85% of complained-about SC associations use a management company, and the state licenses none of them as such
85% of complained-about SC associations use a management company, and the state licenses none of them as such
2026-09-19 · South Carolina · Regulation
South Carolina does not license community association managers. There is no CAM licence, no registry, no continuing-education requirement, and no disciplinary body with jurisdiction over the role.
The Real Estate Commission licenses property managers and brokers for leasing and rental activity. That is a different function from administering an association's finances, contracts, records, elections and covenant enforcement — and the latter requires no licence at all.
The scale of the gap
The Department of Consumer Affairs' 2026 annual report, covering calendar 2025, records that 85% of the associations complained about used a management company.1
The Post and Courier's review of the underlying complaint dataset named management companies by complaint count, with the largest drawing 44 complaints, followed by 28, 25 and 21. It reported the complaints clustering on special assessment fees, allocation of association funds, and failure to produce financial statements.2
The only licensure bill of the term
H. 3864 would have amended Section 40-57-20 to require a real estate brokerage or property manager licence for anyone responsible for renting or managing three or more properties.
It was introduced January 30, 2025 and referred to House Labor, Commerce and Industry. One sponsor asked to have his name removed on February 13, 2025. Nothing else happened.3
It is worth being precise about what it was: a rental-property bill, aimed at people managing rental units, not an association-management bill. Even had it passed, it would not have created a community association manager licence.
What a manager can and cannot do without a licence
Because the role is unlicensed, the limits come from general law and from the management agreement rather than from a regulatory scheme:
- Handling association funds is governed by the management contract and by ordinary fiduciary and contract principles. There is no statutory trust-account requirement specific to association funds, no mandatory bonding, and no state examination of the accounts.
- Leasing activity — renting units on behalf of owners — does require a real estate licence, which is why some management companies hold one. That licence covers the leasing function, not the association-administration function.
- Practising law remains prohibited. Drafting liens, pursuing collections and interpreting governing documents run into that boundary, which is enforced through unauthorised-practice rules rather than through manager licensing.
- There is no complaint route against a manager as a manager. The Department of Consumer Affairs takes complaints about associations and management companies for its report, but it states it cannot compel participation, require an outcome, or arbitrate.
The bill that would have reached managers, and died
H. 5204 came at the problem from the enforcement side rather than the licensing side. It would have given the Department of Consumer Affairs power to fine board members and property managers personally where they knowingly violated the law or the governing documents, with a cease-and-desist process giving a board five days to respond.
It was introduced February 18, 2026, referred to House Labor, Commerce and Industry, and never received a hearing.
So both routes to manager accountability filed this term — licensure and agency enforcement — died in the same committee.
What is actually available to an association
The management agreement. It is the only instrument that sets standards, defines scope, allocates liability, requires insurance and provides for termination, because no statute does any of those things.
Two related structural facts are worth holding alongside it. South Carolina requires no reserve study, no audit, and no financial filing by an association with any agency, so there is no external check that would independently surface a problem with fund handling. And the Nonprofit Corporation Act's document-access provisions apply through Section 27-30-150 only where the association is incorporated — which the Department directs homeowners to verify through the Secretary of State's business entity search.
No regulatory movement either
Beyond the failed bills, no 2025-2026 rulemaking, licensing change or guidance on community association managers was issued by the Real Estate Commission or the Department of Labour, Licensing and Regulation. The position is not merely unchanged this year; nothing was proposed by an agency.
See budget approval, records inspection, and director qualifications.
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