The reversal in subsection (D)

The replacement subsection reads, in the committee's text: "On and after January 1, 2027, recording of the governing documents is subject to the requirements of witnesses and acknowledgements required under Section 30-5-30."

The word the amendment struck is "not." The exemption that has stood since 2018 Act No. 245 would have become an obligation.

Two softening provisions came with it. A new (D)(2) would have allowed each governing document to be recorded as an exhibit to an instrument that does satisfy Section 30-5-30 and that identifies and incorporates the document by reference — in which case no separate witnessing or acknowledgment is needed. And a new (D)(3) would have grandfathered everything already on file: documents recorded before January 1, 2027 "are valid, effective, and enforceable if not separately witnessed or acknowledged."

So the design was prospective. Nothing already recorded would have been put at risk; the formality would have attached to what associations recorded from 2027 onward.

Why the recording gate carries more weight in South Carolina than elsewhere

In most states the enforceability of a covenant turns on its terms, its reasonableness, and ordinary recording law. South Carolina wrote an express condition into the HOA Act itself: an unrecorded governing document is not enforceable. That makes a filing failure a complete answer to an enforcement action, and it is why Section 27-30-130 surfaces so often when an owner contests a fine or an architectural decision.

It is also why the January 10 date matters. Read literally, subsection (B)(2) attaches an annual deadline to the continued enforceability of rules and regulations — a requirement with no analogue in most states, and one that operates without anyone checking. No agency audits compliance. The gate is tested only when an owner raises it in a dispute, which means a rule recorded late, or never, can be enforced unchallenged for years.

What is unchanged because the bill died

• The January 10 recording deadline still applies to rules, regulations and amendments — not to declarations, master deeds or bylaws, which fall under the general enforceability requirement in (A) instead.
• Recording of rules, regulations, bylaws and amendments remains exempt from the witness and acknowledgment requirements of Section 30-5-30. There is no January 1, 2027 change coming.
• The definition of "governing documents" in Section 27-30-120(4) remains "declaration, master deeds, or bylaws, or any amendments" — without the express reference to rules and regulations the bill would have added.
• There is still no state registry of associations or of their documents. The county register of deeds is the only repository, indexed by property rather than by association name.

One 2026 act did reach the recording offices without touching the rule: Act No. 218, signed May 19, 2026, added Abbeville County to the list of counties whose register of deeds is an appointed office rather than a duty of the clerk of court.

The timeline, and what it shows

Introduced February 10, 2026 and referred to Senate Judiciary. Favorable with amendment April 9. Amendment adopted and second reading April 16, by a roll call of 39-0. Third reading April 28. To the House April 29, referred to Labor, Commerce and Industry. Session ended May 14.

Fifteen days, no hearing. S. 903 was the only association bill of the 2026 session to clear a chamber, and it did so without a dissenting vote — which locates the disagreement somewhere other than the Senate floor. Because South Carolina's two-year term ended with it, a 2027 version would begin again at first reading.