By Paul Gable
A much needed public hearing on Homeowner Associations (HOA) complaints has been scheduled by the Horry County Legislative Delegation for October 29th.
The meeting will be held at Horry Georgetown Technical College in the Burroughs and Chapin Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m.
Complaints about the arbitrariness of HOA rules and secrecy of HOA financial documents have been rising across the state for a number of years.
Many of the HOA boards act as little despotic governments without Freedom of Information laws applying to their meetings and decisions and with no real process for settling disputes between the association and members affected by these actions.
Several bills to require openness of HOA board meetings and records (especially financial records) and to set up a dispute adjudication process have failed in the General Assembly over the past few legislative sessions.
There is no reason for the failures other than a majority of state legislators do not see any gain for themselves in passing more restrictive HOA legislation.
Despite what you hear about ‘serving the people’ from these legislators, how legislation serves themselves is always the top consideration for most.
This public hearing provides a chance for the people of Horry County to air their complaints about HOA’s and to get on the record possible solutions to the problems.
It’s only the first step in what could be a long, but much needed, process. But, at least it’s a first step at the local level with citizen input.
Speak Up…