§ 9-3-51.Limitations on recovery for deficiency in planning, supervising, or constructing improvement to realty or for resulting injuries to property or person
Chapter 3. Limitations of Actions · Article 3. Limitations on Recovery for Deficiencies Connected with Improvements to Realty and Resulting Injuries · Last amended 2020 · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceA tort claim for a deficiency in surveying, designing, or constructing an improvement to real property, or for resulting injury, generally cannot be brought more than eight years after substantial completion, except that a late-arriving seventh- or eighth-year injury gets two more years, capped at ten years overall, and the repose period never reaches breach-of-contract claims.
(1)For any deficiency in the survey or plat, planning, design, specifications, supervision or observation of construction, or construction of an improvement to real property;
(2)For injury to property, real or personal, arising out of any such deficiency; or
(3)For injury to the person or for wrongful death arising out of any such deficiency shall be brought against any person performing or furnishing the survey or plat, design, planning, supervision or observation of construction, or construction of such an improvement more than eight years after substantial completion of such an improvement.
(b)Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this Code section, in the case of such an injury to property or the person or such an injury causing wrongful death, which injury occurred during the seventh or eighth year after such substantial completion, an action in tort to recover damages for such an injury or wrongful death may be brought within two years after the date on which such injury occurred, irrespective of the date of death, but in no event may such an action be brought more than ten years after the substantial completion of construction of such an improvement.
(c)This Code section shall not apply to actions for breach of contract, including, but not limited to, actions for breach of express contractual warranties.
Plain-English Summary
Buildings and other improvements to real property can develop problems long after the people who designed or built them have moved on. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-51 sets the outer boundary on tort liability for that risk. No action for a deficiency in the survey or plat, planning, design, specifications, supervision, or construction of an improvement — nor for resulting property damage, personal injury, or wrongful death arising from that deficiency — can be brought against the surveyor, designer, or builder more than eight years after the project reached substantial completion.
Subsection (b) softens that boundary for injuries that surface late in the window. If a property, personal, or wrongful-death injury occurs during the seventh or eighth year after substantial completion, the injured party gets two years from the date of the injury to sue, regardless of when death occurs relative to the injury. But that extension has its own ceiling: no such action can be brought more than ten years after substantial completion, no matter how the injury-based two-year period would otherwise run.
The final subsection keeps this repose scheme in its lane. It applies to tort claims — deficiency, property damage, personal injury, wrongful death — but not to breach-of-contract actions, including claims for breach of an express contractual warranty. A construction contract with a longer warranty period is not cut short by this eight-year or ten-year tort ceiling.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long after a building is finished can someone sue over a design or construction defect in Georgia?
Generally no more than eight years after substantial completion of the improvement, under subsection (a).
What happens if the injury from a construction defect does not occur until the seventh or eighth year after completion?
Subsection (b) gives the injured party two years from the date the injury occurred to sue, but the action still cannot be brought more than ten years after substantial completion overall.
Does this repose period apply to a breach of contract claim over construction defects?
No. Subsection (c) states this section does not apply to actions for breach of contract, including breach of express contractual warranties.
Who can be sued under this section?
Any person performing or furnishing the survey or plat, design, planning, supervision or observation of construction, or construction of the improvement.
What date starts the eight-year and ten-year clocks?
The date of substantial completion of the improvement, as defined in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-50.
Amendment History
Ga. L. 1968, p. 127, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 2020, p. 37, § 1/SB 451.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published by the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Georgia Code Revision Commission / LexisNexis. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
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