Who governs South Carolina HOA laws Does the state?

Janie,
Go to the S.C Code of Regulations and search many of the codes. I gave it a quick search and did not see a single H.O.A. listing but it will be within some other section.
Usually the Attorney General is strictly for enforcement when a legal matter gets as high up within the State for an enforcement issue.

Janie,
Search SC or my name on the search feature on this site. I have posted what I found out about the oversight of HOA's and Condo's in SC.

SC has a Statute for Condo's. Called the Horizontal Property Act. Go to state site and search this Act.

As far as HOA's are concerned. You will find nothing you can hang your hat on. HOA and all gated communities are considered by the Attorney General to be self governing. You still can us corporation law but there is little assistance from the state. It is not near as progressive as, say, Florida.
But, looking at the big picture, this give the HOA's wide lattitude to set rules and regulations. That means tha each HOA is unique in the rules and how they are enforced. HOA's do have Master Deeds, covenants, by-laws, etc, but there is no cookie cutter forms. As in conndo's the Developer turns over the operations of the HOA when certain conditions are met. The original Documents were written and paid for by the developer and he sure didn't pay to have anything put in them that is going to hurt him. So, when the Hoa get the documents, they are already behind the curve and the growing pains starts to adapt the documents to the HOA.
What you have going for you is your documents and your ability to change your documents. You will find procedures in your covenants to do this, and since the HOA sevelopes over time your documents have to be changed to meet new challanges. Generally, any illegal acts or criminal acts are handles by the specific state criminal department. All civil problems goe to an appointed judge for adjudication. Just like a city or town does. Sometime the HOA may come under city or town laws. You have to know all this.
I pushed this subject all the way up to the Governors Office and back to the Attornet General. They will not give you a written explanation nor will they answer specific legal questions.

They tell you to get a lawyer, and it was the lawyers that wrote all the HOA documents. Go figure.

So make lemonade from lemons and lear to function as a small city or town. You are still a tax payer and local officials will listen to you, and if someone is doing a criminal deed they will prosecute. Think about the big picture and play the system like a harp, just as cities and towns do. The Hoa and Condo Board have a lot of power to uphold the law, they can fine, they can lien property, they can restrict usage of common areas and they can enforce the coveants, but the state will not do it for them.

That is why if you want to go to court, much better to do what is right and required and have someone sue you and go to court with your supporting documents. The HOa and condos really have all the power to make your life miserable if you don't want to pay your fees or damage the property amd us the house as a dope factory or jus to ignore the rules.
I would be double surprised to find you can not find all the enforcement power you need in your documents. It is normal that when you buy in a condo or HOA you automaticall give the association the right to lien your property. I know our condo does and also our Big Brother POA.

And Roger is right.

My wife and I recently purchased a house in an HOA on its 3rd generation. We didn't hear anything or receive any of the HOA rules or regulations. Our first notice of life from the HOA was a notice that they forgot to send us our vouchers to pay our due's and were waiving the late fee but we needed to pay them. We send a nice note requesting the HOA rules and regulations and haven't heard back, its been 3 weeks.

How can I get the HOA rules and regulations from my HOA when they won't return my calls or acknowledge my existence other than to get money from me, which I have no idea what it goes towards!

Any advice on this would be great.

Regards,

Frank

Well that would have been splendid news for someone to have told us when we moved in. As first time homeowners and no previous knowledge of HOA rules and regs how were we supposed to know we had to trollop down to the courthouse and get them? A courteous response to our letter to inform us that we could receive them there would have been plenty enough information from our HOA but even that courtesy was denied.

I never said I wasn't going to pay the dues, in fact we did pay them promptly and paid for the year in advance.

The development is still under construction so you are probably correct about the builder still being in control. Since we are still fairly new to the development and got married soon after moving in we haven't had much time to really fraternize more than a few neighbors but I will take your advice and see what they say about the matter.

Thanks for the responses!

Janie

SC has no specific regulations/laws for HOA's. Condo buildings yes, but not HOA's. They did try to implement some HOA Regulations but last time I knew of, it had died in a committee as of 03/2011.

Now that does not mean an HOA does not have its own CC&R's, Bylaws, Rules and Regulations. Our HOA has all 3 and they are filed with the State of SC.

What makes you ask the question?

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies @John the reason I asked and still do ask is that the HOA whenever it is questioned about anything says they can't do anything as it is against the SC law governing HOA. Such as sending a renter a letter to restrain his dog. In our CC&R it clearly states that dogs must be on a leash or restrained in the yard, yet a pitbull owned by renters is allowed to roam and terrorize the neighborhood. Animal control is no help as the dog goes home by the time they get here. I suggested the HOA tell the renter to keep the dog at home but they say they can't due to SC law governing HOAs.

Hi there since talking about documents and I can not find start new topic. Ones who are in SC when you are sent a packet for the annual meeting to elect BOD. What are you sent? Usually we will receive the financials, resumes of existing BOD for reelect, application for members for election. This year we received proxy with only the names of existing BOD with write in spaces,notification of where meeting will take place. Now does that not seem like monopolizing the election with just existing BOD to vote for. Before you ask last annual would not allow nominations from the floor. No had quorum since 2004.

Main page with the list of topics (threads), right above the blue bar where it says "Add New Topic" is what you're looking for.