§ 9-3-30.Trespass or damage to realty

Damage to land or a structure on it — from a trespass, encroachment, or physical harm to the property — falls under a four-year limitations period in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-30, running from when the right of action accrues. That baseline rule covers most claims for trespass upon or damage to realty.

Subsection (b) addresses a specific and often hidden kind of harm: damage to a dwelling caused by defective synthetic exterior siding. Because siding failures can take years to become visible, the statute departs from the ordinary accrual rule and starts the clock when the homeowner discovers the damage, or when reasonable diligence would have revealed it, whichever happens first. That discovery-based accrual works together with the separate time limits set in Code Section 51-1-11 and subsection (a) of Code Section 9-3-51, so a siding claim still has to be brought within those outer limits even after the discovery-based accrual point is identified.

The 2000 amendment that added this siding rule came with a transition clause. It reaches only claims that had not already expired under the prior law before March 28, 2000, and it does not revive any claim that was already time-barred before that date. A siding claim that died under the old rules stays dead.