisions involved a commercial lease. No Georgia statute or appellate case imposes a reasonableness requirement on a residential landlord's consent decision, so a residential tenant who wants that protection has to negotiate it into the lease. A workable clause, in plain drafting rather than any court's language, reads: "Tenant shall not sublet any part of the premises or assign this lease without Landlord's prior written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld. Landlord may condition consent on the proposed subtenant's satisfactory financial capacity and rental history." The final provision borrows the approach the WPD Center court enforced, giving the landlord defined criteria instead of unlimited discretion.

Who is liable under a Georgia sublease?

The sublessor stays liable on the master lease for every obligation. The subtenant answers to the sublessor. The DCA handbook states the rule: "The subtenant may pay rent directly to the landlord but the original tenant remains responsible to the landlord for the rent and any damage caused by the subtenant." The handbook adds that "mere acceptance of the subtenant's rent does not mean that the landlord has chosen to treat the subtenant as his tenant and release the original tenant." The Court of Appeals reached the same conclusion in Liberty Loan Corp. v. Leftwich, 115 Ga. App. 113 (1967): "it is not sufficient that the landlord has knowledge and makes no objection."

Here is how the obligations sit once a sublease is signed:

• Obligation | Sublessor (original tenant) | Subtenant | Landlord
• Rent on the master lease | Liable in full, even if subtenant pays landlord directly | Owes rent only to sublessor under the sublease | Can pursue sublessor; accepting subtenant's rent is not a release
• Damage the subtenant causes | Liable to landlord | Liable to sublessor under the sublease | Deducts from sublessor's deposit or sues sublessor
• Master lease security deposit | Remains sublessor's deposit, subject to landlord's deductions | No claim on it | Holds it under §§ 44-7-31 to 44-7-35
• Subtenant's security deposit | Acts as "landlord" for this deposit: collects, holds, and returns it | Claims against sublessor for return | Not a party
• Habitability (HB 404, § 44-7-13) | Owes it to subtenant, since the implied term is "deemed" part of "any contract, lease, license, or similar agreement" for a dwelling | Can enforce against sublessor | Owes it to sublessor under the master lease

The deposit rules deserve a closer look because a tenant who collects a deposit from a subtenant inherits obligations most tenants have never read. Under § 44-7-31, covered landlords must place deposits in an escrow account "established only for that purpose" at a bank or lender regulated by Georgia or the federal government. They must hold the money "in trust for the tenant" and inform the tenant in writing where the account is. § 44-7-32 offers an alternative: a surety bond filed with the superior court clerk for the lesser of all deposits held or $50,000, with a $5.00 clerk's filing fee.

§ 44-7-33 requires a written list of existing damage before the tenant hands over the deposit, signed by both parties. It also requires a move-out inspection with an itemized damage list within three business days after the tenant leaves. The tenant may inspect the premises and that list within five business days. § 44-7-34 sets the 30-day return window after the landlord regains possession and bars any deduction for "ordinary wear and tear." Under § 44-7-35, a landlord who skips the escrow or the damage lists forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit, and a landlord who wrongfully withholds money owes three times the amount plus attorney's fees.

Two limits shape how this applies to small owners and to sublessors. § 44-7-36 exempts the escrow, bond, inspection, and penalty sections for a natural person who, with a spouse and minor children, owns ten or fewer rental units and does not use a paid third-party manager. The 30-day return rule in § 44-7-34 is not on that exemption list, so it binds every landlord in the state. And HB 404 added § 44-7-30.1, capping any deposit at two months' rent for leases that landlords and tenants enter into or renew on or after July 1, 2024. A sublessor collecting a deposit is acting as a landlord for that transaction, so the cap applies; whether the sublessor's or the owner's unit count decides the ten-unit exemption is a question no Georgia court has resolved.

Keep the two deposits separate. The subtenant's deposit belongs to the subtenant and comes back from the sublessor within 30 days. The sublessor's deposit stays with the owner until the master lease ends, and the owner can draw on it for damage the subtenant caused. If the property changes hands mid-sublease, Steadily's guide explains what happens to subtenants and tenants when a landlord sells.

How to request consent and write an enforceable Georgia sublease agreement

Start with the master lease, and put every step in writing. The request sequence below tracks what Georgia courts have treated as a reasonable basis for approval.

1. Read the master lease for its subletting and use restrictions, along with any occupancy limits. The landlord may refuse a subtenant whose plans violate an express restriction under Duff's Enterprises.
2. Send the landlord a written request that names the proposed subtenant and states the dates plus rent. Attach documents showing the applicant's financial capacity. Then provide rental references and a credit report if the landlord requests one. Financial ability was the deciding factor in Pakwood, so lead with it.
3. Offer a guaranty or a larger deposit from the subtenant if their finances are thin. Pakwood also treated a guaranty demand as reasonable, which means offering one preempts the objection.
4. Ask the landlord to sign and date the consent, then attach it as an exhibit to the sublease itself.

The sublease should cover the following points. Each one closes a gap that otherwise defaults to the sublessor's disadvantage.

• Sublease term | What to include
• Term | Set a term that ends on or before the master lease ends. A sublease cannot outlast the interest it comes from.
• Rent | State the amount and due date, along with who pays it to whom. Many sublessors set the subtenant's rent at the master lease amount; if you charge more, the guide on setting the correct rent walks through how to price and negotiate it.
• Security deposit | State the amount, which cannot exceed two months' rent. Identify where you will hold it and include the 30-day return commitment.
• Damage | Assign responsibility for damage. Use a move-in condition list signed by both parties so § 44-7-33 disputes never start.
• Master lease and consent | Include a copy of the master lease and the landlord's written consent. Incorporate both by reference, and require the subtenant to follow every restriction that applies to the sublessor.
• Default | Explain what happens to the subtenant if the sublessor defaults on the master lease. The subtenant's right to stay ends when the sublessor's does.
• Disclosures | Include the disclosures below.

Federal lead-paint rules apply to subleases directly. Under 24 CFR § 35.86, "lessor" means "any entity that offers target housing for lease, rent, or sublease," so a tenant subletting a pre-1978 unit must give the subtenant the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home and disclose known lead hazards. The tenant must also include the Lead Warning Statement and collect signed certifications. The tenant must keep the records for three years. Federal rules exempt subleases of 100 days or less with no renewal option. Knowing violations carry three times damages plus a civil penalty of $10,000 to $11,000 per violation.

Georgia's flood disclosure under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-20 requires notice before signing if flooding damaged the living space three or more times in the preceding five years. An owner who fails to give it is "liable in tort" for the tenant's flood-damaged personal property.

The statute puts the duty on the owner or the owner's agent, and no Georgia decision says whether a sublessor acting alone owes it. Pass the owner's disclosure through to the subtenant regardless.

§ 44-7-3 requires written disclosure of the owner's and manager's names and addresses at or before the tenancy starts. It also requires updates within 30 days of any change. A sublessor should at minimum give the subtenant their own contact details plus the owner's.

Steadily's downloadable Georgia forms for residential leases give you a compliant base document to adapt for a sublease, and the checklist above tells you which clauses to add.

What happens if you sublet without permission?

An unauthorized subtenant is, in the Court of Appeals' words from Step Ahead, Inc. v. Lehndorff Greenbriar, Ltd. (1984), "a mere intruder and subject to be summarily ousted by the landlord." The same case held that "a tenant has no right to impose his subtenancy upon the landlord without his consent." The tenant has breached the lease. Unless the landlord affirmatively recognizes the subtenant or waives the restriction, the unauthorized subtenant generally has no enforceable tenancy against the owner.

The removal process runs through magistrate court under § 44-7-50 and following. One procedural wrinkle catches landlords off guard. The code annotations to § 44-7-50 state that the dispossessory remedy "does not lie for a tenant's violation of a covenant not to sublet." The landlord needs to terminate the lease first under a valid termination theory so the tenant becomes a holdover. That is what worked in Main Station v. Atel I (1989), where the landlord "exercised its express option to terminate the lease because of lessee's proposed lease assignment" and then dispossessed the holdover. Without a contractual or other valid basis to terminate the tenancy and establish a holdover, the landlord may need to pursue ordinary breach remedies rather than summary dispossession.

Once termination is in place, the sequence looks like this:

1. Send a written notice of the lease violation. Then, under the termination clause, send a notice terminating the tenancy.
2. Deliver a written demand for possession under § 44-7-50(a). If the case is about unpaid rent rather than subletting, the landlord must first give HB 404's three-business-day pay-or-quit notice.
3. File a dispossessory affidavit under oath in the magistrate court of the county where the property sits.
4. Serve the summons under § 44-7-51(a). Attempt personal service first, then deliver the summons to any adult living on the premises. If the process server cannot find anyone, the server may use "tack and mail" by posting the summons on the door and mailing it first-class that day.
5. Wait out the tenant's seven-day answer window under § 44-7-51(b). The tenant may answer "either orally or in writing" and raise "any legal or equitable defense or counterclaim."
6. If no answer arrives, § 44-7-53(a) directs the court to "issue a writ of possession instanter" and enter judgment for rent owed. After tack-and-mail service, the court cannot enter a default money judgment unless the tenant appears.
7. If the tenant answers, the case goes to trial. The tenant may stay in the unit pending the outcome only by paying rent into the court registry under § 44-7-54.
8. After judgment, the writ of possession takes effect seven days after the court enters judgment under § 44-7-55(a). Either side may appeal within those seven days.

Filing costs vary by county. These figures come from each magistrate court's published fee schedule as of September 2026:

• County | Filing fee | Service fee (per defendant) | Writ of possession fee
• Fulton | $60.00 | $35.00 (+ $8.00 each additional defendant) | $75.00
• DeKalb | $104.00 | $50.00 | $13.00 application + $75.00 service
• Gwinnett | $60.00 | $25.00 | $25.00
• Cobb | $60.50 | $25.00 | Not listed
• Chatham | $53.00 | $25.00 | Not listed

DeKalb's forms page lists different figures ($54.00 filing and $35.00 service), so confirm with that clerk before filing. Steadily's guides to common eviction scenarios and the formal eviction process cover the current mechanics in more depth. Older eviction guidance may differ because eviction proceedings shifted during and after the moratorium era.

Nobody goes to jail for subletting a Midtown apartment without asking. Georgia has no statute making unauthorized subletting a crime. The criminal cases involve fraud. In Harris v. State, the defendant and accomplices found vacant houses, changed the locks, and rented them to tenants with forged leases, "falsely purporting to have authority to rent the property"; the court upheld convictions for theft by deception under O.C.G.A. § 16-8-3 and forgery under § 16-9-1. It also upheld convictions for burglary and criminal trespass under § 16-7-21, along with RICO. Harris received 40 years. Collecting rent on the owner's behalf and keeping it can be theft by conversion under § 16-8-4. But § 16-8-3 itself says "Evidence of failure to perform standing alone shall not be sufficient to authorize a conviction," so breaking a lease promise, without a lie, stays in civil court.

Do Airbnb and short-term sublets need a permit or lodgings tax in Georgia?

Yes on tax. Atlanta and Savannah also require permits. A tenant who lists a rented unit on Airbnb is subletting and needs the owner's consent like any other sublessor. If the lease requires written consent, the tenant must obtain it in writing. The tenant also takes on the operator's tax and licensing duties.

Georgia's state sales tax is 4%, per the Department of Revenue's rate chart effective January 1, 2026, with local sales taxes adding roughly 2% to 5%. Under DOR Policy Bulletin SUT-2018-02, the tax reaches "owners of private residences, cabins, cottages, and rental agents" and stops applying once one guest stays 90 continuous days or more.

The state hotel-motel fee is a separate $5.00 per night charge. The DOR's hotel-motel FAQ says the charge stops on the 31st consecutive day of the same occupancy. Counties and cities layer their own hotel-motel excise tax under Title 48, Chapter 13, at up to 8%; the DCA's August 2025 rate report lists Fulton County at 7% and Cherokee at 6%. Fayette is at 3%.

Platforms collect most of this for you. Georgia's marketplace facilitator law, HB 276, effective April 1, 2020, requires any platform with $100,000 or more in facilitated Georgia sales to collect and remit state and local sales tax. O.C.G.A. § 48-8-30 relieves the host of liability for taxes the platform is obligated to collect. HB 317, effective July 1, 2021, did the same for the $5 fee.

The DCA states that facilitators including Vrbo "are required to collect and remit both the local hotel-motel excise tax and the state $5 transportation fee." Airbnb's Georgia tax page lists collection of the 4% state sales tax and 2%-5% local sales tax on reservations of 89 nights or shorter, plus the $5 fee and 0%-8% local occupancy taxes on the first 30 days. Airbnb also states that "Hosts remain responsible for tax obligations that Airbnb does not collect or only partially collects." A 2025 BNBCalc analysis found county-level coverage uneven, so check your county's agreement.

Atlanta licenses STRs under Ordinance 20-O-1656, effective March 1, 2022. The owner or long-term tenant may obtain a license for a primary residence plus one additional unit. The nonrefundable license costs $150.00 through the Accela portal and runs 12 months.

Atlanta also requires a designated agent who remains reachable at all times. Operators must post house rules with a maximum of two adults per bedroom and send certified-mail notice to adjacent properties. Atlanta charges an 8% hotel-motel tax. Violations cost $500 each, with each day a separate offense. Three violations at one property cause the city to revoke the license for 12 months.

Enforcement has been thin. The AJC reported in June 2025 that operators had submitted roughly 2,200 permit applications against an estimated 10,000 operating STRs. The council banned new STRs in the Home Park neighborhood on August 18, 2025, and rejected a District 7 ban 7-6 on November 17, 2025. As of August 25, 2026, the council was still holding 26-O-1084, which would create an Office of Short-Term Rentals and cap unhosted STRs at 90 nights a year.

Savannah requires an STVR certificate before the first booking. Operators must apply annually through the city's online portal. A new application costs $400.00, while a renewal costs $250.00; the city does not refund either fee. After approval, the operator must obtain a Business Tax Certificate from the Revenue Department.

Savannah allows STVRs in the Downtown, Victorian, and Streetcar historic districts under an overlay. Elsewhere, the city allows them only in B-C, B-N, B-L, and A-1 zoning. The city caps non-owner-occupied STVRs in residential areas of the Downtown and Victorian districts at 20% of parcels per ward, a limit in place since September 29, 2017.

The city's hotel-motel tax is 8%, due by the 20th of the following month. Fines run $500, $750, and $1,000 for the first, second, and third violations within 12 months. A third violation causes the city to revoke the certificate for a year. Chatham County, not the city, approved a 120-day moratorium on new STVRs in unincorporated areas on July 10, 2026.

Statewide, SB 570 (Act 519), which the governor signed May 11, 2026 and which took effect July 1, 2026, requires human trafficking training programs for inns and short-term rental properties, with record retention and penalties. No 2025 or 2026 bill preempted local STR authority.

Insurance is where a short-term sublet hurts the owner most. Standard policy exclusions create the specific gaps described below.

Landlord playbook: sublease clauses, screening, and sublet fees

Write the consent clause you want enforced, because Georgia courts will hold you to exactly what it says. The case law reviewed above supports several drafting options. An outright prohibition is enforceable and, under § 44-7-1(a), mostly restates the default. A clause requiring "Landlord's prior written consent" with no reasonableness language gives you unlimited discretion under Tap Room and Vaswani. A clause promising consent "not unreasonably withheld" should list credit and income requirements. Address rental history separately. State any intended-use restriction in its own provision. The WPD Center rule then lets you apply those terms as written instead of arguing about fairness after the fact. Whichever you choose, add a sentence keeping the original tenant liable, modeled on the Pritchett v. Afzal language, and a termination-for-breach option so a dispossessory action is available if the tenant sublets anyway. Steadily's guides on lease agreement clauses and on handling subleasing from the landlord's side walk through the drafting.

Screen the subtenant the way you screened the tenant. Review the applicant's credit and financial capacity. Then contact prior landlords. Under Pakwood, financial inability is the strongest reasonable ground for refusal and a guaranty demand is legitimate, so a written screening standard both protects you and documents your reasons. Require the subtenant to carry renters insurance naming you as certificate holder; Rental Housing Journal recommends a $300,000 liability minimum, and a 2025 survey it reported found nearly 50% of landlords never verify the coverage they require.

Georgia legislators have not enacted a statute governing sublet fees, so the lease is the only source of one. A flat administrative fee for processing a sublease request, stated in the lease, is a contract term like any other. Keep it proportional to your screening costs; under a reasonableness clause, Stern's Gallery lists "pecuniary gain" among the grounds a court will not accept for refusing consent, and a fee that looks like a toll invites that argument.

Most owners discover the insurance exposure at claim time. According to PropertyCasualty360's analysis of the ISO dwelling program, the standard ISO dwelling forms include no liability coverage unless you add an endorsement. The program includes these forms:

• Form
• DP 00 01
• DP 00 02
• DP 00 03

They also include no theft coverage unless you add an endorsement.

Coverage D, fair rental value, pays only when covered physical damage makes the unit unfit to occupy. The DP-3 form excludes "loss or expense due to cancellation of a lease or agreement." The Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner confirms rents coverage applies only to "lost rent or rental value while the building cannot be occupied due to a covered loss." A tenant who stops paying, sublets without permission, or gets dispossessed produces no covered loss.

The vandalism peril drops out after the dwelling sits vacant more than 60 consecutive days under the 2014 ISO edition, or 30 days on some older forms. A gap between STR bookings can trigger that provision.

Short-term use is worse. ISO added a home-sharing exclusion to homeowners forms in 2017. The 2022 HO 00 03 03 22 form treats "home-sharing host activities" as a business with no dollar threshold. Its principal exclusions include:

• Liability arising from home-sharing activities.
• Theft by a home-sharing occupant.
• Vandalism by an occupant.
• Fair rental value from home-sharing.

The NAIC warns that "even if specific home-sharing or rental exclusions are not included in the policy, insurance companies may deny coverage." The DP-3's concealment clause voids the entire policy if the insured "intentionally conceals/misrepresents any material fact." Federal courts have treated undisclosed rental or STR use as material.

Airbnb administers AirCover itself rather than through a licensed carrier. It provides up to $3 million for guest damage and covers only confirmed bookings. Vrbo's $1 million program covers liability only, sits secondary to your own policy, and can carry a 25% deductible if your insurer contributes nothing. A personal umbrella under the ISO DL 98 01 05 26 form excludes business activity, with a narrow carve-out for occasional rental of a residence.

Steadily writes landlord policies for single-family rentals, multifamily, condos, ADUs, vacant properties, and short-term rentals listed on Airbnb or VRBO, so an owner who has consented to a sublet or an STR listing can insure the actual use instead of hoping a standard form stretches to cover it. Liability options run from $100K to $1M and above, and loss of rental income pays up to 12 months of fair rental value after a covered loss. The state page on Georgia landlord insurance covers Georgia-specific pricing and perils. Get a quote in minutes at quote.steadily.com. No phone call is required.

Recent and upcoming changes: the Safe at Home Act and Georgia rent laws for 2026

HB 404, the Safe at Home Act, is Act 392, which Governor Kemp signed on April 22, 2024. It took effect July 1, 2024 for residential lease agreements that landlords and tenants enter into or renew on or after July 1, 2024. It did not touch subletting, but it changed four rules every sublease now operates under.

• Implied habitability under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-13. Every dwelling lease "is deemed to include a provision that the premises is fit for human habitation." The Act does not define the phrase, and a June 2025 Georgia Law Review article notes tenants and landlords "will have to wait for judicial interpretation."
• A three-business-day notice to pay or vacate under § 44-7-50(c) before a landlord can file a nonpayment dispossessory. The notice "shall be posted in a sealed envelope conspicuously on the door of the property" and delivered by any additional method the lease specifies. Georgia Legal Aid calls this the tenant's right to cure.
• The two-months'-rent security deposit cap under § 44-7-30.1 limits the amount a landlord may demand or receive.
• Expansion of the utility shutoff ban in § 44-7-14.1 to include cooling alongside heat, light, and water, with a penalty of up to $500 for a landlord who "knowingly and willfully" cuts service before a dispossessory case ends.

Bills that would have gone further stalled. HB 725 addressed landlord duties. HB 1171 proposed minimum habitability standards, while HB 1389 would have extended the pay-or-quit notice from three days to seven. All sat at House Second Readers as of their last action dates in 2025 and 2026.

Several measures did pass in 2025 and 2026, and a few reach subletting situations sideways:

• Bill | What it does | Effective
• HB 270 (Act 255) | Allows approved private process servers to serve dispossessory papers under § 44-7-51, alongside sheriffs and marshals | July 1, 2025
• HB 399 | Requires any out-of-state landlord of single-family or duplex rentals to employ a Georgia-licensed broker, with an in-state contact for tenant communications | July 1, 2025
• SB 406 (Act 493) | Lets courts seal dispossessory records when the tenant prevailed, satisfied the judgment, or seven years passed after a paid judgment or dismissal | Section 7 on July 1, 2026; remainder January 1, 2027
• SB 570 (Act 519) | Human trafficking training for inns and short-term rental properties | July 1, 2026
• HB 295 (Act 713) | Creates a procedure for property owners to claim compensation from local governments for lost property value | July 1, 2026

On rent itself, Georgia in 2026 has no cap and no local rent control. § 44-7-19 bars cities and counties from regulating rent. The Senate withdrew and recommitted SB 106's attempt to repeal that preemption on January 13, 2026. HB 1031, which would have limited residential rent increases, stalled at House Second Readers on January 29, 2026. A sublessor charging a subtenant more than the master lease rent breaks no Georgia statute, though the master lease may say otherwise. Steadily's guide to Georgia rent increase rules covers the notice requirements that do apply.

FAQ

These answers cover lease silence and consent refusals. They also address unauthorized subletting and liability for rent and deposits.

Is subleasing legal in Georgia if the lease is silent?

Only with the landlord's consent. A lease under five years conveys a usufruct, and § 44-7-1(a) says a usufruct "may not be conveyed except by the landlord's consent." When the landlord and tenant omit a subletting clause, that statutory default still applies, so the tenant must ask. If the lease requires written consent, the tenant must obtain it in writing; even when it does not, written confirmation is safer.

Can a Georgia landlord refuse a sublet for any reason?

Yes, when the lease requires consent and says nothing about reasonableness. Tap Room (2004) and Vaswani (1990) hold the refusal "need not be reasonable." If the lease promises consent will not be unreasonably withheld, the landlord must have a fair, commercially grounded reason. Stern's Gallery (1985) rules out blanket policies and personal preference, as well as financial gain.

Can you be evicted or jailed for subletting without permission?

You can be removed, though the landlord first needs a valid basis to terminate the tenancy and establish a holdover because the dispossessory remedy "does not lie for a tenant's violation of a covenant not to sublet" on its own. Jail is not on the table for a plain unauthorized sublet. Criminal charges arise only when someone rents out property they have no authority over or converts the owner's rent, as in Harris v. State.

Who owes unpaid rent and the deposit when a subtenant defaults?

The original tenant owes the landlord the rent and any damage, and the landlord's acceptance of the subtenant's payments does not release them. The original tenant must return the subtenant's deposit within 30 days under § 44-7-34, minus lawful deductions. The original tenant's own deposit stays with the landlord until the master lease ends.