DCA webinar: How South Carolina—s HOA laws work, how to get records and where to go for help

Zach Passmore, an enforcement attorney at the Department of Consumer Affairs, outlined what homeowners and condo owners need to know about HOA law in South Carolina during a department webinar.

Passmore said three separate bodies of law can apply depending on how an association is organized: the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act, the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act and the South Carolina Horizontal Property Act. "There—s generally two buckets of information that a homeowners association can look to," he said, pointing to state law and the association—s governing documents.

Why it matters: those different laws determine whether members can inspect records, how meetings and votes must be noticed, and which court handles disputes. Passmore emphasized that governing documents—the declaration, master deed and bylaws—often set day-to-day rules on…