His deed never named the HOA. The Court of Appeals held he was bound anyway
His deed never named the HOA. The Court of Appeals held he was bound anyway
2026-09-19 · South Carolina · Courts
The cleanest South Carolina answer of the year to "am I actually in this HOA?" turns on the recorded chain of title, not on whether the buyer's own deed mentions the association.1
Unpublished Opinion No. 2025-UP-443 was heard October 8, 2025 and filed December 31, 2025. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded. It carries the Rule 268(d)(2), SCACR banner and has no precedential value.
What the master had found
A Horry County master-in-equity found the owner's lot was not part of Oak Forest and that he was not bound by its covenants. The association appealed.
The three rules the court restated
Applying Harbison Community Association v. Mueller, 319 S.C. 99 (Ct. App. 1995):
- Covenants requiring owners to pay association fees for improvements, maintenance or services run with the land.
- A covenant is enforceable against a subsequent grantee even if it is not in that grantee's deed, where the grantee has actual or constructive notice.
- A homeowner is charged with constructive notice of any restriction properly recorded within the chain of title.
Why this owner was bound
His deed said the property was "subject to easements and restrictions of record." He admitted at trial that tracing his chain of title led to both the original declarations and to supplemental declarations expressly bringing his lot into the development.
The deed also referenced a plat — the "Final Plat of Steeltown Development, LLC of Oak Forest Phase III." Where a deed describes land as shown on a plat, the plat becomes part of the deed, following Gooldy, 422 S.C. 332.
What this means in practice for a South Carolina buyer
The question "is this property in an HOA" is not answered by reading the deed. It is answered by tracing the chain of title and reading what is recorded in it, including any plat the deed incorporates by reference.
That has a specific consequence in South Carolina, where the Department of Consumer Affairs' 2026 complaint report found that only 32% of complainants received the governing documents before purchase, against 53% after. A buyer who first reads the declaration at or after closing is nonetheless charged with constructive notice of everything properly recorded in the chain.2
The supplemental-declaration mechanism is worth isolating. A lot can be brought into a development by an instrument recorded after the original declaration and after the lot was platted — and the buyer is bound by it if it sits in the chain, whether or not anything in the deed says so.
The footnote that matters for collections
The court noted that an action to foreclose a lien for unpaid association assessments is an action in equity, citing Wachesaw Plantation East Community Services Association v. Alexander, 420 S.C. 251 n.1.
That classification carries real consequences: it sets the standard of appellate review, and it places these actions before a master-in-equity or a special referee rather than a jury. It also connects directly to the procedural change in the same window — the Fifteenth Circuit's local rule, approved by the Supreme Court on March 26, 2026, now automatically refers association-lien foreclosures pending six months to the Master in Equity in Horry and Georgetown Counties.
Oak Forest is itself a Horry County case.
The other side of the recording rule
Constructive notice through the chain of title is what binds an owner. Section 27-30-130 is what binds the association: a governing document that was never recorded in the county register of deeds is not enforceable, and rules and regulations must be recorded by January tenth of the year following adoption to remain enforceable.
Both rules turn on the public record, and they point in opposite directions. An association relying on a properly recorded declaration reaches a buyer whose deed says nothing about it. An association relying on a rule it adopted but never recorded reaches nobody.
No South Carolina appellate decision in the 2025-2026 window construed the Section 27-30-130 recording requirement itself. The nearest authority is this case, which enforces covenants on chain-of-title principles under Harbison.
See the governing statutes and what a South Carolina buyer receives at resale.
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