Georgia required community association manager licensing in 1997. New York's bill has never received a hearing.

Georgia’s General Assembly amended the state’s Real Estate License Law in 1996. Ga. L. 1996, p. 194 took effect July 2, 1997. On that date, community association management in Georgia became a licensed activity under the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC). Anyone managing a condominium association’s finances, vendor contracts, and reserve funds in the state has, since that date, been required to hold a GREC-issued license, pass a state examination, submit to a criminal background check, and complete continuing education to renew. New York Senate Bill S.71 would require only registration with the Department of State. It has not received a committee hearing in ten consecutive sessions.

What Georgia’s licensing law actually requires.

O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8 sets the qualifications for a community association manager’s license. Before the GREC will issue a license, an applicant must satisfy four requirements:

• Complete at least 25 instructional hours in a GREC-approved community association manager prelicense course. The curriculum covers community association law, financial administration, reserve fund management, insurance, and fiduciary duties to the association.
• Pass the GREC-administered licensing examination, which tests knowledge of Georgia statutes governing common-interest communities as well as the operational and financial responsibilities of a licensed manager.
• Obtain a criminal history report from the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC), available through any county sheriff or police department, and submit it with the license application.
• Be at least 18 years old. An applicant may sit the examination at 17 but cannot activate the license until they reach 18.

After initial licensure, the holder must complete 36 hours of GREC-approved continuing education during each four-year renewal period. The curriculum for renewal can cover changes to Georgia community association statutes, updates to financial reporting standards, and disciplinary case studies from GREC enforcement actions. The GREC can suspend or revoke a license for fraud, misrepresentation, commingling of client funds, or breach of trust. Revocation and suspension are public records. A board or prospective buyer can verify a Georgia manager’s license status, license type, and disciplinary history through the GREC’s online lookup. That lookup has been available for nearly 30 years.

How Georgia did it without building a new agency.

Georgia’s approach differs from several others in this series: it did not require the legislature to stand up a new regulatory body. The 1996 amendments expanded an institution that had governed real estate brokers and salespersons since 1925. The GREC already maintained an examination program, an investigative staff, a public license database, and statutory authority to issue and revoke credentials. Adding community association managers to its jurisdiction in 1997 created a new license category within an existing infrastructure, not a new bureaucracy.

The 1996 legislation also repealed O.C.G.A. § 43-40-30.2, a prior provision that had allowed the corporate entity providing community association management services to hold a broker-level license. After July 1997, the individual manager became the license holder. That shift in accountability matters: a firm can restructure behind a new LLC, but the licensed manager cannot escape state scrutiny by dissolving their employer. The person with the license is the person the GREC can investigate and sanction.

New York’s S.71 proposes registration with the Department of State, which already maintains professional licensing records for attorneys, engineers, architects, and more than 50 other regulated occupations. The administrative infrastructure exists. The statute authorizing community association manager registration does not. Georgia’s 1997 decision shows what using that existing infrastructure can produce.

Where Georgia fits among the licensed states.

Georgia is one of seven states the Community Associations Institute identifies as requiring mandatory licensing or registration for community association managers. The table below includes the five states CCNYC has covered in this series alongside Georgia and New York.

Each program in the table has been renewed or strengthened rather than repealed. Illinois extended its licensing act through 2032 over industry opposition in the 2026 session. Connecticut added a written examination requirement in 2012, twenty-one years after initial registration. The programs have not collapsed the community management industry in any state that adopted them.

The industry’s argument against licensing, examined with primary sources.

Maryland’s 2026 legislative session produced a recent test case. HB 853, which would have established a State Board of Common Ownership Community Managers under the Maryland Department of Labor, did not pass. Written testimony submitted to the House Economic Matters Committee set out three arguments against the bill that appear consistently in every state where manager licensing has been contested:

• Existing criminal law already covers fraud and embezzlement, making a licensing regime redundant.
• National voluntary certifications from professional associations, in particular the CMCA (Certified Manager of Community Associations) administered by the Community Association Managers International Certification Board, are an adequate alternative to state licensing.
• A new licensing board would impose fees and administrative costs on managers and associations.

These three arguments have appeared in Albany testimony against S.71 for the ten sessions it has been introduced without a hearing. Each is available for factual scrutiny.

Criminal prosecution for fraud requires that a crime has occurred and been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. A state license can be revoked for conduct that falls short of criminal: misrepresentation, commingling of funds, unauthorized withdrawal from a reserve account, failure to disclose conflicts of interest. Georgia’s GREC acts before a crime, not after. The CMCA credential carries no state enforcement authority; a CMCA holder who misappropriates funds faces the same criminal statutes as an uncertified manager, and the CMCA board cannot revoke their right to manage the next building. And Georgia’s 1997 record answers the fee argument directly: the GREC added a license category to a 72-year-old regulatory agency without creating a new state office or a new appropriation.

What New York’s bill would require, and where it stands.

Senate Bill S.71, introduced by Senator Brian Kavanagh (SD-27) and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, would require managing agents of residential condominium and cooperative buildings to file a registration statement with the Secretary of State and hold a certification from an approved organization. The bill proposes a registration, not a license with substantive competency standards. There is no prelicense education requirement in the current bill draft, no GREC-style state examination, and no background check provision. Georgia’s 1997 program was already more demanding than what S.71 asks of New York.

The 2026 Albany session closed on June 18 with S.71 in committee and no hearing scheduled. There is no Assembly same-as companion bill in the current session. As CCNYC documented in New York’s condo reform record, the mechanism that has stopped S.71 is not a floor vote or a public rejection; it is committee referral without a hearing, session after session. The bill has never received a recorded vote in either chamber.

The practical consequence sits across the 14,062-building NYC condo and co-op universe. The person managing the reserve fund, vendor contracts, and maintenance operations for a 400-unit Manhattan co-op holds no credential that New York can revoke. If that person commingles funds, the board’s remedy is a civil lawsuit against a party who may have dissolved the operating entity before the case reaches trial. Connecticut built a registry and a fidelity bond requirement in 1991. Georgia built a licensing system with examination and background check requirements in 1997. Both programs predate most of the buildings their residents are managing today.

Bottom line.

Georgia’s 1997 law does not claim to eliminate bad management. It requires that anyone who takes that role in Georgia clear a minimum competency threshold, disclose a criminal history, and hold a credential the state can revoke. Those requirements have operated for 29 years alongside the voluntary CMCA certification without the two programs canceling each other out. The argument that certification makes licensing unnecessary is refuted by Georgia’s own experience: GREC licensing and CMCA credentialing have coexisted in the same market since 1997. New York’s debate has produced ten sessions of committee referrals and no recorded vote. Georgia reached a licensing law, a state exam, and a background check requirement in a single legislative session. The barber getting a New York state license to cut hair still has more state oversight than the manager holding the reserve fund of a 500-unit co-op in the same city.

Primary sources: O.C.G.A. § 43-40-8, Qualifications of licensees (Justia 2024); Georgia Real Estate Commission, community association manager license requirements (grec.state.ga.us); Ga. L. 1996, p. 194 (eff. July 2, 1997) (amending Title 43, Chapter 40); NY Senate S.71, 2025–2026 session; Maryland HB 853, 2026 session, written testimony submitted to the House Economic Matters Committee; CAI, Georgia Community Association Manager Licensing overview.

Companion resources: S.71 and the NY licensure gap · Connecticut required CAM registration in 1991 · Nevada certified managers in 2005 · Virginia licensed managers in 2008 · Illinois licensed managers in 2010 · NY’s condo reform record · Albany 2026 adjournment · Why we built this · Write your Albany representative · Managing agent profiles