A Horry and Georgetown HOA lien foreclosure that sits six months now goes to the Master in Equity automatically
A Horry and Georgetown HOA lien foreclosure that sits six months now goes to the Master in Equity automatically
2026-09-19 · South Carolina · Courts
South Carolina now has a judicial rule that names homeowners-association lien foreclosure as its own docket category — and it is in the two counties that generate more HOA complaints than any others in the state. The Supreme Court approved it on March 26, 2026, effective on signing.1
The rule, verbatim
Chief Administrative Judge B. Alex Hyman signed the local rule for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit — Horry and Georgetown Counties — on March 6, 2026. Chief Justice John W. Kittredge approved it for use in the circuit on March 26, 2026, under Article V, Section 4 of the South Carolina Constitution.
The operative sentence:
Any action filed in the Court of Common Pleas for the foreclosure of a homeowners' association lien or a mortgage that has been pending for six months from the date of filing without an existing order of reference shall be automatically referred to the Master in Equity for further proceedings, including the entry of final judgment where appropriate.
And the carve-out, in the next paragraph:
Actions to enforce mechanics' liens are expressly exempt from the automatic reference procedure established by this Order. Such actions shall proceed in the Court of Common Pleas absent a specific order of reference issued in the case.
How the referral happens
The order puts the step on the clerk rather than on a party. On or after the six-month anniversary of filing, where no order of reference has been entered in an eligible association-lien or mortgage foreclosure, the Clerk of Court transmits the case file or electronic docket access to the Office of the Master in Equity and enters a docket notation of automatic reference. The Master then assumes jurisdiction consistent with the scope of reference for foreclosure matters and schedules further proceedings.
What changes in practice
South Carolina is a judicial-foreclosure state for all real property. An association enforcing an assessment lien files in the Court of Common Pleas, and a case reaches a Master in Equity by an order of reference — historically a case-specific step under Rule 53, SCRCP, which someone has to ask for.
The Fifteenth Circuit rule removes that step from the parties' control after six months. Three consequences follow from the text:
- Delay stops being a strategy. Declining to move for reference no longer keeps a contested association foreclosure on the general docket indefinitely. At six months it moves, whoever benefits from the delay.
- The Master can finish the case. The rule refers matters "including the entry of final judgment where appropriate," so the referral is not merely for a report and recommendation.
- Objection is available but must be raised. A party contending that reference is improper "due to case classification, settlement, dismissal, or other good cause" may move to rescind or modify it; the motion is addressed by the Master or the case returned to Common Pleas.
Existing references are untouched: cases already referred before the six-month anniversary continue under the existing reference. The order closes by stating that failure to comply may result in sanctions, and that the Chief Administrative Judge will meet periodically with the Horry and Georgetown County Bar Association officers about amendments.
Why the mechanics'-lien exemption is the tell
The order groups association liens with mortgages and separates both from mechanics' liens. That grouping is a docket-management judgment: association-lien and mortgage foreclosures are standard-form proceedings a Master handles routinely, while a mechanics' lien action carries contested questions of work performed and amounts owed that sit less comfortably in a reference.
It is worth stating what the rule does not do. It does not create, expand or limit an association's power to foreclose; that power still comes from the recorded declaration, not from statute. It does not alter notice, the amount recoverable, redemption, or the conduct of the sale. It changes the forum and the timing, nothing else.
The geography is not incidental
The Fifteenth Circuit covers Horry and Georgetown Counties. In the Department of Consumer Affairs' 2026 HOA complaint report, covering calendar 2025, Horry County accounted for 31% of all South Carolina HOA complaints — more than any other county by a wide margin — and led the state per capita at 0.38 complaints per thousand residents, with Georgetown second at 0.24.2
So the circuit with the state's heaviest association-dispute volume is the one that has restructured how those cases move. Whether other circuits follow is a question for their own chief administrative judges: the order is expressly local, approved "for use in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit," and the statewide baseline is unchanged in the other fifteen circuits.
Related fee position
The Master in Equity fee for foreclosure of liens upon real property is set by Section 14-11-310 at $100, with $35 for each additional day of hearing. Nothing in the 2025-2026 session changed it.
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