An important note before we start: what follows is early-stage advocacy work, not pending law. No bill has been filed. Nothing below is settled policy. It's a starting point for conversation, and it will change as it moves through committee meetings, coalition building, and conversations with lawmakers over the next several months. We're sharing it now because we think you deserve to understand the issue and have a voice in shaping the solution, not because there's something to act on yet.

Problems

If you've bought, sold, or owned property in an HOA community on the Grand Strand, you already know this isn't a niche issue. In our local MLS data, roughly 78% of transactions involve a property governed by a homeowners association. And yet, when it comes to actually understanding an HOA's finances before you buy, the process is inconsistent at best. Depending on the community, buyers and owners might run into:

• No standardized financial disclosure. One HOA might hand over a clean, current budget and reserve study. Another might give you a two year old PDF or nothing at all. Buyers and sellers deserve timely and accurate information so that can make informed decisions. 
• Reserve funding that's a mystery until it isn't. Underfunded reserves are often invisible to a buyer, until a special assessment shows up in year two of ownership. Reporting out the reserves to owners and potential buyers should be mandatory. 
• Special assessments with little warning. Owners can be hit with a five figure bill for a roof or seawall repair with minimal notice and no clear process for how the number was calculated. 
• Limited access to records, even for existing owners. Some owners report difficulty simply getting timely answers to basic financial questions about the association they belong to.

None of this is about vilifying HOAs. Most are run by well intentioned volunteer boards or management companies doing their best. The problem is the absence of a consistent standard, which means good faith buyers and owners are often making six figure decisions with incomplete information.

Ideas Being Discussed for Solving It

Again, none of this is drafted legislation. These are the categories of solutions that tend to come up in states that have tackled this problem, and the ones we think are worth exploring here:

1. A standard financial disclosure package. A defined, required set of documents (current budget, reserve study, delinquency rate, pending litigation, insurance summary) that every HOA must be able to produce to an owner for a prospective buyer within a set timeframe, so "no disclosure" is no longer an option.

2. Reserve study requirements. Some form of periodic, professional reserve study requirement, so associations and the people buying into them have an honest picture of whether the community is financially prepared for major repairs, rather than finding out the hard way.

3. Advance notice and calculation transparency for special assessments. A minimum notice period before a special assessment can be levied, along with a requirement that the board show its work on how the amount was determined.

4. Owner access to records. A clearer, faster process for current owners to request and receive financial records from their own association, with reasonable response time expectations.

5. A workable enforcement mechanism. Rules without teeth don't help anyone. Part of the conversation is figuring out what reasonable, non-burdensome enforcement looks like for both the associations and the homeowners.

Where This Goes From Here

This is a multi-year effort. The realistic target is the 2027 legislative session, with 2026 focused on building coalition support among Realtors, homeowners, and legislators who represent our area. If this is something you've personally run into, good or bad, we'd genuinely like to hear about it. Real stories from real transactions are what turn an idea like this into something legislators take seriously. Be prepared to be asked to provide documentation and statements. No complainers are allowed on the bus- only difference makers. 

More to come as this develops.