Georgia's rental law leans to the landlord — and the clause that catches both sides is the one about staying on

Global Property Guide's country summary, last updated in May 2025, describes Georgia as a pro-landlord jurisdiction: the law gives owners flexibility over rent, over lease terms and over ending a tenancy. There is no rent control. The initial rent and any later increases are whatever the two parties agree, and the Civil Code does not impose a strict notice requirement for a rise, although thirty days is the usual practice.

A security deposit is not compulsory; it is negotiated. Where one is taken, it may not exceed the equivalent of two months' rent. On notice: an open-ended contract can be ended by either side with three months' warning, and a landlord may end any contract on a furnished apartment with the same three months. That is a longer runway than many short-let owners assume when they switch a flat from nightly guests to a long tenant.

A fixed-term lease needs no termination notice when it expires — but if the tenant simply stays on and the landlord does not object, the agreement converts to an indefinite one. From that moment the three-month notice regime applies. An owner who wants the flat back for the summer season, and who lets the end date pass without saying anything, can find they have accidentally bought themselves a quarter's delay.

Disputes go to the Georgian courts, and the guide's estimate is three months to two years depending on complexity. Against a market where gross yields run in the sevens, a case lasting a year is expensive whichever way it ends. The practical protection on both sides is the same: a written contract in a language both parties actually read, an inventory with photographs at handover, the deposit amount and its return conditions stated in figures, and a diarised reminder a month before any fixed term expires. None of this is legal advice — the point is that the law here leaves a great deal to the contract, so the contract is where the care belongs.