NC's only HOA reform bill to pass a chamber became a Medicaid bill
NC's only HOA reform bill to pass a chamber became a Medicaid bill
2026-09-12 · North Carolina · Legislation · Did not pass
North Carolina's most successful HOA reform bill did not lose a vote. Its text was deleted and replaced with an unrelated Medicaid bill, and the HOA provisions have no vehicle left. Senate Bill 378 passed the Senate 47–0 on May 7, 2025 as “HOA Revisions.” It is now titled “Align Medicaid Eligibility with Federal Law.”1
This is the single most misreported item in North Carolina community-association coverage, and the error runs in both directions: some sources still describe SB 378 as a live HOA bill, and others record it as an HOA bill that failed on the merits. Neither is what happened.
What SB 378 would have done
As it passed the Senate, SB 378 was a comprehensive package amending Chapters 47C and 47F. The Legislative Analysis Division's summary of Edition 1 records the contents:2
- A two-year cap on managing-agent contracts, with limits on notice of non-renewal and a termination right on auto-renewal.
- A ban on compensating a managing agent based on fines collected.
- A ban on enforcing parking restrictions on public streets and rights-of-way absent express delegation from the Department of Transportation or the local government.
- Limits on late fees and caps on fines.
- Protection for tutoring, academic, music and swimming lessons conducted in an owner's own unit, for groups at or below a stated size.
- Limits on records-copying and title-document charges.
- A 90-day deadline for architectural decisions.
- Revised fine and lien procedures, and a right to inspect association contracts.
- Recordkeeping and use conditions on automated licence-plate readers.
- Mandatory pre-litigation mediation under G.S. 7A-38.3F.
- A requirement that the Department of Justice receive HOA complaints, forward them, publish educational material and report annually.
It passed the Senate unanimously. Not narrowly, and not on party lines — 47–0, with eighteen co-sponsors from both parties.
What happened to it
The bill crossed to the House and sat in House Rules for five months.
On October 22, 2025, a House committee substitute replaced the entire text. The HOA provisions were deleted in full and a two-section Medicaid eligibility measure was inserted under a new short title. The substituted bill passed the House 61–47 the same day.
On October 23, 2025, the Senate refused the message — the bill page records it as “Not received; ineligible pursuant to Res. 2025-11” — and the bill was held by the House Clerk. That is its last action.
The bill page today shows the attributes “TITLE CHANGE; Uncodified” and, tellingly, “No affected General Statutes.” The HOA content is not dormant in the bill. It is not in the bill.
Why this distinction is worth your time
A bill that fails on the merits and a bill whose vehicle is taken carry different information about what is likely next, and boards and managers reading a legislative tracker are entitled to the difference.
SB 378's provisions were never rejected by the House. They were never voted on by the House. Forty-seven senators — every senator voting — supported them. What the record shows is not a policy defeat but a procedural one: a Senate-passed bill used as a vehicle for unrelated House priorities late in the session, a practice that is ordinary in North Carolina and that consumed this particular bill.
The practical consequence for anyone tracking this: SB 378 can never carry HOA reform again. Amending it back would mean amending a Medicaid bill that the Senate has already refused as ineligible and that is held by the House Clerk. Any future version starts as a new bill with a new number.
Two sessions, two collapses, one pattern
Set beside Senate Bill 1047, which passed the Senate 27–14 in June 2026 and then stopped in House Rules, the shape is hard to miss.
Twice in two years, comprehensive HOA safeguards have cleared the North Carolina Senate. Twice the House has not acted on them. In 2025 the bill's text was replaced; in 2026 the bill simply stopped. The House-side reform vehicles — House Bill 444 in 2025, and House Bills 993, 1174 and 1212 — never reached a floor vote in their own chamber either.
The reform coalition reads this as a chamber problem rather than a support problem, and on the recorded votes that reading is difficult to argue with.
What the law still is
None of the SB 378 provisions is law. Every gap it was written to close is open:
- No statutory cap on fines or late fees.
- No statutory limit on managing-agent contract length, and no bar on fine-contingent manager compensation.
- No statutory deadline for an architectural decision.
- No statutory cap on records-copying charges.
- No mandatory pre-litigation mediation for association disputes under G.S. 7A-38.3F.
- No state complaint intake for HOA disputes at any agency.
In the whole 2025–2026 biennium, Chapters 47C and 47F were amended by exactly two session laws: the flag-display repeal in S.L. 2026-59, and a Revisor's style change in S.L. 2025-25 that replaced “e-mail” with “email.” That is the entire substantive output on North Carolina community-association governance across two years.
What to watch next
The 2027 long session, which convenes January 13, 2027. Three questions decide whether this pattern breaks:
- Does a Senate sponsor refile? Senators Sawrey, Johnson and Sawyer carried SB 378; Senators Jarvis and Moffitt carried the SB 1047 safeguards. A refiled bill with a majority sponsor is the precondition for everything else.
- Does a House committee give it a hearing? This is where both packages died, and it is the only variable that has not yet changed.
- Does anything narrow the scope? Comprehensive packages have now failed twice. A single-issue bill — a foreclosure floor alone, or a fine cap alone — is a different legislative proposition from a fourteen-part rewrite, and the 2024 House Select Committee's recommendations offer a ready-made short list.
Nothing can be filed before January. North Carolina does not pre-file for the long session.
Related North Carolina HOA Topics
- Senate Bill 378 — bill history showing the 47-0 Senate vote, the October 22, 2025 House committee substitute and title change, and 'No affected General Statutes' ↩
- Legislative Analysis Division summary of SB 378 Edition 1 (HOA Revisions) — the provisions as passed by the Senate ↩
- SB 378 Edition 1 full text, as passed by the Senate May 7, 2025 ↩
- SB 378 Edition 2 — the House committee substitute replacing the HOA text with Medicaid provisions ↩
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