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The move means the bill probably is dead for this legislative session.
State Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort fittingly summed up the bill this way: "It was a solution looking for a problem."
That says it all. The bill's proponents have never articulated a compelling reason for the state to step so far into the realm of private contracts among property owners.
Under the bill, all community associations would have to register with the Department of Consumer Affairs. It also lays out new rules for disputes between an association and its members.
But much of what was in the bill was redundant. In nearly all instances, it would require associations to do what's already required under their bylaws. Annual notice, financial statements, minutes of meetings, all are required under most -- if not all -- community bylaws. Nonprofit associations also must register with the Secretary of State.
At Tuesday's Judiciary Committee meeting, senators raised many concerns about the bill, The (Columbia) State newspaper reported. Senators also said they had received hundreds of e-mails about the bill, most from people objecting to it.
Earlier attempts to come up with some compromise at the subcommittee level apparently came to naught.
For example, the original bill proposed a $10 fee per individual lot to pay for administering the new rules. Representatives of community associations sought to get that reduced to $1 per lot with a $100 cap per association.
Kati Segar, executive director of the South Carolina chapter of the Community Associations Institute, said that fee would have generated about $6 million a year for a program that would cost $400,000 to $500,000 to administer. "It was total overkill," Segar said.
Last week, Peter Kristian, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation and a member of the associations' legislative committee, outlined the changes expected to be part of the ill-fated compromise:
• Provide members with information about their associations while protecting personal information, such as e-mail addresses
• Require sellers to inform prospective buyers of any violations or past-due assessments on a property before a sale closes
• Require developers to show that an association has sufficient reserves before turning over governance to homeowners
• Establish a mediation process instead of resorting to the court system to resolve disputes.
The compromise suggests there might be something to be gained from some state oversight. We said before that an appeals process that is quicker and less expensive than Circuit Court seemed a worthwhile goal.
Lawmakers, particularly the bill's sponsors, should use the coming year to make a case -- or drop the idea.
