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2018 Georgia Code 22-1-10 | Car Wreck Lawyer

Link to State of Georgia Official Statute 2018 Georgia Code Annotated (sourced from legal.resource.org)
O.C.G.A. 22-1-10 Case Law from Google Scholar Amendments to OCGA 22-1-10

TITLE 22 EMINENT DOMAIN

Section 1. General Provisions, 22-1-1 through 22-1-15.

22-1-10. Duties of condemnor prior to exercise of eminent domain; rights of condemnee; exceptions.

  1. Prior to exercising the power of eminent domain, a governmental condemnor shall:
    1. Not less than 15 days before any meeting at which a resolution approving the exercise of eminent domain is to be considered, post a sign, if possible, in the right of way adjacent to each property that is subject to the proposed use of the eminent domain power stating the time, date, and place of such meeting;
    2. Attempt to serve the condemnee personally with notice of the meeting not less than 15 days before any meeting at which such resolution is to be considered, unless service is acknowledged or waived by the condemnee. If the attempted service is unsuccessful, service of notice may be satisfied by mail or statutory overnight delivery to the property owner at the address of record and, if different from the property owner, to the parties in possession of the property, return receipt requested;
    3. Ensure that any notice that is required by law to be published be placed in the county legal organ, but such notice shall not be published in the legal notices section of such newspaper; and
    4. Ensure that any meeting at which such resolution is to be considered and voted on shall commence after 6:00 P.M.

      Any such resolution shall specifically and conspicuously delineate each parcel to be affected.

  2. A nongovernmental condemnor shall, with respect to its exercise of the power of eminent domain in general, by action of the governing body or chief executive officer of the condemnor designate who is authorized to approve the exercise of the power of eminent domain by the condemnor and provide a method for documenting the time of the exercise of final approval of a particular exercise of the power of eminent domain by that individual or group of individuals. Such a condemning authority shall with respect to any particular exercise of the power of eminent domain:
    1. Not less than 15 days before the documented time of approval of the exercise of eminent domain, post a sign, if possible, in the right of way adjacent to each property that is subject to the proposed use of the eminent domain power stating: (A) that the property is subject to a proposed condemnation which may be initiated after 15 days from the date of posting; (B) the date of posting; and (C) the name, business address, and telephone number of the condemnor;
    2. Not less than 15 days before the documented time of approval of the exercise of eminent domain serve the condemnee personally with notice of the proposed condemnation stating: (A) that the property is subject to a proposed condemnation which may be initiated after 15 days from the date of service; (B) the date of service; and (C) the name, business address, and telephone number of the condemnor. If the attempted service is unsuccessful, service of notice may be satisfied by mail or statutory overnight delivery to the property owner at the address of record and, if different from the property owner, to the parties in possession of the property, return receipt requested; and
    3. Provide the condemnee with an opportunity to meet with the individual or group of individuals having the power of documented approval or a representative of such individual or individuals.
  3. The condemnee may in writing waive any rights of the condemnee under this Code section.
  4. Any notice required to be personally served or mailed under this Code section shall be accompanied by a written statement of the rights that the condemnee possesses including but not limited to the right to notice, damages, hearing, and appeal of any award entered by the special master as described in this title. The written statement of rights shall also include the right to bring a motion pursuant to Code Section 22-1-11 as well as a sample motion. The Department of Community Affairs shall promulgate written notice of rights forms that shall be used for purposes of this subsection. The Department of Community Affairs shall promulgate different notice forms for each of the types of condemnation proceedings authorized by law. This subsection shall not become effective until the Department of Community Affairs has promulgated the written notice of rights forms contemplated under this subsection and such forms shall be promulgated no later than January 1, 2007.
  5. This Code section shall not apply to condemnations for the purposes of constructing or expanding one or more electric transmission lines, to condemnations pursuant to Code Section 46-8-121, or to any condemnations under Title 32.

(Code 1981, §22-1-10, enacted by Ga. L. 2006, p. 39, § 5/HB 1313.)

Effective date.

- This Code section became effective April 4, 2006, except that subsection (d) became effective by its own terms not later than January 1, 2007.

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2006, p. 39, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as 'The Landowner's Bill of Rights and Private Property Protection Act.'"

Ga. L. 2006, p. 39, § 25, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section shall only apply to petitions for condemnation filed on or after April 4, 2006.

Law reviews.

- For article on 2006 enactment of this Code section, see 23 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 157 (2006).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Resolution valid.

- Trial court did not err in authorizing a county to condemn a property owner's land, which was located in a city because the county was not required to show the city's consent as a precondition to condemnation, and the resolution, which authorized the use of eminent domain, referred to and incorporated an attachment to the resolution, an exhibit that specifically delineated each parcel that the county sought to condemn. Brunswick Landing, LLC v. Glynn County, 301 Ga. App. 288, 687 S.E.2d 271 (2009), cert. denied, No. S10C0558, 2010 Ga. LEXIS 246 (Ga. 2010).

Cited in City of Marietta v. Summerour, 302 Ga. 645, 807 S.E.2d 324 (2017).

Cases Citing O.C.G.A. § 22-1-10

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City of Marietta v. Summerour, 302 Ga. 645 (Ga. 2017).

Cited 30 times | Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Oct 30, 2017 | 807 S.E.2d 324

...When a government is unable to acquire property by a voluntary sale negotiated as provided in Section 22-1-9, and it must resort to formal condemnation proceedings, other provisions of the Act set forth additional protections for property owners. OCGA § 22-1-10, for instance, imposes certain notice requirements with which a condemning authority must comply before initiating formal condemnation proceedings....
...ffectively nothing more than suggestions from which a condemning authority may depart whenever it concludes that another course would be better. This understanding of Section 22-1-9 is confirmed, the City contends, by a contrast with the language of Section 22-1-10, which provides in unequivocal terms that “a governmental condemnor shall...Finally, the City points to cases in which the federal courts have addressed a federal statute from which many provisions of Section 22-1-9 were borrowed, n...
...on affording such flexibility. As for the fact that the introductory provision of Section 22-1-9 uses the phrase “shall... be guided,” we concede that this phrasing is less certain than the simple “shall” that appears in the introduction of Section 22-1-10.4 Even so, Section 22-1-9 still uses a word of command to introduce the provisions that follow....
...As our Court of Appeals has explained, “codified preambles are part of the act and appropriate to read in pari materia.” Harrison v. McAfee, 338 Ga. App. 393, 400 (2) (b) (788 SE2d 872) (2016) (Peterson, J.) (citations omitted; emphasis in original). We note, however, that a simple “shall” suffices in Section 22-1-10 (“a governmental condemnor shall”) because all of the provisions that follow are directed specifically to the condemning authority....

Priest v. State (Ga. 2025).

Published | Supreme Court of Georgia | Sep 16, 2025 | 807 S.E.2d 324