Georgia gives an owner fifteen days to pay — the fastest deadline of any state we cover. It also lets a lien waiver you signed become conclusive proof that you were paid, ninety days later, whether or not the money ever arrived.
Georgia's payment deadlines are unusually short and its waiver rules unusually harsh. Both matter to how a Georgia receivable gets financed.
Section 13-11-4(a) of the Prompt Pay Act requires payment within fifteen days of a payment request — the shortest owner deadline of any state on this site, and less than half of the Texas thirty-five.
Section 13-11-4(b) gives the contractor ten days from receipt to pay each subcontractor. In practice the whole chain is meant to clear inside a month.
Section 13-11-8 allows the prevailing party in a Prompt Pay Act dispute to recover reasonable attorney's fees. That changes the arithmetic of a small unpaid invoice considerably.
Section 13-11-10 excludes improvements to residential property of twelve or fewer units. A homebuilder working on a duplex is outside the statute; the same crew on a thirty-unit building is inside it.
A claim of lien must be filed within ninety days of completion under § 44-14-361.1, with a copy served on the owner within two business days. Suit follows within three hundred and sixty-five days of filing — and then a Notice of Commencement of Action must be filed within thirty days of suing, or the lien becomes unenforceable.
A claimant with no direct contract with the owner must give a Notice to Contractor within thirty days under § 44-14-361.5. It is a short window, and it runs whether or not anyone has told you a dispute is coming.
Nothing prompts you at day eighty-nine. The ninety days run from the date you executed the waiver, and the only cure is an affidavit of nonpayment filed before they expire, with a copy mailed to the owner within seven days.
A fast statutory clock is worth little if the payment request itself takes three weeks to assemble and certify. The gap contractors actually finance sits before the clock starts, not after.
Section 13-11-8 pays the prevailing party. That helps a subcontractor with a clean claim and hurts one who sues on a disputed one.
A fast statutory clock does not help with the weeks before an invoice is certified, or with the money sitting behind a waiver.
Advance against certified work rather than waiting for the chain to clear — and rather than signing another waiver to unlock a progress payment you need now.
A lump sum for a known, dated gap: mobilising, a material order, payroll ahead of a certified draw.
A revolving cushion for the recurring gap between doing the work and having the payment request accepted.
A decline is a statement about a lender's underwriting box. A different lender asks a different question of the same file.
None of this is a credit decision. It is what tends to move a file from maybe to yes.
A Georgia receivable behind an executed, unexpired waiver is a weaker asset than the same invoice with the lien right intact. A lender will ask, and the answer changes the pricing.
Because the fifteen-day clock starts at the payment request, the certifier's habits matter more in Georgia than the statute does.
Consistent bank deposits across the last several months carry more weight with an alternative lender than a return describing last year.
Direct answers, with the section number so you can check them.
Fifteen days from the payment request, under O.C.G.A. § 13-11-4(a) — the shortest owner deadline of any state on this site. The contractor then has ten days to pay each subcontractor (§ 13-11-4(b)). The Prompt Pay Act does not apply to improvements to residential property of twelve or fewer units (§ 13-11-10).
Under § 44-14-366 the waiver becomes conclusive — you are deemed paid in full — on the earliest of actual receipt of the money, a separate signed acknowledgment, or ninety days after you executed it. To preserve your claim you must file an affidavit of nonpayment before those ninety days expire and mail a copy to the owner within seven days. Older reproductions of this statute print sixty days; the current provision says ninety. This is the single most expensive deadline in Georgia construction.
Within ninety days of completing your work, under § 44-14-361.1, serving a copy on the owner within two business days. You must then sue within three hundred and sixty-five days of filing, and file a Notice of Commencement of Action within thirty days of suing, or the lien becomes unenforceable. If you have no direct contract with the owner, a Notice to Contractor is due within thirty days (§ 44-14-361.5).
Section 13-11-8 allows the prevailing party in a Prompt Pay Act dispute to recover reasonable attorney's fees. That works for you on a clean claim and against you on a weak one, which is why the paperwork on a disputed invoice matters more in Georgia than in most states.
No. Crewline is a referral and matching service. Applications are passed to a third-party funding partner who makes the credit decision on their own criteria. You are never charged a fee to apply, nothing here is a commitment to lend, and no approval is guaranteed.
Tell us what you are building, who owes you, and when the money is supposed to land. It takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and does not touch your credit file.
Crewline is a referral and matching service, not a lender. We do not make credit decisions or guarantee approval. Financing is provided by third-party lenders subject to their own terms and criteria.
