Report outlines the most common complaints last year against HOAs in Beaufort County
Complaints filed against Homeowners Associations and management companies went up 7% in South Carolina last year, but in Beaufort County they went down by about 4%, a new state report shows.
Beaufort County had 16 complaints from 12 people in 2022, down from 22 complaints from 15 people in 2021, according to the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs.
Overall, South Carolina received 331 HOA complaints, compared with 309 the previous year. The consumer affairs department only included 279 complaints in the report and excluded complaints that didn’t meet the statutory requirements for inclusion, were duplicates or were referred to the SC Human Affairs Commission.
Meredith Bannon, who represents local HOAs at the Bannon Law Group, says the report might not account for some complaints because the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act, which requires the consumer affairs department to publicly record HOA complaint data, is recent as of 2018.
“I think it’s surprising that we had so few complaints,” she said. “I also think that people don’t really know that they can complain to (the SCDCA).”
Bannon also said many of her clients resolve their issues on the HOA level and don’t need to go to the state level.
“They want to see some action from the organization versus worrying about state level intervention,” she said. “In my experience, people go and make complaints to Consumer Affairs when they feel they aren’t being heard.”
Here are the top Issues
For Beaufort County, the top three issues were:
Failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws (31.3%)
- Concerns over HOA fees (25%)
Failure to produce financial statements or other documents (18.8%)
Statewide, the top three issues were:
- Failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws (15.1%)
- Concerns regarding maintenance and repairs (12.4%)
- Failure to notify residents of board actions (11.5%)
How were they resolved?
In Beaufort County:
- 62.5% of complaints were closed, indicating an adequate business response
18.7% of complaints were closed “undetermined” due to disputed facts
- 12.5% of complaints were closed as “satisfied” by the consumer
- 6.3% of complaints were closed “unsatisfied” due to a business’s failure to respond
Statewide
66% of complaints were closed, indicating an adequate business response was received; 4.7% of complaints were closed as “satisfied” by the consumer; Beaufort County accounted for two of those 13 satisfied consumers
19% were closed “undetermined” due to disputed facts
10% of complaints were closed as “abandoned”
Less than 6% were closed as “unsatisfied” due to a business’s failure to respond
The complaints
No one community in Beaufort County was complained about by more than one person; although, some communities had multiple complaints filed by the same person.
Some complaints spanned multiple topics. Here is the list of common complaints filed against HOAs in Beaufort County in 2022:
- Consumer disagrees with HOA fees/special assessments
- Concerns regarding maintenance or repairs, Issue with decision of architectural review committee
- Concerns on allocation of HOA funds, concerns regarding maintenance or repairs, dissatisfaction with the developer management of the HOA
- Actions not taken by the property management company, failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws
- Issue with decision of architectural review committee, failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws
- Failure to produce financial statements
Consumer has to pay parking citation of $35
- Requesting waiver or adjustment of violation assessment, failure to produce financial statements, failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws, concerns on allocation of HOA funds
- Failure to hold regular meetings, concerns regarding maintenance or repairs
- Issue related to board elections, failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws
- Requesting waiver or adjustment of violation assessment
HOA Fees were double paid at closing of home and consumer is seeking a refund.
- Actions not taken by the property management company, failure to adhere to and/or enforce covenants and bylaws
- Actions taken by the property management company, consumer disagrees with HOA fees/special assessments, lien placed on property by HOA, foreclosure action initiated by HOA
- Request to access information/view documents ignored, actions not taken by the property management company
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 12:52 PM.
