South Carolina HOA Collections & Liens

How assessment collection and liens work in South Carolina

South Carolina governs condominiums under the Horizontal Property Act, S.C. Code § 27-31-10 et seq., and regulates planned communities through the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act, S.C. Code § 27-30-110 et seq. — a recording and disclosure statute that creates no lien or collection authority of its own. The state is not a UCIOA jurisdiction; it forecloses association liens in equity, through the court system.^1,2 For condominiums, the assessment lien attaches automatically on the date unpaid common-expense assessments come due — the association does not need to record a claim of lien first.¹ South Carolina grants the condominium lien no super-priority; it ranks behind recorded mortgages and tax liens.¹ Foreclosure runs through the courts only, and these matters typically go before the Master-in-Equity.¹ The state places no minimum dollar floor and no minimum delinquency period on when an association may foreclose.¹ That puts South Carolina among the CC&R-primary, judicial-only states — a different posture from super-priority states such as Nevada and Connecticut, and from threshold-restricted states such as California and Arizona.¹ What follows covers lien creation and priority, the collection and foreclosure sequence, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

South Carolina HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: S.C. Code § 27-31-210; § 27-30-110 et seq.; § 15-39-720. Last verified: June 10, 2026.

2. The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

For condominiums, the assessment lien is statutory. Under S.C. Code § 27-31-210(a), "all sums assessed by the administrator, or the board of administration, or other form of administration specified in the bylaws, but unpaid, for the share of common expenses chargeable to any apartment shall constitute a lien on such apartment."¹ That lien attaches automatically when an assessment for common expenses comes due and goes unpaid; the statute does not require the association to record a claim of lien first, though associations commonly record one to establish a public record and a fixed date.¹ The statutory lien secures unpaid common-expense assessments. The Horizontal Property Act does not list late fees, interest, fines, collection costs, or attorney fees as part of that lien; associations can recover those amounts only if the recorded master deed, declaration, or bylaws authorize them.¹ The lien attaches to the apartment unit charged with the expense, not to other property the owner holds.¹

For planned communities, there is no statutory lien. The Homeowners Association Act, § 27-30-110 et seq., is a recording, disclosure, and governance statute; it contains no lien-creation or collection provision.² A planned-community assessment lien is therefore contractual — created by the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions and enforced under common law and the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act for incorporated associations.² What the lien secures, and whether it captures late fees, interest, costs, and attorney fees, turns on the recorded covenants, not on statute.²

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

South Carolina grants no super-priority. The condominium lien under § 27-31-210(a) is "prior to all other liens except only (i) tax liens on the apartment in favor of any assessing unit, and (ii) mortgage and other liens, duly recorded, encumbering the apartment."¹ That makes the association lien expressly subordinate to a recorded first mortgage and to ad valorem tax liens. No statutory portion of any month count leaps ahead of the first mortgage, so the rolling-lien question that arises in super-priority states does not arise here.¹ Section 27-31-210(b) reinforces this: a mortgagee or purchaser who takes title at the foreclosure of a recorded mortgage is not liable for common-expense assessments that accrued after the mortgage was recorded but before the acquirer took title; that shortfall becomes a common expense spread across all owners.¹

For planned communities, priority follows South Carolina's general recording rule — first in time, first in right — measured by the date the covenant or claim of lien is recorded against later-recorded interests.² Because there is no super-priority, a senior mortgage that forecloses will generally extinguish a junior association lien, and the association is left to the sale surplus, if any.

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

Recorded covenants supplement the statutory framework. They commonly add late fees, interest, and attorney-fee recovery and set the collection procedure, but they cannot manufacture a priority the statute denies; for condominiums, covenants cannot place the association lien ahead of a recorded first mortgage given the express subordination in § 27-31-210.¹ The underlying assessment obligation is a contract debt, subject to South Carolina's three-year statute of limitations for actions on a contract under S.C. Code § 15-3-530(1).⁵

Three federal frameworks operate on top of the South Carolina rules. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can reach an association's attorneys and outside collection agents who qualify as debt collectors, and most courts treat assessments as consumer "debts," so validation notices and communication limits apply to those third parties.⁶ The automatic stay under the Bankruptcy Code halts collection and foreclosure on the filing of an owner's petition. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act constrains default judgments and foreclosure against active-duty servicemembers. These apply regardless of the South Carolina framework.

3. The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

South Carolina imposes no statutory pre-lien notice. No state law requires a condominium or planned-community association to send a notice of delinquency or a notice of intent to record a lien, observe an advance day-count, or use a particular delivery method before a lien arises or is recorded.⁶ Any such step is contractual, governed by the recorded covenants or bylaws, and applies only where those documents impose it. That holds for both condominiums and planned communities. Likewise, no statute gives an owner the right to demand a payment plan, dispute the debt through a defined process, or receive an itemized statement before a lien is recorded; condominium owners and purchasers do have a statutory right to obtain a statement of amounts owed in connection with a sale under § 27-31-220.¹³ Where an association uses a third-party debt collector or its attorney, the FDCPA's validation-notice and dispute mechanics apply as a federal overlay — not as a South Carolina requirement.⁶

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

For condominiums, the statutory lien exists without recording, but associations record a notice or claim of lien in the county Register of Deeds, clerk of court, or Register of Mesne Conveyance office to fix public notice; the Horizontal Property Act sets no contents checklist or recording deadline for the claim of lien.¹ For planned communities, recording the declaration and any claim of lien in the county land records is what gives the contractual lien effect and its priority date.² No South Carolina statute currently requires a notice of intent to foreclose, an advance day-count, or mandatory mediation before an association files suit, and none requires a recorded board vote or specific delegation to counsel; those prerequisites bind an association only if its own governing documents impose them.⁶ A pending bill, H.3447, would add a rule-to-show-cause step in default cases, but it has not been enacted (see Section 4).⁹

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Foreclosure is judicial only. The condominium lien "may be foreclosed by suit ... in like manner as a mortgage of real property" under § 27-31-210(a), and planned-community liens are foreclosed in equity under the recorded covenants.¹ The action is filed in the Court of Common Pleas and typically referred to the Master-in-Equity, who hears the matter as a bench proceeding in equity and can enter final judgment and order sale.¹ South Carolina sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose; the figure is, by statute, zero.¹ Fines cannot support an assessment-lien foreclosure: South Carolina authority limits the lien to unpaid assessments and does not extend it to unpaid fines, so an association seeking to foreclose must base the lien on assessments, not penalties.⁶ During a condominium foreclosure the owner must pay reasonable rental for the unit, and the association may seek appointment of a receiver to collect rents.¹ The sale is conducted by the Master-in-Equity or other officer, typically on the first Monday of the month after the notice of sale is published for three consecutive weeks.¹¹

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

South Carolina provides no post-sale right of redemption after a judicial foreclosure; an owner cannot pay off the debt to reclaim title after the sale closes.³ Instead, the state uses a thirty-day upset-bid period: when a deficiency judgment is demanded, the bidding does not close on the sale day but stays open until the thirtieth day after the sale, during which any person other than the high bidder may enter a higher bid, under S.C. Code § 15-39-720.³ If the plaintiff waives a deficiency, there is no upset-bid period and the sale closes more quickly.³ A deficiency judgment against the former owner is available where the foreclosing party reserved it under S.C. Code § 29-3-660; the debtor may petition for an appraisal within thirty days of the sale to limit the deficiency to the debt minus the property's appraised value.⁴ Surplus proceeds, after costs and secured claims are paid, are held by the officer conducting the sale and distributed under Rule 71(c) of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure to junior lienholders and then the former owner.¹⁴ An owner may reinstate by paying the arrears and costs before the sale, and in practice before the upset-bid period closes, but no separate statutory reinstatement right exists. These mechanics apply to both condominium and planned-community foreclosures because both proceed as judicial sales under the same civil-procedure framework.³

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

The two controlling South Carolina decisions on association-lien foreclosure predate a strict three-year window, but they remain the governing appellate authority and are summarized here for completeness.

C. Active legislative debates

5. National positioning and related coverage

South Carolina sits at the owner-protective, statute-light end of the collections spectrum. It is not a super-priority state: unlike Nevada, whose NRS 116.3116(2)(b) gives associations priority for "assessments ... which would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the 9 months immediately preceding the date on which the notice of default and election to sell is recorded," and unlike Connecticut and several other UCIOA states that grant priority portions, South Carolina's condominium lien ranks fully subordinate to recorded mortgages.¹ It is not a threshold-restricted state like California, Arizona, or Colorado, which bar or delay foreclosure below a dollar or time minimum; South Carolina sets no minimum debt or delinquency period by statute. It is a judicial-only foreclosure state, and for planned communities it is effectively a CC&R-primary jurisdiction with no assessment-collection statute. For a multi-state operator, this matters: a pre-lien notice, payment-plan offer, or nonjudicial sale that is valid in another state can be unnecessary, defective, or barred in South Carolina, and any notice generator must read these exact rules from the South Carolina text. South Carolina's direction of travel points toward tighter owner protections — repeated bills have proposed adding hearings, thresholds, and notice steps, though none has yet become law.

1. S.C. Code § 27-31-210 (Horizontal Property Act, Lien for unpaid assessments; right of mortgagee or purchaser acquiring title at foreclosure sale); see also §§ 27-31-190, 27-31-200, 27-31-220 (common-expense sharing and unpaid-assessment priority on sale) ↩
2. S.C. Code § 27-30-110 et seq. (South Carolina Homeowners Association Act), containing only short title, definitions, recording/enforceability, budget-notice, document-access, magistrates-court jurisdiction, and construction provisions, and no lien or collection provision ↩
3. S.C. Code § 15-39-720 (Upset bids within thirty days on foreclosure or execution sale) ↩
4. S.C. Code § 29-3-660 (deficiency judgment) and § 29-3-680 (order of appraisal within thirty days of sale) ↩
5. S.C. Code § 15-3-530(1) (three-year limitation on an action upon a contract, obligation, or liability, express or implied) ↩
6. Community Associations Institute Advocacy, "South Carolina Court Affirms Lien Foreclosure" (noting "South Carolina has no statutory requirement that a pre-lien letter be sent" and that association lien rights derive from recorded covenants and common law); see also Sellers, Ayers, "Fines Are Fine But Penalties Are Not in South Carolina" (Brown v. Spring Valley HOA: lien authority extends to unpaid assessments, not unpaid fines) ↩
7. Winrose Homeowners' Ass'n, Inc. v. Hale, 428 S.C. 563, 837 S.E.2d 47, Op. No. 27934 (S.C. Dec. 18, 2019) ↩
8. The Homestead Property Owners Ass'n, Inc. v. Miller, Op. No. 2021-UP-124, Appellate Case No. 2018-001577 (S.C. Ct. App. filed Apr. 21, 2021) (unpublished) ↩
9. S.C. H.3447 (126th Sess., 2025-2026), "Homeowners Association Authority" (adding S.C. Code § 29-3-810; amending § 27-30-130); status as of last verification: in Senate Committee on Judiciary ↩
10. S.C. H.3180 (125th Sess., 2023-2024), "Property exempt from attachment, levy or sale"; passed House April 10, 2024, referred to Senate Committee on Judiciary, not enacted ↩
11. Charleston County Master-in-Equity, "A Primer For Mortgage Foreclosures In South Carolina" (sale process, Rule 71, SCRCP, and § 15-39-720/§ 15-39-760 upset-bid and deficiency mechanics) ↩
12. S.C. H.5204 (126th Sess., 2025-2026), "Homeowners Associations" (proposing minimum foreclosure debt of $10,000 or $1,000 per unit, whichever is less; ninety days' pre-foreclosure notice; mediation at least thirty days before foreclosure); not enacted ↩
13. S.C. Code § 27-31-220 (purchaser liability; council of co-owners shall issue, upon request, a statement of amounts due) ↩
14. Rule 71, South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure (judicial sale; disposition of surplus under Rule 71(c)) ↩