These 5 SC counties have the most HOA complaints, new report says. Here’s what’s upsetting people

Most of the complaints about homeowners associations in South Carolina over the last five years came from five counties, a new state report shows.

Five counties had 654 of the total 1,012 complaints levied against 640 HOAs between June 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2022, according to the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs. The department has filed HOA complaint reports since 2019, following a change in state law that requires that data from those complaints be given to the governor, General Assembly and the public every year.

Here are the five counties with the most complaints over the last five years.

Complaint amount

1. Horry County: 269
2. Richland County: 165
3. Greenville County: 83
4. Charleston County: 82
5. Beaufort County: 55

The list of five counties changes for the most part, however, when looking at complaints per capita.

Complaints per capita

1. Horry County: 0.74
2. Jasper County: 0.66
3. Georgetown County: 0.60
4. Edgefield County: 0.42
5. Richland County: 0.39

Highlights from the five-year report

The department actually received 1,182 total complaints about HOAs over the last five years. However, only 1,012 were included in the 5-year report because 170 did not meet the statutory requirements for inclusion, were duplicates or were referred to the S.C. Human Affairs Commission.

• All of the complaints came from 27 of the state’s 46 counties.
• The number of complaints have grown every year since reporting began.
• The top complaint was over failure to adhere to and or enforce covenants and bylaws.
• State agency oversight was the top recommendation for enforcing governing documents.

Top 10 HOA complaints over last five years

1. Failure to adhere to and or enforce covenants and bylaws: 24.32%
2. Concerns regarding maintenance and repairs: 13.54%
3. Failure to notify residents of board actions: 11.22%
4. Consumer disagrees with HOA fees: 8.96%
5. Failure to produce financial statements: 8.96%
6. Actions not taken by the property management company: 8.29%
7. Failure to hold regular meetings: 7.8%
8. Concerns on allocation of HOA funds: 5.86%
9. Request to access information/ view documents ignored: 5.69%
10. Actions taken by the property management company: 5.36%

Patrick McCreless

The State

803-771-8353

Patrick McCreless is the Southeast service journalism editor for McClatchy, who leads and edits a team of six reporters in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. The team writes about trending news of the day and topics that help readers in their daily lives and better informs them about their communities. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL.