What the Act never contained

The 1975 statute was a creation-and-recording act, in the tradition of the first-generation condominium statutes. It tells you how to submit property to the regime and what the declaration must contain. It does not do governance.

So there is no statutory provision on reserve funding, on board election procedure, on member access to books and records, on fine procedure, on assessment lien priority against a first mortgage, on resale disclosure to a buyer by the association, on transition from developer control, or on alternative dispute resolution. Where a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state supplies all of that by default, South Dakota supplies none of it.

And there is no general association statute to fill the gap. The relevant chapters of Title 43 are 43-12 on real property covenants, 43-15A on condominiums, 43-15B on time-share estates, and the repealed 43-15 on vertical and horizontal property regimes. Our governing statute page maps what that leaves.

The Nonprofit Corporation Act has not moved either

The usual answer to a thin condominium statute is that corporate law fills in. In South Dakota that source is also static.

An audit of SDCL chapters 47-22 through 47-27 — 252 sections in total — found zero amendments in the 2025 or 2026 sessions. The only section touched in that group was SDCL 47-28-6, the fee schedule, and that change was renumbering: the nonprofit annual report fee stayed at ten dollars while business corporation, cooperative, LLC and limited partnership fees rose to fifty-five.

The 2026 LRC Title Summary states it flatly: “No 2026 legislation was codified in SDCL Title 47 – Corporations.”

Board elections, member meetings, notice, quorum, director duties and member inspection rights are all where they were. For a South Dakota condominium, that means the governance law is the declaration, the bylaws, and a nonprofit corporations act that nobody has adjusted.

Where the pressure is actually coming from

Not from Pierre. The requirements that changed a South Dakota condominium's obligations in the past year came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a 15% reserve allocation from January 2027, a $50,000 per-unit deductible cap from July 2026, Full Review on every transaction from August 2026 — and they are not law at all. They are conditions of financing.

That is the actual regulatory structure for condominiums in this state: a fifty-year-old creation statute, a static corporations act, and a secondary market that revises its requirements by lender letter. Our reserve studies page covers the gap between the two.

Other chapters verified unchanged

The same audit found zero 2025 or 2026 amendments in chapter 43-28 on recording of instruments, chapter 21-47 on foreclosure of real estate mortgages by action, chapter 43-30 on marketable title, chapter 43-31 on homestead exemption, chapter 43-21 on survey and recording of plats, chapter 43-26 on real estate sale contracts, chapter 43-5 on restraints on alienation, chapter 43-15B on time-share estates, and chapter 11-5 on restrictive contracts and declarations. The 2025 LRC Title Summary adds: “No 2025 legislation was codified in SDCL Title 44 – Liens.”

One place a change could still hide

SDCL 43-15A-30 grants rulemaking authority over the Condominium Act. A rules-level change would not appear in any session-law audit. The Administrative Rules of South Dakota at article 20:69, chapter 07, carry the condominium developer registration requirements — notice of intent to sell, public offering statement, and an inspection fee of “$100 for each $300,000 value of the project” — and their last effective date is January 9, 1997.

So the rules are older than most of the statute's critics. Nothing has moved at either level.

What to watch next

The 2027 session convenes in January with no interim committee holding a housing or property brief. A fifty-first year without amendment is the base case.