For a center in Atlanta or the counties around it, the liability side turns on Georgia’s new negligent security article, on who possesses which part of the property, and on what the leases and tenant certificates say. The property side turns on roof age, the wind and hail deductible, and flood, which is always a separate policy. Send me the tenant list, roof history, incident log and current policies and I can take the center to the insurers that write Georgia retail.
What a Georgia underwriter asks first
- Incident historyCrimes on the property, next door and within 500 yards that you actually knew about, and what was changed afterward.
- Physical conditionsLighting, sight lines, fencing, broken gates and the dark side of the building. The 2025 law is built around a specific, known physical condition.
- Who possesses whatThe parking lot, sidewalks and roof you keep, against storefronts a tenant has taken over completely.
- Alcohol tenantsBars, restaurants, package stores and convenience stores, and whether each carries liquor liability.
- Roof and deductibleRoof age and covering, hail history, and how the wind and hail deductible is written.
- WaterCreekside sites and low parking lots. Flood is never part of the property policy.
The coverage is assembled the same way as in any state (how shopping center programs are put together). What follows is what changes because the center is in Georgia.
Negligent security after Senate Bill 68
The starting point is Code section 51-3-1: an owner or occupier who invites the public onto the premises owes ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe. In 2023 the Supreme Court of Georgia, in a case over a shooting during an armed robbery in a drugstore parking lot where the jury put 95 percent of the fault on the store and none on the shooter, held that whether a crime was reasonably foreseeable is judged on the totality of the circumstances and is generally a question for the jury.
Senate Bill 68, enacted in 2025, answered with a new negligent security article, Code sections 51-3-50 through 51-3-57. It is now the sole and exclusive remedy for negligent security against an owner or occupier, a term that covers anyone who owns, leases, operates, maintains or manages the property. It applies to causes of action arising on or after the Act took effect; earlier incidents stay under prior law. For a customer, who is an invitee, the plaintiff must prove each of these:
- ForeseeabilityA particularized warning of imminent wrongful conduct, or prior occurrences of substantially similar conduct on the premises, on adjoining property or within 500 yards, of which the owner had actual knowledge.
- A known conditionThe crime was a foreseeable result of someone exploiting a specific physical condition of the premises known to the owner, one that made the risk substantially greater than the general risk in the vicinity.
- Lack of ordinary careThe owner failed to use ordinary care to remedy or mitigate that condition, and that failure was a proximate cause of the injury.
Three more provisions matter to a retail owner. The jury must apportion fault to the criminal, and an apportionment is presumed unreasonable if the wrongdoers are given less fault than the owners and others who did nothing wrongful. No owner is required to take on the government’s responsibility for law enforcement, and an owner who makes a reasonable effort to pass a particularized warning to law enforcement, which includes calling 9-1-1, cannot be held liable on the basis of that warning. A security contractor’s liability can be no greater than the owner’s.
None of this removes the exposure. It makes the paper trail decisive: the incident log, the lighting repairs, the work orders on gates and fences. Underwriters ask for the same things a plaintiff would.
Landlord, tenant and who possesses the space
Georgia separates the landlord’s liability by possession. Under Code section 44-7-14, a landlord who has fully parted with possession and the right of possession is not responsible to third persons for damages resulting from the tenant’s negligence or illegal use of the premises, but stays responsible for damages arising from defective construction or from failure to keep the premises in repair. The appellate courts apply that line by asking where the danger was: in an area the landlord still possesses, the ordinary-care duty of section 51-3-1 applies; in an area the tenant possesses, the landlord’s liability comes from section 44-7-14.
On a strip center the parking lot, walkways, exterior lighting and usually the roof are yours. That is why the policy is written as lessor’s risk, and why each lease should require the tenant to carry general liability naming the owner as additional insured, with a certificate on file every year. A certificate holder is not the same thing as an additional insured (the difference).
Georgia’s comparative fault rule also shapes slip and fall claims: a plaintiff who is 50 percent or more responsible for the injury recovers nothing.
Bars, restaurants and package stores
Georgia’s alcohol statute, Code section 51-1-40, starts from the position that drinking, not selling or serving, is the proximate cause of what an intoxicated person does. The exceptions are a person who willfully, knowingly and unlawfully sells, furnishes or serves alcohol to someone under age, or who knowingly does so to someone in a state of noticeable intoxication, in either case knowing that person will soon be driving. In 2011 the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the statute also reaches a convenience store selling packaged alcohol.
The statute is addressed to whoever sells, furnishes or serves. It does not name the owner of the building, so a landlord who only collects rent is not its target. Landlords are still named in suits, which is why the lease should require the tenant’s liquor liability policy to include the owner.
Hail, wind, tornadoes and flood
The National Weather Service office in Peachtree City says damaging thunderstorm winds occur on an average of 19 days a year in its north and central Georgia forecast area, large hail on 7 days with April the peak month, and tornadoes on 6, most of them from March through May. Two events are the local reference points:
- March 14, 2008. An EF2 tornado with winds estimated at 130 miles per hour cut a path 6 miles long from west of the World Congress Center to western DeKalb County.
- September 2009. An estimated 10 to 20 inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours at the height of the event. More than 20,000 homes, businesses and other buildings had major damage, and parts of I-20, I-75 and I-85 were closed.
The Georgia insurance commissioner’s consumer guidance on deductibles is written for homeowners. On a commercial policy the wind and hail deductible is whatever the form says, so read whether it is a flat amount or a percentage, and whether a percentage applies per building or to everything insured at the location. An older center rebuilt after a tornado has to meet current code, which is what ordinance or law coverage pays for, and the months without rent are covered only if loss of rents is on the policy.
Flood is a separate policy. The National Flood Insurance Program insures a non-residential building for up to five hundred thousand dollars, with the same amount for contents, and does not pay for business interruption or loss of use. How commercial flood coverage works.
When no insurer will write the building
Georgia’s residual market is the Georgia Underwriting Association, which describes its job as making basic property insurance available to Georgians who cannot find it elsewhere. It takes commercial applications for a fire policy with a list of named perils that includes windstorm or hail, and for a wind and hail only policy. Its commercial page states that there is no liability coverage, so the premises liability, the umbrella and the tenants’ certificates are all placed separately. Empty storefronts raise their own questions on any policy; see vacant building insurance.
What to send me
- Address, year built, square footage and construction type for each building and outparcel.
- Tenant list with each tenant’s use, hours and square footage, and which ones sell or serve alcohol.
- Lease insurance clauses and current tenant certificates.
- Roof: age, covering, last replacement and any hail or wind claims.
- Security: lighting, cameras, patrol contract, and the incident log for the property.
- Current declarations pages for property, liability, umbrella and flood, showing the wind and hail deductible.
- Rent roll and five years of loss runs.
- Flood zone and any history of water in the buildings or lot.
Common questions
Who insures shopping centers and strip malls in Atlanta?
Standard and surplus lines insurers both write Georgia retail centers, usually as a lessor’s risk policy with an umbrella over it. I shop the center across the markets that fit its tenants, roof and incident history.
Did Georgia’s 2025 tort reform change my liability for a crime in my parking lot?
Yes. Under the negligent security article added by Senate Bill 68, a customer must prove that the crime was foreseeable from a particularized warning or from similar prior incidents you actually knew about, that it exploited a specific known physical condition of the property, and that you failed to use ordinary care. It applies to causes of action arising on or after the Act took effect in 2025.
Am I liable for what happens inside a tenant’s store in Georgia?
A landlord who has fully parted with possession is not responsible to third persons for the tenant’s negligence, but remains responsible for defective construction and failure to repair. Parking lots, walkways and other areas you still possess are judged under the ordinary-care duty owed to invitees.
Can a landlord be sued under Georgia’s dram shop law?
The statute imposes liability on a person who sells, furnishes or serves alcohol to a minor or a noticeably intoxicated person knowing that person will soon drive. It does not name the building owner, but leases should still require the tenant’s liquor liability policy to cover the landlord.
Does my Atlanta shopping center policy cover hail and tornado damage?
Wind and hail are normally covered perils on a commercial property policy, often with their own deductible. Read whether that deductible is a flat amount or a percentage and what the percentage is applied to.
Do I need flood insurance on an Atlanta shopping center?
The property policy does not cover flood, and the September 2009 floods damaged more than 20,000 buildings across the metro area. Flood is a separate policy, and the federal program’s non-residential limit is low for most centers and does not pay lost rents.
General information about insuring shopping centers and strip malls in Atlanta and Georgia as of November 2026, not legal advice. Statutes, court decisions and policy forms change; confirm coverage terms on your own policy and your duties as an owner with Georgia counsel. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.