H. 3447 would have put a judge between an HOA lien and a foreclosure sale. It died without a Senate hearing
H. 3447 would have put a judge between an HOA lien and a foreclosure sale. It died without a Senate hearing
2026-09-19 · South Carolina · Legislation · Did not pass
H. 3447 is not law, and its January 1, 2026 effective date never arrived. The bill passed the South Carolina House 110-2 on February 27, 2025, was sent to the Senate on March 4, 2025, was referred to the Committee on Judiciary that same day — and its history table records nothing after that line.1 It died with the 126th General Assembly.
What the bill would have required
H. 3447, from Reps. Rutherford and Henderson-Myers, did two things. It would have added Section 29-3-810 to the Code, requiring an application for a rule to show cause before a foreclosure sale could be scheduled on a homeowners-association lien. And it would have amended Section 27-30-130 so that a provision in governing documents authorizing foreclosure was enforceable only if it complied with statutory requirements.
The practical change was procedural rather than substantive: a judge would have had to look at the debt, in open court, before a house was sold over unpaid assessments or fines. The bill carried an operative date of January 1, 2026 for that requirement.
The trap in the text
That January 1, 2026 date is now circulating as if it described current South Carolina law. It does not. An effective date inside a bill takes effect only if the bill is ratified, and H. 3447 was never ratified. There is no show-cause prerequisite to HOA foreclosure in South Carolina.
The procedure remains what it has been: an association with a recorded lien for unpaid assessments brings a foreclosure action in the court of common pleas, which is referred to the master-in-equity, under the general mortgage-foreclosure machinery of Title 29.
The pattern: two House votes, one committee
H. 3447 was not the first attempt. Its predecessor, H. 3180 in the 2023-2024 term, would have gone further — exempting a debtor's primary residence from sale in an HOA collection action, voiding foreclosure clauses in governing documents, and barring any foreclosure action not authorized by statute. H. 3180 passed the House 99-0 on April 9, 2024, received third reading on April 10, went to the Senate the same day and was referred to Judiciary. It, too, recorded no further action.2
So the same committee has now received two HOA foreclosure bills that cleared the House by 99-0 and 110-2, and neither returned. That is the single most durable fact about foreclosure reform in South Carolina: the obstacle is not a floor vote.
What the usual explanation does not cover
A bill that stalls in the opposite chamber is often explained by a crossover deadline. That explanation is unavailable here. House Rule 5.12 had required Senate bills to reach the House by April 10; H. 3815, adopted January 29, 2025 on a 63-38 roll call, replaced the rule's text with "(Reserved.)" — deleting the deadline for this General Assembly.3 H. 3447 was already in the Senate, and it had fourteen months.
What remains in force
With H. 3447 dead, the following continue to describe South Carolina:
- An association's power to foreclose comes from its recorded declaration, not from a statute that grants it. Where the declaration creates a lien and authorizes enforcement, the association proceeds as a lienholder.
- There is no statutory minimum debt before a foreclosure action may be filed. Bills proposing a $10,000 floor (H. 5204) and an outright ban on foreclosing a primary residence (S. 366) both died in committee this term.
- There is no statutory pre-suit mediation requirement, no statutory notice period specific to association foreclosure, and no requirement that surplus equity be returned to the owner through a defined process.
- Section 27-30-130 still conditions enforceability of governing documents on recording in the county register of deeds — the recording gate that a separate bill, S. 903, tried to tighten this term and that also died.
What to watch
Everything resets in 2027. Committee referrals, favorable reports and one-chamber passage all lapse at the end of a two-year term, so a refiled version of H. 3447 would begin at first reading. Rep. Rutherford has now filed a foreclosure bill in two consecutive terms; no filing for 2027 has been announced.
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