Columbia County Personal Representative Affidavit of Notice Form

When a Georgia record owner dies with a transfer-on-death deed on file but the estate cannot pay its debts, and a lender or a city has sent notice that the property is about to be foreclosed, condemned, or demolished, the estate's personal representative has a recorded instrument available: the affidavit of notice described in O.C.G.A. Section 44-17-2(g)(3). This Georgia Personal Representative Affidavit of Notice is that instrument, with the lender's or government entity's notice attached as Exhibit A.

The gap between death and acceptance

Georgia's transfer-on-death deed chapter, as amended in 2026, does not pass title at the moment of death. Section 44-17-2(c)(1) transfers the record owner's interest to a designated grantee beneficiary only when the beneficiary executes an acceptance affidavit and records it. Until then the interest remains part of the estate, and subsection (g) says what the personal representative may do in the meantime: a solvent estate may carry the mortgage, taxes, and emergency repairs under paragraph (g)(2), with a lien for repayment, while an insolvent estate acts under paragraph (g)(3).

What paragraph (g)(3) authorizes

The paragraph applies when property that is part of an insolvent estate is in imminent danger of foreclosure, condemnation, or destruction, after a secured lender or government entity has given notice. The personal representative is authorized to record an affidavit of notice with the clerk of superior court of the county where the property is located, with that notice attached. If no designated grantee beneficiary has completed the acceptance requirements of subsections (d) and (e), the personal representative then has the right to sell the property and pay off all debts, with any remaining proceeds reverting to the estate. The affidavit puts the estate's position of record before any such sale.

A sworn statement with a statutory caption

The personal representative signs under oath, and the officer completes a jurat rather than an acknowledgment; Georgia prescribes no jurat wording, and the certificate on this form follows the sufficiency rule of Section 45-17-33 with a reserved space for the notary seal. Because the affidavit states facts affecting title to land, Section 44-2-20 requires a caption referring to the current owner and to a recorded instrument in the chain of title. The form opens with exactly that caption: the deceased record owner's name and the deed book and page of the recorded transfer-on-death deed. The clerk notes the affidavit's book and page on the deed itself and indexes the affidavit in the record owner's name, so a title examiner who pulls the deed finds the notice beside it.

What the affiant swears to

Four statements make up the body: the property is subject to the transfer-on-death deed identified in the caption; no designated grantee beneficiary has completed acceptance as of the date of the affidavit; the estate is insolvent; and the property is in imminent danger of foreclosure, condemnation, or destruction as stated in the attached notice, with three boxes naming which of the three the notice describes. A further section identifies the sender and dates of the notice, and the operative section gives notice under oath of those facts and of the statutory right of sale that follows.

One signer, one certificate

The form carries a single signature block for the personal representative, signing in that fiduciary capacity, and a single jurat. It identifies the personal representative's authority by the probate court, the date of the letters, and the estate number, which covers an executor or an administrator alike. Co-fiduciaries signing together, an agent signing for the personal representative, and a solvent estate acting under paragraph (g)(2) present different facts from the ones this affidavit states.

Recording in the county where the property lies

The affidavit is recorded on letter size paper with the top three inches of the first page left for the clerk's notation and the return name and address at the top of the first page as Section 44-2-14(b) requires. It conveys nothing, so no PT-61 transfer tax declaration accompanies it. Since January 1, 2025, a party who files personally, rather than through an attorney, title agent, or other listed professional, files electronically through the Clerks' Cooperative Authority portal after identity verification.

The package contains the fillable Personal Representative Affidavit of Notice, a completed example prepared for a fictional Gwinnett County estate facing a lender's notice of sale under power, and a guide that walks through each section and the recording process. The guide and this description describe the form and the law in general terms and are not legal advice.