A private well home in Georgia is routine once you pass the water line boundaries of the inner metro, and the water supply is one of the few items in a transaction with its own permitting agency, its own laboratory calendar and its own lender rules. This is a process guide for buyers under contract in Cherokee, Forsyth, Paulding, Bartow and the outer edges of Cobb and Fulton, and for owners preparing to list. It companions our coverage of buying a metro Atlanta home on a septic system, but the subject here is water supply, not sewage disposal.
How are private wells regulated in Georgia?
Private wells fall under the Water Well Standards Act, codified at OCGA 12-5-120 through 12-5-138. The Environmental Protection Division administers construction, licensing and abandonment standards through a Water Well Standards Advisory Council, while county environmental health offices handle drilling notifications and local sampling. Wells must be installed by a licensed water well contractor, who must notify the county health department before drilling.
The split matters when you are hunting for a document. EPD holds the licensing side and publishes lists of licensed water well contractors, certified pump contractors and bonded drilling contractors, all three updated September 2, 2026. The county office holds the local file: the notice of intent to drill, any variance granted, and often the sampling program. Buying a house with a well in Cherokee County means working with the North Georgia Health District.
What tests are required on a well before closing in Georgia?
Georgia imposes no blanket statewide pre-closing water test on every sale. Testing is driven by the loan program, the county and the contract. In practice the standard pre-closing panel pairs a bacteriological screen with a short chemical list. The University of Georgia Agricultural and Environmental Services Laboratory sells that combination as its W33B Home Loan Closing water analysis package, bundling lead, nitrate, nitrite and total coliform with E. coli.
Separately, the Georgia Department of Public Health well water program publishes maintenance guidance, revised July 2023, recommending a bacterial test (total coliform and fecal coliform) annually and a W33C chemical screening covering arsenic and lead every three years. Those are maintenance intervals, not closing requirements, but they are the benchmark for a seller's file. UGA Extension's publication on testing for water quality, reviewed May 7, 2026, lists the federal reference points a report is read against: total coliform and E. coli at 0 MPN per 100 mL, lead at 15 parts per billion, and arsenic at 10 parts per billion.
Where samples go, and why scheduling controls the timeline
Samples are processed by a certified laboratory, ordered through the county environmental health office or a UGA Cooperative Extension county office. Pricing published by the UGA Extension office in Cobb County, at 678 South Cobb Drive in Marietta, lists the W33B Home Loan Closing test at $90, the W33C well chemical test at $125, the W35 total coliform and E. coli test at $40, and the W2 Georgia Expanded Water Test at $65, used for treatment design.
The bacteriological test dictates the calendar. Live samples carry holding time limits, so the laboratory accepts microbiological submissions Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the Cobb Extension office instructs that coliform samples be collected and shipped Monday or Tuesday morning. The sample itself is drawn after the water has not been in use for six to twelve hours.
Who pays for well testing?
Cost allocation is a contract term, not a rule. In most metro Atlanta transactions the buyer orders and pays for water testing as part of due diligence, the same way the buyer pays for the general inspection or the septic evaluation. Sellers sometimes pay, and reimbursement at closing is negotiable like any other cost.
Two wrinkles change the math. Some loan programs require the test as a condition of the loan rather than as a buyer election, and several restrict who may collect the sample, so a seller cannot simply draw a jar of water and hand it over. Your lender and closing attorney should confirm the allocation language in your contract.
What does a lender require for a property on a private well?
Requirements differ by program, and this is a question for your lender. Conventional guidelines focus on the water supply existing, being usable and being legally accessible. Government loan programs go further, adding a water quality analysis performed by an independent third party and measured against local or state health authority standards.
Conventional, FHA and VA
Fannie Mae's Selling Guide site section, effective June 4, 2025, states that where public sewer or water facilities are not available, community or private well and septic facilities must be available and utilized by the subject property, the owner must have access rights, and those facilities must be viable on an ongoing basis. Private facilities are expected to sit on the subject site unless an adequate, legally binding agreement covers access and maintenance of off-site facilities.
HUD guidance carried in Handbook 4000.1, dated January 18, 2023, requires that water meet the requirements of the local or state health authority, and where none exist, the EPA National Primary Drinking Water regulations at 40 CFR Parts 141 and 142 apply. A test is required for newly constructed properties, where a deficiency has been reported, where the property sits near an identified potential contamination source such as a dump, landfill or industrial site, and where a well and septic system are closer than 100 feet apart. It must be performed by a disinterested third party, and borrowers and interested parties may not collect or transport the sample.
Lender guidance published for VA loans and updated in August 2023 describes a similar structure. The panel typically covers nitrates, nitrites, coliform and lead, and an independent third party must collect the sample. Shared wells carry added conditions, including a permanent easement for repair access and a formal well sharing agreement among owners.
How do I find the well records for a property?
Start with the owner's file, then the county, then the contractor. Georgia law requires the drilling contractor to furnish well construction data to the owner within 30 days of completion, so the original paperwork usually exists in a filing cabinet or an old closing package. If the owner does not have it, the county environmental health office received the notice of intent to drill.
Under OCGA 12-5-134, that data includes the owner's name, the well location, total depth, borehole diameter, casing depth and material, grouting information, static water level, pumping water level and yield if test pumped, confirmation of disinfection, construction dates and the contractor's licensing information. The statute is explicit that estimated water production is not a guarantee of the quantity a well will produce.
The location record matters as much as the construction record
The same statute sets minimum separation distances for individual and nonpublic wells: not less than 10 feet from a sewer line, 50 feet from a septic tank, 100 feet from a septic tank absorption field, 150 feet from a cesspool or seepage pit, and 100 feet from an animal or fowl enclosure. Variances are requested through the health department. An owner preparing to list should locate the wellhead on a survey or plat and confirm those distances, because well to septic distance is exactly what an FHA file will look for.
What happens if the water test fails?
A result outside the published standard is not a dead deal. It is a finding that moves to one of three tracks: retest, treat, or negotiate a written remedy. Bacteriological results in particular can be affected by collection technique, a compromised well cap or a plumbing issue rather than the aquifer, so a confirming sample is often the first step.
Disinfection is a defined procedure in Georgia. OCGA 12-5-134 requires wells to be disinfected following construction using chlorine at a concentration of at least 50 parts per million with a minimum contact time of two hours. UGA Extension's bulletin on improving the condition of a drinking water well, revised April 30, 2026, describes the items that commonly drive a result: a tight fitting, tamper resistant, vermin proof well cap, a properly screened vent facing the ground, and grouting of the annular space between casing and borehole to a minimum seal depth of ten feet. Where treatment is the path, the design work needs a broader chemistry panel than the closing test provides. From there the negotiation resembles any other due diligence item, as our guide to choosing the right inspections when buying a Georgia home describes.
Sequencing the well inside a Georgia due diligence period
Order the water test on day one, not last. Between the six to twelve hour no-use window, the Monday through Thursday laboratory intake schedule, shipping and analysis time, a bacteriological result is rarely same week. Request the county file in parallel and reserve the remaining days for the general inspection and any retest.
Our explanation of what happens during the due diligence period when buying a home in Georgia sets out how that window is negotiated. Note that the well and the pump are two systems with two credentials: EPD licenses water well contractors and separately certifies pump contractors.
How does a well factor into the file at resale?
Treat the well file as part of the property's permanent record, the way you would treat a survey. An owner preparing to list should assemble the original construction data, the wellhead location relative to the septic components, any variance letters, service records for the pump and pressure tank, and the most recent laboratory results. That file removes a category of uncertainty from the contract.
FAQ
Is a water test required by law to sell a home on a well in Georgia? There is no blanket statewide pre-closing test requirement on every private well sale. Testing is triggered by the loan program, county environmental health requirements and the terms the parties negotiate into the contract. Confirm what applies with your lender, your closing attorney and the county environmental health office.
Can the buyer or seller collect the water sample? Not under the government loan programs. HUD guidance requires collection by a disinterested third party such as the local health authority, a commercial laboratory or a licensed sanitary engineer, and excludes the borrower and interested parties from collecting or transporting the sample.
How long is a well water test good for? It depends on the program and the lender. Materials published for VA loans describe a 90 day validity window from the certification date. Other programs and individual lenders set their own recency expectations, so ask the lender for the specific window before ordering.
Conclusion
A private well is less a complication than an extra file. The standards are published, the laboratories are known, the records exist and the lender requirements are written down. What goes wrong is almost always timing: a test ordered too late in due diligence, or a seller who learns at the eleventh hour that the construction data was never kept. Order early, document thoroughly, and route technical questions to the county board of health, a licensed well contractor, a certified laboratory, your lender and your closing attorney. If you are buying or selling an outer metro Atlanta property on a private well, contact The Agency Atlanta for a conversation about your situation.
