§ 9-13-172.1.“Eligible sale” defined; recision of sale; damages

Subsection (a) sets the boundaries of what counts as an “eligible sale” for this section’s purposes: a sale — judicial or nonjudicial — conducted in the usual manner of a sheriff’s sale, which reaches both execution sales and the power-of-sale foreclosures many Georgia mortgages use, that the seller itself rescinds within 30 days after the sale, but only before the deed or deed under power has reached the purchaser. Once the deed is delivered, this section’s rescission framework no longer applies.

Subsection (b) imposes an unconditional and fast refund duty: whenever an eligible sale is rescinded, the seller must return every dollar of bid funds the purchaser paid within five days of the rescission, regardless of the reason behind it.

Subsections (c) and (d) set two different damages ceilings depending on why the rescission happened. When an automatic bankruptcy stay — triggered by the filing of someone with an interest in the property — forces the rescission, the purchaser’s recovery in any civil action is capped at the bid funds tendered, with no interest and no other damages, reflecting that a stay is outside anyone’s control. When the rescission instead traces to one of three other causes — the statutory requirements for the sale going unfulfilled, the underlying default being cured before the sale took place, or the plaintiff and defendant agreeing before the sale to cancel it based on an enforceable promise to cure the default — the purchaser’s recovery is capped at the bid funds plus 18 percent annual interest, calculated daily, a real return for tying up the purchaser’s money but still a ceiling rather than open-ended damages.

Whichever ceiling applies, the statute closes off one remedy entirely: specific performance is not available under this section, so a purchaser whose eligible sale is rescinded cannot ask a court to force the sale through and can recover only money damages within the capped amounts.